Digitata

Helen, one of our readers in the UK, got in touch this week to tell me about her visit to Digitata design studio in the Orkney Isles in Scotland.

Digitata is a small and ethical studio, where designer-maker Sarah Johnston prints her textile designs onto silks, irish linens, hemp, or has them made in jacquard weaves, and then uses them to make up small runs of homeware and fashion accessories.

Top L: Umbels on Irish linen

Top R: Leaves on silk douppion

Below: Jacquard weave cushions (now on sale!)

Love the kitchen-themed teatowels, also available as aprons.

I love this idea of selling printed fabric panels stretched on frames as wall art. This is from the Digitata Everything But the Kitchen Sink range.

So even if most of us can't manage a visit to the scenic and remote Orkneys, thanks to the internet, all this loveliness and more is available to you right here.

Loyal Loot

I've been doing a bit of detective work. Remember this pic from my recent post on stylist Scott Horne?

Well, thanks to Canadian online shop, Good Egg, I managed to track down more info about the gorgeous and rather special wood vessels in the photo.

They're made by the all-girl Canadian design collective, Loyal Loot. Each one is made from wood collected in Alberta, and after it's been dried for 4 - 6 months, it gets lathed, then coloured and finished by the Loyal Loot gals.


The Log bowls are available to buy at Good Egg, and each one is made to order, so allow 2-3 weeks for construction.

Report From NYC: BROOKLYNrehab

I checked in to BROOKLYNrehab yesterday. No, I don’t have a drinking problem - more likely a shopping addiction. BROOKLYNrehab is Alyssa Zygmunt’s clever collection of vintage finds on sale on etsy.com. Alyssa is an industrial designer turned fashion designer who fuels her passion for quirky collecting by scouring vintage stores around Brooklyn and beyond.

These are some of her latest finds. Better check these out quickly because things have been selling fast lately.

This etched antelope glass is only five bucks. Yep, you heard right, $5.

These 50s salt and pepper cellars and pair of small plates are sold as a set and are in perfect condition.

"New York is full of secret spots containing lost treasures," says Alyssa. "You just have to be willing to look. Sometimes the trip is a bust and other times you find a stampede of wild horses captured in ceramic." These miniature horses, made of slip cast porcelain glazed in a glossy white, go perfectly with the gnome, above. And there are others in her porcelain menagerie.

Alyssa hunts for treasure at flea markets, library and school inventory sales, prop stores, and estate sales. She recommends Roulette on Havemeyer Street (see apartment therapy) and Ugly Luggage on Bedford Avenue (see New York magazine), both in Williamsburg. She often draws inspiration from the window displays at ABC Carpet and Home in Manhattan. Then she comes up with whimsical vignettes such as these, below.

Besides having an eagle eye for reusable cast-offs, Alyssa is adept at making her own pieces and is currently experimenting with ceramics. She originally made the porcelain gnome at the beginning of this post as table decorations for a friend's wedding. And now she has cast buttons made into rings and this magnificent mushroom, which can be used as a bud vase or a sculpture.

I liked its combination of delicacy and earthiness so much that I snapped one up immediately. Like any good addict, I will be checking her etsy pages often for new arrivals.

Yoola

I'm enchanted by these ethereally beautiful wire objects handmade by Israeli Etsy seller Yoola .

Starry Eve

I was in Casamento again recently (see my previous post about this shop here), and saw these beautiful chairs which really deserve mention.

These reconditioned 60's oak chairs have been beautifully upholstered in a patchwork style, with bamboo silk embroidery detail, all by Starry Eve of Casamento.

Starry Eve works from Casamento's studio in Kommetjie, hunting out mid-century relics to renew, restore and re-create them into once-off accent pieces like these, using embroidery, tapestry, patchwork and crochet.

I've been seeing lots of other patchworky things around lately. Hella Jongerius's Polder sofa , and Squint's great patchwork chairs come to mind. Can you think of any others?