A Work in Progress

fun pillows are now available in bags from Bonjour Mon Coussin

 

Great to see these fun pillows now in bags from the French Company, Bonjour Mon Coussin. Witty and graphic, they will always entice me to have a piece of cake or travel to distant places

vintage meets modern

I love to see design with inspiration from yesteryear cleverly mixed with a contemporary aesthetic or use modern production techniques. Two designers that I admire create gorgeous furnishings. Images 1 through 4 are from designer Carolyn Quartermaine. Vintage imagery printed in flouro colours creates a fabulous modern eclectic and stylish look. I remember seeing Carolyn's work published in an Australian Vogue way back in 1996. Her fabric was apolstered into a magnificent antique French chair. Atop a side table sat a Puff Pasty cornucopia with intensely coloured rose blooms carefully placed within. It was to be the inspiration for my wedding later that year. My mum tinkered in the kitchen and baked 14 buxom cornucoppias chock full of sugared fruits, dusted rose petals, handmade chocolates and creme fraiche. Each table would be served one for dessert creating a magnificent centrepiece, a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. I wish I still had that Vogue!

The next designer, images 5 and 6, is Catherine Hammerton. From the UK too, she digitally prints images onto silk producing unique wallpaper and furnishings. No two pieces are exactly the same. Just lovely

fungi at dinosaur designs

The post last week delivered the latest brochure from Dinosaur Designs featuring the new 'Fungi' collection. Whether you're enamoured with mushrooms or not, it's well worth a look at their fungi inspired handmade resin creations in jewellery and homewares. I'm just hooked on their vivid to subtle colours and shapes, quirky designs and unique style. I'd love one of those necklaces!

cushion the impact: featured designers

How much fun are these fabulous cushion covers? If you want to create impact around the home, you'll have to check out these original, limited edition and numbered covers from the French graphic artist duo of Claire Eglizeaud and Paul Moreau at Bonjour Mon Coussin. Their quirky images are inspired from vintage ephemera,  high fashion, kids at play or drawn from their own world. The covers are also compatible with standard IKEA pillow sizes (if you're ever brave enough to visit) and the cover backs are carefully chosen to match the front

I think they're great except the food covers. Living with the chocolate pillow cover will only inspire me to eat more, well, chocolate. And sadly to say, my butt doesn't need more padding in that department!

are your books in an unorganized mess?

Cheer up your bookshelves with these fabulous indexes. I don't know about you, but I have a continual battle with my books. They seem to have a mind of their own with a penchant for committing suicide... flinging themselves in a death spiral to the floor into an unorganized disaster. I came across these the other day and thought it was an ingenious and humorous solution. They help to hold up your books and index into sections. Can't ask for anything more, except perhaps, more shelves and books!

the mighty hunter

Have you ever been so excited by a sale that you just can't sleep? Anticipation goes into overdrive with the thrill of the great and mighty hunt? Lining up for hours uncontrollably gibber-gabbering to the girl next in line, hoping against hope that she needs to go to the bathroom. Reluctantly she does, you immediately take a giant step to assume her vacant position. You realise this means war! Then the doors are flung open, you can just smell the prey. Sarah Palin would have been proud....

Well I just had such an experience with the fabulous Dinosaur Design warehouse sale (if you live in Sydney, it finishes tomorrow). An iconic Australian brand that began in 1986 by three young designers, Louise Olsen, Stephen Ormandy and Lian Rossler. They experimented with clear polyester resin, originally starting with jewellery, casting individual beads that could be threaded and assembled in numerous ways. You simply can't pick up a fashion magazine in Australia without some of their product featured. Later they expanded into Homewares across a multitude of functional objects – serving spoons, dishes, containers and so on - in the most of vivid colours and textures

I was mainly interested in the homewares. Can you blame me?  I kept fooling myself, as I loaded goodies into my arms, that I was buying early Christmas presents. If you say it 10 times you do actually begin to believe it! I got home and couldn't decide what I would give away. So, at this point, it's all mine, MINE!

The vibrant colours are so yummy. The top picture is of one of the purchased citrus resin bowls and another to the left is proving to be a great prop for my jewellery. The bottom picture....well that's a bit more of the haul. Not all of it, but some of it! All in all, it was a great day as the mighty hunter returned to the cave

Tip If you do own any resin products, I was advised to use Teatree or Eucalyptus Oil and any type of moisturiser to add sheen back into the resin