silo.

I recently made a trip to the brilliant So Far the Future gallery to see their current (and excellent) All About Hats exhibition - catching up with the work of these fab milliners.

But my visit also acquainted me with the work of the previous space holders: Silo design studio, whose Plastic Alchemy show I seem to have just missed.

"Hand made high tech" is how they describe themselves, and while their lofty design process intimidates (often involving intricate moulds and "growing" polystyrene building materials), the resultant bookshelves, tables, chairs and miscellany retain a playful un-pretension not often found in Designs of the Year nominated furniture. Joy of joys, I'd eat my ice cream Sundays off of these bad boys any day!

Silo's website here.

vanessa conyers.

So we're back from Christmas shenanigans, i.e.sleeping-in late, drinking too much wine, dancing after multiple course meals, and ripping open DVD's that were intended gifts for your mother but which you've actually purchased so that you could spend six nights on the couch "borrowing" them...

Ah yes, Christmastime. It's a time when most people spend endless hours shopping, sifting through potential presents with a voracity unmatched by any other purchase-based occasion. That is unless we count Black Friday... but that's another story.

Anyway, I looked through a lot of lovely things over the holidays, but I'd have to say that amongst all of those beautiful bits and bobs there was something that really stuck out, and that was the work of Vanessa Conyers. You see, not only does Miss. Conyers possess my childhood fantasy-name (at age eight I compromised by asking my parents if I could at least change my middle name to said "Vanessa"), she's also got a knack for hand-crafting delicate, witty and confoundedly lovely ceramic pieces. Knack would actually be a bit of an understatement, considering this is some of the most cray-cray pottery I've ever seen, and I mean "cray" in a really good way. I imagine Wonderland's Mad Hatter would cast a lusty eye over one or two of these tea sets...

Innovative and with exquisite attention to detail, this Dorset based artist is really worth a look. She even runs a pottery studio and workshops to help introduce people to "the magical world of ceramics". Sweet! Check out her beautiful website here.

 

all images © Vanessa Conyers

laura zindel.

My sister and her friend have often amused me by quoting a phrase from a sketch based television show called Portlandia. It's a phrase that seemed to pretty succinctly sum up an indefinitive trend whose origins are ambiguous, but which has become undeniably chic. That phrase is "put a bird on it". The catchy tag line is plucked from the mouths of two shop owners whose cure-all tactic for sprucing up previously unfabulous items is to simply... yup that's right, put a bird on it!

This relatively pain-free makover turns even the blandest of shop goods into covetable objects that score high in the hot-right-now department. And despite the actors' out-and-out camp delivery, its an eerie truth that in today's market the application of various winged specimens has become a kind of hipster shorthand for clever design.

And though mockery on national television certainly hails that this trend  has arrived at Port Obnoxious, whenever I  encounter products that do put a bird to good use I can't help but feeling a little warm and fuzzy inside. On a recent trip to the Baltimore Museum of Art I came across the work of Laura Zindel, an illustrator and ceramist who started out sketching straight onto clay with a pencil. After an afternoon of Matisse et al. it turned out to be these little pieces tucked away in the back of the gift shop which caught my attention. Perhaps it was the noir-ish blackbirds which drew me in, or the way in which the bulbous curves of each vase seemed to mimic the puffed and feathered forms of each of the various fowls. Either way I kept lurking around the display table, turning circles, willing myself not to like it as much as I did. "She only put a bird on it," I thought to myself. Ah well, in the words of R Kelly, "My minds telling me no. But my body... my body's telling me yessss!"

Bottom line is, best not to judge yourself too harshly. These handmade pieces are truly lovely. Have a look:

find more: http://laurazindel.com/home


all images ©  Laura Zindel

crinkle cup by rob brandt.

Saw this today. It made me giggle.
Dutch artist Rob Brandt apparently whipped up this little number in 2006. Now it's distributed by London-based super-cool design brand Thorsten van Elten. And sold at Liberty, or on Columbia Road in Shoreditch. And available in a handmade glass version. But none of that really matters. It's still giggle-worthy. Tactile and playful.
Dare to do Dixie differently, Rob. You go girl.


 

Get The Cup: http://www.thelollipopshoppe.co.uk/products/kitchen-and-tableware/ceramics-and-dinner-services/crinkle-cup/

Look Around: http://www.thorstenvanelten.com/

butter.

By Eda Akaltun (based on Yevgeny Zamyatin's We)

Do you like butter? I like butter. Some say you can tell if you like butter by tinkling a buttercup under your chin to see if it glows yellow. Another option is to go to butterbutter.co.uk and see if you flush with excitement.   

Here you’ll find a sumptuous offering of illustration, photography, collage, and decorative arts. That’s because Butter is an east London based art collective, comprised of Eda Akaltun, Eleanor Meredith and George Lewin, all ex-St. Martins types. Sounds rote, but its not. Expect sci-fi prints with dystopian wit, achingly likeable post-pop collage, mildly unnerving tea mugs, and bleach browed blondes making out. 

Check it out.

Eda Akaltun 

From "We"

From "We"

From "Invisible Cities"

From "Invisible Cities"

From "Everybody's Talking"

From "House of Gold"

From "House of Gold"

Eleanor Meredith 

"An infringement of personal space"

 

From "Facial Insincerity"

From "Touch Me! Plates"

From "Touch Me! Plates"

From "Touch Me! Plates"

George Lewin

From "Ollie and Charlotte"

From "Ollie and Charlotte"

From "Ollie and Charlotte"

Visit The Site:

http://butterbutter.co.uk/

all images © George Lewin, Eleanor Meredith, and Eda Akaltun