New Celia Birtwell online Shop!

As far as I'm concerned this is the stuff dreams are made of - a Celia Birtwell online shop! I've loved these extraordinary prints for decades and this shop is so well put together and has such a fantastic range of her stuff! There's everything on here from clothes, to garden trowels, to wallpaper, to face compacts. Some of the patterns are her traditional 70's Boho-Chic classics and some of the more contemporary ones are more of a Paris-pretty vibe. There is even a vintage clothes store with original Ossie Clarke dresses that she produced the patterns for (very on trend at the moment!) There's a fantastic interview with Ms Birtwell, by Annie at the ever inspiring MyDeco blog today too!

 

 

Incredible Saul Steinberg Bath

I was amazed when I saw this image by Romanian/ American illustrator Saul Steinberg. Many people will probably be familliar with the fantastic work that he did for The New Yorker magazine, but this is something very special; it really demonstrates his sureness of brushstroke. The face on the Modernist girl is so beautiful!

Jonathan Adler Ceramics

@ the utterly brilliant online shop/ blog Castor + Pollux (also a real shop on the sea-front in Brighton!) I've featured these guys a couple of times now with their Angie Lewin prints and Jackie Brazil jewellery, but now I've found a new love - Jonathan Adler! His beautiful ceramics have a very fifties feel to them if you like that period. Mr Adler is another US outfit that I hope follows the pack along with Anthropologie and Kate Spade and brings his fabulous wares to our shores! See below pics to swoon over! (all available at Castor + Pollux).

Julia Rothman

I totally j'adore the work of New-York (City Island) based illustrator Julia Rothman! She is part of design trio Also, whose style you may be already be familiar with ("Also" was commissioned by Design Sponge to create a "more feminine, craftier and elegant" redesign of their very popular blog/ design site)! How gorgeous are these beautiful Louis Chairs!

Trend Forecast 2011

...and this season we shalll be mainly adorning ourselves and our homes with, triangles! Modernist, masculine, feminine, glamorous, illuminous and 50's retro triangles. In today's post I will be looking at the three-sided from all angles!

I bought one of  these pink Alchemia chairs from Calligaris at the Ideal Home exhibition in London several years ago. Funnily they arrived from Rome 6 weeks later, when I was actually in Rome and I saw them in the showroom! The colour of these is incredible, but I also love the orange and red ones too!

...whilst lady Gaga isn't everyones' cup of tea (personally I think her image is great fun!), you have to admit that this headpiece from the utterly brillant fashion prop designer Fred Butler is a work of art. Commissioned and made for the unforgettable "Telephone" video with Beyonce earlier this year

...I really enjoy AnOther Magazine, and they have this great feature called "Another Loves", and this watch from Urban Outfitters was "loved" by Fred Butler; go take a look at her blog and you can see why - it is very much in her style!

...Modernist and masculine - Tamasyn Gambell notebooks. A real Bauhaus feel to this design!

...sadly, on a final note, Britain lost two of its' finest designers this year- Lucienne and Robin Day. I've had a lifelong love of Lucienne's fabrics. The top fabric is the one which started it all off, "Calyx", designed in 1951 for the Festival of Britain, and eventually produced by Heals (the rest is history)! You can see the design at the V&A Museum in London. Here it is again used to furnish some incredible chairs!

For other great trend forecasts, check out Design Refuge!

Charlotte Mann

Charlotte Mann takes doodling to a new level. Her fantastic drawings with marker pen on walls are staggering in their detail. Former Central St Martins student Mann has done some great work with fashion Designer Peter Jensen and exhibited many times in Milan. I especially love the below dining room - a modern take on Rococo opulence. Definitely one to watch!!

Donna Wilson

Congratulations go to the amazingly talented Donna Wilson for winning "Designer of the Year" at Elle Decoration's British Design Awards 2010. I love the quirkiness of style, and the confident use of colour that she uses in her wonderful textiles, ceramics and stationery. The below vase is new to her online collection and I think it will soon become a firm favourite!

Bird Jug

The very colourfully attired, Ms Wilson!

Grayson Perry Scarf

How amazing is this silk scarf from former Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry? It is a reference to scarves that were distributed during the second world war to help escaped pilots find their way around alien territory, and is a "social and cultural map to help aspiring artists navigate the hostile territory on their way to being accepted by the establishment". Super Chic and available from the always brilliant Tate Online shop!

SuperGroup!

... is a supergroup of artists that are "a creative A-Team that comes together whenever they are called upon"! This is a fantastically designed website and a great concept for a collective. I particularly like the stuff that Morag posts (from the award-winning Studio Myerscough) Here's some colourful pics of her furniture and art installations.

Triangles!

If you like tetris/ triangular type shapes in your design than you will love the Los Angeles based J1Studio, which wonderfully describes itself as doing thus: "producing simple, functional, unique, modular and systematic objects that function as furniture". The T.Shelf, the M.Stool and the V.stand have now arrived!

T.Shelf

Various Past Projects

M.Stool

V.Stand

Williams British Handmade Luggage

Looking for a more exciting prospect in the luxe luggage market than the usual overpriced and unexciting monogrammed LVs? Your prayers have just been answered! Williams British Handmade are craftsmen of the highest order. All of their items are so beautifully made, but they also challenge the usual luggage design concept. I've totally fallen in love with the below pillar-box red suitcase - very British!

Beyond the Fridge

Quite recently, I was looking around for a decent memo board (to no avail). I ended up with an awful standard-issue cork one (which after seeing these is probably going to get put on FreeCycle). Beyond the Fridge take the humble memo board and make it into a work of art! These magnetic boards are made from durable steel and have a high gloss finish. Actually it seems a shame to cover them up with anything so banal as a shopping list. For a bit of fun, take a peek at their lovely Gallery slide show which displays them so nicely.

Coffee Pot

Millefiori on Black

Utensils Red

Wim Delvoye

I absolutely love these sculptures by Belgian Artist & vegetarian tatooist of pigs Wim Delvoye. He makes Gothic style Caterpillars and trucks made out of laser cut steel shapes (if you look closely at the top two sculptures you can see that he has incorporated Gothic cathedral interiors into them). The bottom sculpture is a cement truck fashioned from carved teak wood, incredible! Check out the amazing website of Wim Delvoye and take a tour round Wim City; the below sculptures can be found in the "Gothic Works".

Damien Hirst prints @ Collette

Most people don't actually think of Damien Hirst's work as "pretty". Rather the image usually conjured up is that of a shark floating in a tank of formaldehyde from the "Sensation" days (Art critic Robert Hughes famously called this piece "the world's most over-rated marine organism"). I personally have always felt that Hirst has a keen design eye and often uses a very feminine palette. And as if further proof were needed I saw these amazing signed litho prints on cool French site Collette today. The top two are also encased in a wooden box frame with floated artwork and UV plexi glass. Incredibly beautiful.

Beautiful Inside my Head Forever 2009 (Grey)
331.10 x 233.8 inches

Beautiful Inside my Head Forever 2009 (Pink)
331.10 x 233.8 inches

The Death of God 2009
331.10 X 233.8 inches

The B28 Floating Hotel

OK, I know what you're thinking, crazy girl , why is she showing me pictures of a floating hotel in Amsterdam in October?! Truth is, I only found this the other day whilst routing through some old newspaper supplements, and when I saw the design of this place, I immediately thought wow, I must share! Anyway, I'm sure it's fully heated (although I'm totally prepared to freeze for the sake of good design if it's not!) This floating hotel, or houseboat, was originally a sailing barge and as you can see from the below photos, the interior has been designed to a very high spec. I've put a photo at the bottom, for nostalgic reasons, to show you how the vessel originally looked! On a practical note, the B28 is located very near to Amsterdam's Centraal Station and the rates are very reasonable (so I know where I'm going on holiday next year)! Find out more here!

Murakami @ Versailles!

Well it doesn't get much more over the top than this!! Murakami Versailles is an exhibition that takes place in the Grand Apartment and Hall of Mirrors in this spectacular palace. This really is something very out of the ordinary. Murakami is a Japanese artist that plays around with the concept of High Art, good and bad taste and ultimately kitsch. Enjoy seeing "Mr. Pointy" inside the palace state rooms, the bizarre spectacle of the "Kaikai" or "Kiki" sculptures alongside Louis XIV, or my own particular favourite installation, "The Silver Oval Buddha" in le Salon de l’Abondance