Raw at Casamento

I was pleased to get news from Casamento this week, as they always seem to be coming up with new and interesting ideas. Casamento has been reupholstering vintage furniture for a while now, and have made a commitment to using natural fibres. They are now taking this a step further, with their new collection called Raw.

This recycled fifties sofa is the first in Casamento's Raw range.It has been reupholstered in a mixture of raw silk, linens and hemp fabrics. At first glance, it appears unfinished, but a closer look shows you that it's exactly the way it should be.


I saw this sofa at the Neighbourgoods Market last weekend, and although the fabrics look fairly rough, to the touch, they are silken, and the sensual contrast is enough to convince that this is something quite special.


I'm looking forward to seeing what Casamento comes up with next, and will be sure to keep you posted!

Report from NYC: Comfort from the cold

Baby it's cold outside up here in the northern hemisphere! To warm up our nests, I've assembled a few winter-themed things for you today.



Alyssa Ettinger's beautifully tactile Knitwear Bowls duplicate the texture of a handknit sweater on their unglazed surfaces.



This Brooklyn-based ceramicist sells her designs on her Etsy shop and at Cog and Pearl in Park Slope.

Add a fjordic flavour to your winter pad with these Nordic knit cushions from Urban Outfitters. They're stylish and cuddle-worthy, with understated contrast patterns at the back.


And what would a winter wonderland (even an indoor one) be without a pair of frolicking deers?

These sculpted wooden animals are part of a range made of pear, walnut, beech and other European woods made as kids' toys and sold at Brooklyn-based online shop Romp. Unpainted and finished with beeswax, their unadorned shapes show off the woodgrain beautifully.

This family of blank Russian nesting dolls , also from Romp, leaves much to the imagination. You can decorate them yourself - or leave them as they are, a group of strangely abstract forms.

And finally, you can hold a little sunshine in your hands all winter long, with this ingenious Sun Jar from Urban Outfitters.
The Sun Jar quite literally captures sunlight, giving off a gentle indoor glow. A traditional glass mason jar is fitted with an energy-efficient LED lamp, which charges in direct sunlight.

Stay warm, wherever you are!

Yokoo styling

After having done a bit of styling on my own products, and sat in on a professional shoot or two, I am in awe of the hard work done by stylists, and always delighted by a fresh approach to the presentation of a product. So when I spotted these witty product shots for knitted things by Yokoo, I just couldn't resist sharing. Hope they inspire you too!

And the icing on the cake (so to speak): this photograph for sale called i wear many hats.

Giveaway - Acoustic Arabia

It's December, the month of frenzied gift-giving! And in the spirit of the season, we have another CD to give away from Putumayo World Music. This time it's Acoustic Arabia: a collection of contemplative and introspective acoustic music from the Arabic world.

To win yourself a copy of this collection, just visit the Putumayo website and find the answer to this question:

Name one of the three divas performing in the group Les Orientales.

Click here to send us an email with the answer, and remember to include your name and postal address.

Chromolab inspiration

Today, a series of jolts of glorious colour to inspire, courtesy of the marvellous and witty Chromalab team:


Chromalab consists of a husband and wife team in Boston, who know how to give an old piece of furniture a colour kick in the pants! Visit the Chromalab website and shop for more of their eye-popping inspiration.

Via Design*Sponge

Report from NYC: Little Friends of Printmaking

The humble print has exploded on the Web as an affordable art work bursting with imagination. I could spend my whole day – and my entire paycheck – buying up prints on Etsy. As the cold winds whip through Wall Street and the art market starts to feel the chill, I take comfort that for a mere $25, I can buy me a heart-stopping little showpiece, like these by the Little Friends of Printmaking.

The Little Friends of Printmaking are the husband-and-wife design team of James and Melissa Buchanan, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They make silkscreen prints, usually in batches of no more than a hundred, which they sell on their fabulous website.

Many of their prints start life as posters for music concerts, film festivals and book readings. Okay, so you didn't actually see Yo La Tengo at Memorial Union Terrace in Madison, Wisconsin, but you feel like you could have been there.

James and Melissa also make art prints that they take on travelling exhibits around the country. I asked James which of his prints were his favourite. "They’re all our children," he said with mock affection. "I tend to divorce myself from them when they come out of the house." Jeez, I hope this guy isn't actually planning to have children any time soon!

Seriously, it's clear that the Buchanan household must be a fun place. A visit to their website is worthwhile, not only to see their fabulous portfolio of posters, but also to read their zany captions.

Where DO they get all these wacky bolts of imagination? "We watch too much TV. We connect the dots wrong between things," said James. "We keep a list of all our crazy ideas."


Not too shabby for a design duo with few prospects after graduating from art school just four years ago. "We were music fans, so when a promoter asked us to make some posters, we thought it would be fun. We didn’t have an inkling we were interested or good at design," says James.

To read about another up-and-coming print artist - this one based in my home town of Brooklyn - take a visit to my blog, The Brooklynist.

Lei Xue

Is a pile of crushed beer cans ever capable of having aesthetic appeal?


Well, perhaps when Lei Xue makes the cans out of porcelain and decorates them in a traditional Chinese motif usually seen on delicate teacups.

Via Design for Mankind

Air Lines poster

When I consider graphic design and aviation, all I can think of is diagrams showing how to put on your life jacket, but artist Mario Freese has come up with something that's a lot more interesting, and delicately beautiful too.

His work, Air Lines, tracks the paths of scheduled airline routes on a finely detailed A0 wall poster, available on both black and white backgrounds.

The flight paths he's traced include the big transatlantic flights as well as local Cessna routes, and the web created is quite extraordinarily complex.

Contemplating all this incessant criss-crossing of the globe makes me appreciate those diagrams showing me how my life jacket will help me survive a plane crash a whole lot more!

Visit Mario Freese's Air Lines website for more information and for the opportunity to purchase your own.

o.live

After showing Rupert Smith and Warren Matthee's home in Wednesday's post, I thought it might be interesting to show you more of their boutique store, o.live, Chemistry of Living. I went to the store to take some snaps, and also managed to pin Rupert down and get him to answer a couple of questions:


What is concept behind o.live ?
Warren and I started o.live about 10 years ago, and the idea was that is would be an outlet for local creatives, and also somewhere we could show the things we are attracted to. It started out as a tiny shop that was going to be a "hobby" for when we were not busy. But 10 years later, i's become something a lot bigger and more time consuming.


I'm always unsure how to pronounce o.live. Can you help?
o.live is pronounced like the word "olive". The spelling is a play on words, highlighting the word "live". We included the unusual punctuation as a bit of a joke, because we came up with the name at the time of the .com boom.


How much of what we see at o.live reflects in your home?
There is definitely a crossover between our house and the shop. Both are filled with things that we love, and we're often torn between what to keep and what to put in the shop.


What are you noticing in terms of trends, reflected in your store?
I do think that retro / vintage is very big, and combining it with new and old makes for an interesting mix. Of course, these days we need to be thinking green, and o.live embraces this by finding and updating old furniture, as well as having tables and benches manufactured from reclaimed wood.



What are some of your favorites in o.live right now?
Vintage gold porcelain tea set , framed vintage horse prints , feather inner pillows for lounging and elongated reclaimed wooden table and benches re upholstered 50's and 60's lounge suites.

Thanks, Rupert (and Warren too)! Visit o.live, chemistry of living at the bottom of Kloof Street in Cape town.

Odili Donald Odita at Michael Stevenson

Currently showing at top Cape Town gallery, Michael Stevenson Contemporary, is a show of large acrylic paintings and wall paintings by Odili Donald Odita, a Nigerian artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Eternal - Odili Donald Odita

Here and There - Odili Donald Odita

I think they are just beautiful to look at, and was pleased to see that the press release backs me up on this one: "At a time when people habitually mistrust intuition and visual pleasure, his work relies heavily on both". There's more to his work than just an enjoyment of these massive colourful canvasses, of course, but being swallowed up by colour and shape is enough reason to go and visit the gallery.

Click here to find out how to get to Michael Stevenson Contemporary in Woodstock, Cape Town.