The Survivor Sofa Story

I'm very much looking forward to this on Monday;

A documentary about pioneering design and recycling on Monday 14th December at 10pm on the Community Channel but if you're busy you can watch it here. It features my friends the lovely Urban Uphostery. See the trailer here.

'Money for Nothing' on BBC

A chance glance at Rupert Blanchard's blog alerted me to this series of programmes; Money for Nothing on BBC iplayer. Hurry it's your last chance for the first one of fifteen episodes as that's available until 7th Oct 16.30pm, then each consecutive episode expires a day after the previous.

Sarah Moore intercepts things about to be dumped, gets artisans to revamp them and sells them on. Happily it's all done seriously well, not dabbling dilettante upcycling that there is so much of now, no this series uses some of our favourite talented artisans like Rupert Blanchard and The Rag and Bone Man. I don't like everything that gets done but some are great and having seen 3 episodes so far you really get the point about our wastefulness and neglect of potential use.

I Love Tin

I love the humble tin, it's such a gorgeous object.

You can buy plastic lids for them - usually made for pet-food tins so mine have a cat impression on them. I have been looking for more but haven't seen them for ages. Look out for them in the pound shops they're so useful.

Look at these beauties, they're more appetising than patisserie. I found these at Kempton Market - my first and only visit, you'd think it's the kind of place I frequent, but no, I often avoid the temptation to acquire more stuff, unless it's for my work of course. I am looking forward to making my first croissant chandelier.

Upcycling Horse

This is possibly a poor excuse for a blog post but life is very stressful at the moment re info on the post before last. Amazingly I have managed to maintain some chandelier making during this period and it's like a tonic to do it. But in the countryside you see these reminders that people have always reused stuff. I'm not bothered by the terminology; upcycling, recycling, reusing etc - though re-purpose always sounds a bit clumsy to me - I'm more bothered by over trendiness and the core of resourcefulness being overlooked by some fancy styling - so here is an under-styled horses water drink thing for you to admire.

"Endurance"

 I love the name of this wool. I think I bought it in a charity shop some time ago. I've always darned my socks, I must have learned just by watching my mother. Recently she said she couldn't find darning wool in any shops anymore. Shortly afterwards I found some at a car boot sale so I bought all 7 cards for her. Apparently darning's very much back in fashion including many hits to a You Tube guide on how to do it, I found this one. It's really neat, setting up a little weaving grid by stitching.
I also saw a great poster in a fantastic exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, The Children's War, it's encouraging you to reinforce clothes in the hard-wearing areas beforehand rather than waiting for them to wear out. One step ahead of make do and mend. When I was at school the male teachers often had leather patches on their elbows - haven't seen that style for a long time - must be due a revival - lads!?

Design Festival

Every year when it’s London Design week I develop an anti-design attitude and feel reluctant to go and see anything. I feel overwhelmed by the amount of products out there that we don’t need. Obviously my middle age has something to do with this, some things I see are not new and I’ve seen them done better before.

 Even though sustainability is a big aspect of design now, it’s often not so integral and seems stuck on somehow.
Who needs something to hang their mugs on really? And how can you beat the classic kitchen chair. Then there’s the rise of the ‘concept’, e.g. useless objects that are supposed to “question our perception of…” whatever – this presumes none of us do this already!
So, I forced myself to go to one design event – staying south of the river I went to Designers Block at the Bargehouse. I did like this chair and table by Hendzel & Hunt from their Made in Peckham collection. Piecing together salvaged items is a style I’ve heard Oliver Heath refer to as Patchwork Chic. Look up Andrew Holmes on Craft Councils Photostore to see how he has been doing it since the early 1980’s.
Re using objects really usefully really excites me. Shannon Denny’s blog; Give Me One Good Raisin often picks out the best of these.
Very soon I’ll do a post on a really inspiring young designer who I think you’ll find really impressive.