Lately I have been seen suzani textiles everywhere: in magazines, on blogs, in interior stylist photos etc. I don’t mind as I love these antique textiles. They are a great way to give a eclectic and unique atmosphere to your home.
For those not familiair with the term Suzani: this is an antique and decorative tribal textile made in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asia countries.
As you can see in these images, there are various ways for using a suzani as interior decoration. A small suzani is great as a wall-hanging (top photo), a larger one can be used as a tablecloth (second image). I also love the idea to use them to conceal a wardrobe as has been done in these images (above and below) that I found in Domino Magazine.
Online store Uzek Craft has a great collection of suzani. But I would certainly look on Ebay as well. Ebaystores Desert of Suzani and Great Silk Road have beautiful Suzanis and the prices are very reasonable. Depending on size and condition, you can ‘score’ an suzani for $50-150. By the way, the suzani featured in these photos is from Samarkand, Uzbekistan. A feature of the Samarkand embroidery suzani is the colour palette on a white or red background, having formed at the turn of centuries.
(images from Selina Lake and Domino magazine)
I found this great diy project in Dutch magazine Ariadne At Home. A simple, inexpensive bedspread is transformed into an eye-catching object. The good thing is that it is very simple to do. Just add a colourful border and different coloured pompoms to a white bedspread (the one used here is Kastanj from IKEA). And voila, you have a beautiful, unique bedspread!
Danish designer Ditte Hammerström was part of the exhibition Made in Denmark at 100% design in London this year. With this exhibition some of the best young Danish design talent were introduced.
Ditte, a former student of Denmarks Design School in Copenhagen, sure is a talent! Her gorgeous furniture pieces are beautifully made. Take for instance the wooden bench (image below left), it is made out of one rough plank of oak wood, initially decorated with gold leaves. Visit Ditte’s website for more information, here you can also see all her other designs.
Another winner of Dining in 2015, a contest that challenged designers to design a food-related product that would be useful in 2015, is Fragile . This pepper & salt shaker is designed by Mey Kahn and Boaz Kahn from Israel.
The designers about their clever design: ‘When was the last time you emphatically broke something? The ceramic salt and pepper shaker offers you the opportunity to do it! The product comes in one piece and by breaking it, you make it useful. Breaking is an experience of impulsive outburst, but this time is an act that builds rather than destroy. In a world of products whose shape is completely dictated by the designer, we enable the user to complete the design himself. The event of the breaking leaves its mark on the shaker and gives it its final, unique, one-of-a-kind appearance’.
In the image belonging to last week’s post about the wall panel by three sheets 2 the wind, a gorgeous chair is featured. Reader Jen is asking if somebody knows more about this chair. I think it is a vintage chair but I am not sure. Does anybody has more information about the chair?
The round shape of the chair reminded me of another beautiful chair: the Circle Chair (image above) by Danish designer Hans J. Wegner. The design is a laminated ring with stretched, wide-meshed net. To manufacture this chair it was necessary for master of crafts Søren Holst Pedersen and master journeyman Henry Fisker to develop a special machine for manufacturing it in wood – which Wegner himself actually did not think was even possible. The Circle Chair was Wegner and PP Møbler’s contribution to the SE Exhibition in 1986. And, as usual, the prototype was not completed before the very last moment – the morning of the show to be exact. Visit/contact PP Møbler for more information about this beautiful chair.
I love this photo that I found on Supermarket (a great website where designers can show their work!). The photos shows a beautiful linen wall panel created by three sheets 2 the wind, a design and manufacturing studio located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Designer and owner, Jenny Sauer’s work is influenced by the skeletal structure of plant life. Screens are made from hand painted images, then placed personally by Sauer. The process allows for inconsistencies that give each piece a unique look, embracing the one-of-a-kind aesthetic that is characteristic of Sauer’s designs. The end result embodies the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, a viewpoint embracing the beauty in all things imperfect and incomplete.
Click here for more information about the wall panel ($148), and here to see Jenny’s other designs.
A few days ago I wrote about the beautiful products of TOUCH. Estúdio Manus is also part of TOUCH. This collaboration between Caio de Medeiros Filho and Daniela Scorza is based in São Paulo. The couple combines education and experience in search of innovative and unique results. Estúdio Manus seeks to evoke memories of the past and images from the collective unconscious, expressed in utilitarian and decorative object. Their winged cups (and other winged tableware pieces) are simply gorgeous.
On the TOUCH website you can read more information about the designers and see the rest of their beautiful objects.
I love this beautiful leaf-shaped spoon! This design by Shuhei Senda from Japan is one of the 3 first-prize winners of Dining in 2015. This contest, organized by designboom and macef , challenged designers to design a food-related product that would be useful in 2015 at work, in travel, or at home. No less than 4843 creative individuals and institutions from 98 countries have participated. This is what Shuhei Senda says about the leaf spoon: ‘This spoon makes us softly feel that we live to be given the blessings of nature. It is designed with the wish that we think a great regards of dining more and more as human’s essential workings in the future’.
I will post about some other winners and entries of this fun competition in the next few days.
