I find new materials endlessly fascinating, both for their designed use as much as their creation. Here are three seen recently at the MateriO stand at Maison & Objet. Mushroom skin from South America with a suede-like feel One of my favourites and a badly needed invention, UV reflective coated glass, the finish almost invisible […]
One-minute blog of interesting things
Subscribe to my blog
As a working contemporary artist I visit many exhibitions and shows, but sometimes it is the things I see that are part of daily life that capture my interest. My one-minute blog of interesting things reflects the fact that although we are increasingly time-poor, there is creativity all around us. Email me at info@carolinebanks.co.uk with your name and email to receive a weekly post that only takes 1 minute to read.
Recent work by Jessica Zoob
Jessica Zoob’s work is featured at Decorex this year and she has also a current show with the Loughran Gallery in London where I saw some of these. With her background in scene painting she’s used to working on a large scale. I always love the experience of immersion one can achieve with large works […]
New products from Atypyk
Atypyk’s quirky, off-key sense of humour always amuses so I caught up with them at Maison & Objet to see what they’ve come up with this season. Their Aladdin Sane flash mirrors, created exclusively for the David Bowie Is… exhibition at the V&A earlier this year did very well and, although I already featured their Battersea Power Station ashtray, […]
Maison & Objet: Illuminations presentation by Elisabeth Leriche
I always find the information presented by Elisabeth Leriche inspiring and sometimes poetic. Her latest presentation at Maison & Objet didn’t disappoint and I was surprised to meet one of the exhibitors, Geoffroy Gillant, who had also been at the Libby Sellers private view a few days before. His white Carrara marble disc, “Stella”, forms part of […]
Grandmateria III at Libby Sellers
Showing at the same time as the copper mirrors is Granmateria III: simple materials transmuted into something more. For example “Nido”, these glass blocks and lamps by Paola Petrobelli which can contain objects in addition to functioning as lights. The insect and butterfly are also made of glass. Lex Pott uses the qualities of copper […]
The Copper Mirror Series at Gallery Libby Sellers
Steel, granite and copper, three materials symbolising Norway’s industrial heritage, are combined for these imposing and very beautiful mirrors by Hunting and Narud, currently on show at Libby Sellers. They are very seductive with warm mobile surfaces and multiple light reflections held in pace by immovable granite blocks. Really sensual and tactile. You can see […]
Blue and white ceramics
You can’t really go wrong with this timeless yet endlessly fresh colour combination. Any kind of food looks good on blue and white. I was looking at a few examples today as I recently inherited some Wedgewood willow pattern tableware. Given the brief of this blog I’ve only selected 2 contemporary examples from the very long list […]
New product design ideas.
During my recent review of RCA show information I found two more product design ideas that had caught my eye, this time for more aesthetic reasons. Lina Patsiou showed her Chromatography system where a sprayer coated a vase with 26 colours relating to the letters of our alphabet. You enter different letters to create a […]
Innovation Design Engineering at the RCA
Reading about Daniel McLaughlin’s wool yarn suitcase in Designboom reminded me that I hadn’t shared my pick of the Innovation Design Engineering graduates. This course throws up some of the most interesting ideas with an emphasis on new uses for waste material and ways to better the lives of the global majority. Here’s a small […]
Stationery by Hay and Quill London
Those who know me are aware of my terrible weakness for a good notebook. I have stacks of different ones (all used) as gifts often come my way. I did try to kid myself that I was looking for the perfect one: good plain paper (I hate lines) which can take ink from a fountain pen […]