Issue 57: Life Lines

Anyone who appreciates things that are worn, layered, and textured with history will love the home of artist Sue Pam-Grant on pages 94 - 101 of our Spring Zing issue.

Sue Pam-Grant is an inter-disciplinary artist, working in the theatre as well as in the visual arts, and her latest theatre project, Coupé , is currently showing at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg.

The artworks Sue makes are largely mixed-media assemblages, made in her garden studio space, which she describes as 'a womb, a suspended space that inspires as the light moves through it from dawn to dusk.

The proximity of her studio to her home means that work and living spaces tend to weave together in the "life lines" that entitle this article about her beautiful home.

See Sue Pam-Grant's work on show at Gallery MOMO, and look out for her interdisciplinary collaboration coming up at the Dance Factory at the end of October.


Production: Kersin Eser
Photographs: Elsa Young

Issue 57: Spring Zing

Ooh, look! The brand new issue of ELLE DECORATION is on the shelves all over South Africa now, and it's full of zingy, springy things!

If you're drooling over this gorgeous cover, and kicking yourself for not having got your mitts on a copy yet, why not take out a subscription? We're giving blog readers a 30% reduction on subscriptions!

Email us for your subscription enquiries and take advantage of this great offer.

Tomorrow you get to see inside the new issue...

Giveaway: Reggae Around the World

Back by popular demand, Putumayo World Music's best-selling reggae collection, Reggae Around the World, will take you on a jammin' global music journey.


Win yourself a copy of this album by dropping us an email, telling us the name of the only South African artist featured on the Reggae Around the World album. Remember to include your name and address in your mail. Good luck!

Guest blogger: Animal Furniture

Many thanks to Karly Hand of design crisis for writing this crazy animal-themed guest blog spot today. Take it away, Karly!

I'm always on the lookout for home decor that makes me giggle. I like pieces that stand out and will always opt for quirky over clever and silly over swanky (bonus if the piece can combine all of the above!). So when I spotted a couple of select pieces of animal-inspired furniture I was in la la la la love!

Of all Nature's four-legged miracles, the horse is hands-down my favorite. They're such strong, powerful beings and tug at my girly "I want a pony" heartstrings. So when I spotted the Horse Lamp from the genius ladies at Front Design, I nearly fainted at the sight of decor perfection.
Did I mention that the horse is LIFE-SIZED? Meaning, one could be so lucky as to have a life-sized horse lighting one's living room at all times. Swoon!

And if rabbits or pigs are more your thing, or perhaps space is an issue, pas de probleme, as Front Design serves up lovely versions of each too, all for moooi.

If you decide to pass on the life sized horse, but still have a hankering for biology-infused designs, you could opt to go the more subtle route of animal table legs. Behold:

Clockwise from top right:
- Jacques Garcia's Le Lion stand (available at Decorati)
- Ibride Diva Black Ostrich Console Table (available at Velocity)
- Arthur bench by Brad Huntzinger and Kate McIntyre (Oly Studio)
- Ibride Sultan Red Dog Stool (also available at Velocity).

In case subtlety REALLY isn't your thing, and I mean REEEAAAALLLYYY, then you can just go for broke and pick a Tiger or Dog Couch by Rodolfo Rocchetti:


I prefer to temper my quirky fixtures with a monochromatic color scheme. It's well documented (by myself, of course) that I will paint anything solid gold or solid white if it sits still long enough, so these Made In China Limited benches by Wokmedia are perfect for me:

The benches are created by fusing vintage wooden Chinese toys with new furniture, then (here's the part I love) they are painted completely white. I would be quite happy to give any of the toy benches a home in my garden.

If by chance a jealous neighbor were to come along and steal my lovely bench (who could blame them?) I would most certainly replace it with one of these Whippet Benches by Radi Designers:


Would it be tacky to have the 4 color whippet inside my home and the blue one in my yard?

No? Not tacky? Perfect!! Then I will also assume that it is also safe for me to fill my living space with one of each of these:



Clockwise from top left:
- Harry Allen Piggy Bank (available at Unica Home)
- Goose Table by Alessandro Mendini (available at Unica Home)
- Vintage Crab Table featured on First Dibs
- Ab Ovo Dining Chair by William Emmerson

The crab table is quite possibly the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I would gladly pitch a tent right on top of it and just make it my home. Oh, lovely crab table, why is there only one of you and why don't you live at my house?

I believe the only thing in the world that could ease my pain right now would be to get my little paws on one of Timothy Horn's octopus-inspired chandeliers:

The octopus chandelier would be such a stunning centerpiece over my dining table I would throw a lavish dinner party just to watch my friends become delirious with envy. (And since I like to push any theme to it's max, I've rounded up a lovely selection of animal-inspired dishes for my dinner party over at design crisis.)

Because I have no meter for tackiness, and invite any and all silly finds into my home, I must insist on also finding a spot for these Sheep Stools from Sam Brown at Leigh Harmer.


All this talk of animal decor has me so excited, I think I need to go lay down my spinning head. Now, If only I had a giraffe bed...

Hang it!

Down here at the end of Africa, it looks like Winter's starting to beat a retreat. At last we can think about hanging up our coats, so I've put together a collection of nifty coathangers:

These hangers, designed by Jaehyung Hong, were inspired by ordinary paper clips. So clever! And anyone with a little Barbie wardrobe can make their own mini versions. (via Wren)


The wonderfully graphic Coat hanger Coat rack by Tokyo-based designer Takashi Sato sees the hangers becoming the hooks to hang more hangers on! (via Dezeen)

Lincoln Kayiwa's Dino coat rack would be perfect for the coat and hat booth of a natural history museum, as it looks like a dinosaur rib cage! (via Design*Sponge)

And remember in yesterday's post I said we'd hear more about Ryan Frank? Well here he is again with his Zilka coathanger, made from recycled and pressed newspapers.

Ryan Frank

While browsing the UK eco-friendly site One Eco Home, I happened upon this gorgeous chair and table, which is made from 60% recycled office furniture and 40% birch plywood.

Then I noticed that the chair and table were called Bourke's Luck. Of course Mphumalanga has a very famous natural water feature by the same name, so I wondered about the local connection. I Googled the name of the designer, and... excuse my ignorance, but am I the only person who doesn't know that Ryan Frank is a South African home grown?

Ryan Frank seems to like naming his designs after local phenomena. Above is the iShongololo chair - named after the centipede that curls up in a tight spiral, and below you see inKunku, employing the technique used to make the plastic bag chickens so ubiquitously sold on local roadsides.

Take a visit to Ryan Frank's website to see more of his designs, and watch this space for more about this exciting designer.

Report from NYC: Prague Kolektiv

A favourite stop on my strolls through the New York neighbourhood of DUMBO is in front of the colourful window display of Prague Kolektiv.

Prague Kolektiv is the only store specializing in design from the Czech Republic in North America. A few weeks back, I was showing the neighbourhood to some very excited cousins of mine from London. We ended up oohing and aahing over the immaculate collection of Czech furniture, glassware and lighting from the 1920s through to the 1960s in the industrial storefront space.

We got a crash course from co-owner Barton Quillen on the history of Czech design, which was fascinating. Very little is known about the Czechs' contribution to midcentury modernism because the country was so isolated under Communist rule.

Barton lived for many years in Prague, where he ran an art center and worked as a teacher. He was struck by the Czech 'take' on modern design. "I could see that this was part of a larger modernist family but there were all these motifs and details that struck me as original, Czech inflections," he said. "There were recognisable mid-century elements like organic design and bent plywood, but with details that I hadn’t seen before, a playful subversivness."


Barton traces this Czech sense of whimsy back to the earlier designs that were influenced by the Bauhaus and Art Deco in the 1930s. His store carries a lot of chrome-plated tubular steel frame furniture and lighting typical of that era.

On his many shopping trips to the Czech Republic, he tries to stick to pieces that don’t require a lot of refurbishment. "There is greater authenticity in finding pieces that look as close as possible to how they will look when people eventually buy them – that motivates me very much," Barton said.

Interestingly, he attributes the good condition of these pieces to the fact that after Communism, there was no labor mobility. "People didn’t change jobs much, so once they settled down and got furniture, they kept the same furniture for the rest of their lives. These days in America, we toss something out because it doesn’t capture our imagination anymore. These things were designed to last during the lifetimes of the people who owned them and they passed the test."

Prague Kolektiv also accepts orders for reproductions, such as this handbuilt 1930s Functionalist desk. If I had a desk like this, I would hold onto it for the rest of my life.

Some of the beautiful silhouettes come from the way the designers played with the planes or levels of the piece. There's a transparency and lightness that comes from the open negative spaces, the simple elegance and linearity of designs like this desk, below, made of formica and ash and beech woods.

If you look closely, you'll notice that the desktop is slightly assymetrical. It widens out towards the righthand edge. "This is as great an example of mid-century Czech design as I can think of," said Barton. "There's a minimalism of design without being self-conscious about it."

Self-conscious it may not be, but Czech modernist design certainly gives its Danish and Italian counterparts a run for their money.

Guest blog: Book Art!

Today Denise Kiggan of Durban-based blog, Freshly Found! is our guest.

Paper really is a fascinating medium, and book art has been popping up all over the place lately. The 2008 Holland Paper Biennial coming up later this month at Museum Rijswijk, where 27 international paper artists will be showing their work, so I thought I'd share some paper art I've come across lately, in the form of repurposed vintage books.

The beautiful folded books above and below, recently featured by Apartment Therapy, are from one of the inspirational window displays at Anthropologie.

Food and Interior Stylist, Paul Lowe of Sweet Paul has been styling a series called "The Written Word". The paper sculpture vases and the picture holder in the pics below show some of Paul's creativity.

Michael Bom of Bomdesign creates Boekelampen, which we are quaintly told in Dutch are gemaakt uit oude boeken (made out of old books!)

These delicate decorations are some of Michael Bom's handiwork too!

The folded church book below is made by French artist, Lucille Moroni , who participated in the Paper Biennial in 2006. She first saw a book with folded pages in a shop window in Lyons, and knew at once that this was something for her. Now she works with 19th century church books and missals, taking care to fold the pages to correspond with the contours of the gilded decorations on the pages.

The Lehman Maupin Gallery features Italian artist Stefano Arienti. He lives in Milan, where he works with found images and printed materials. His 'Sliced Books' are surprising and fun!

Jesse of Jezzeblog recently featured the work of South African artist Rickus Ferreira . He took the pages out of the book before folding these delightful pigs!

I was inspired enough by all this paper folding to try it out myself, and I made this side table from folded magazines.

I've written up a tutorial on my blog, explaining how to make this side table with your own collection of magazines, so do pop over to see. And who knows, perhaps the dusty paperback novels on your bookshelf might just be ready for their Second Debut!