100% Design
I always think that summer is over when the interiors shows are on, but this year they really seem to have crept up on me far too early. This week I did 1oo% design http://www.100percentdesign.co.uk/page.cfm
and next week I’m hoping to fit in Decorex and Focus.
It’s great fun to check out what’s new and exciting in the design world.
100% design seemed quieter than usual but still had a lot of energy and some really inspirational things.
I was really taken with a few designers who were doing a new thing with decoration taking an almost Victorian vibe and subverting it.
I loved the cushions with cityscapes from conceptual textile designer Charlene Mullen using a hard edged modern scene and making it domestic with soft embroidery.
On a rather more disturbing note are the fantastical taxidermy pieces of Lighting designer Jericho Hands. She pitched a bedouin tent which had a few surprises inside. A flock of pigeons were stuffed and transformed into a fairytale thing of beauty, giving a new take on the chandelier. Even better were the stuffed squirrels running up the outside of the tent, each holding a little light. Squirrels are top of my squish list at the moment (having demoted slugs) so I was delighted to see them used for good purpose. No pics available unfortunately, but see website http://jerichohands.com/index.html
Animals were used for inspiration elsewhere, but not quite so literally (Stuffed!) http://www.petermusson.com/ had some witty little ‘Trophy Kills’ used to decorate the stand. I loved the silver hippopotamus head on purple velvet shield---really! You just had to be there!
It was great to see clock designer Paul Beckett www.paul-beckett.com He says that clock making is a dying art and I guess commissioning your own time piece is pretty expensive. This designer told me that he sells to the uber rich all over the world. His clock takes a very modern plastic composite and combines it with hand crafted bronze wheels for a very modern interpretation of an antique piece.
I also came across this in The Guardian on a clock theme http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/sep/18/corpus.clock about a truly amazing clock that has been designed for Corpus Christi.”it is terrifying, it is meant to be," said John Taylor, the creator and funder of an extraordinary new clock to be unveiled tomorrow by Stephen Hawking at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge. "Basically I view time as not on your side. He'll eat up every minute of your life, and as soon as one has gone he's salivating for the next. It's not a bad thing to remind students of. I never felt like this until I woke up on my 70th birthday, and was stricken at the thought of how much I still wanted to do, and how little time remained." Have a look at the article with a video of the clock.
Loads more inspired, am hoping to do a pop up Sweetpea & Willow shop in one of the blow up tents from inflate.co.uk…watch this space it could be popping up near you!1
Ta ta
Jillxx
Labels: London Designers
