An online African Christmas

Hmm. Time for a challenge. South African stores are not terribly internet-savvy on the whole, but let's see what I can find online locally for a stylish African Christmas.

Babazeka
First stop, the Babazeka online store, where I found this Aloe bag (also available in brown) and Shweshwe bowl.


Also at Babazeka, I found the Lucky Star hand-embroidered cushion, and the Razor print cushion too.

Tintown

Of course, an African Christmas isn't complete without a lasercut tree, snowflake or wreath from Tintown.

Rebound Books

A master bookbinder at new Cape Town outfit Rebound Books is filling charming old hardbacks with brand new creamy pages, to be used as classy notebooks in 2008.

Visit Rebound Books to choose your favourite. I rather fancied the rather elegant Eternal Masquerade.
Clip Clop

The southern tides and moonphase calendars from Clip Clop have been gift staples for years, but now this outfit has brought out an adorable new calendar with illustrations of African animal families by Sheila Dorje. Contact Clip Clop to buy, or find them at your local bookstore.

Flowermill

Still in the stationery department, keep an eye out for the beautiful cards and giftwrap from new stationery outfit Flowermill. Their website's not quite up and running yet, but they're stocking Exclusive Books, Wordsworth, and loads of other stores.

I love cupcake

And for a present that certainly won't last for long, how about ordering a custom made cupcake (or twelve) from I Love Cupcake . You can order online, choosing from a bewildering range of styles and flavours, and then pick up from their stores in Blubird Shopping Centre off Athol Oaklands or in Centurion.

You have other suggestions for an online African Christmas? Let me know, quick!

Subtraction

Durban-based photographer, Clinton Friedman, has recently released Subtraction, a book of his photographs of muti plants.


From the foreward to the book:

"Clinton Friedman first saw the broken aloes and various herbs on his first visit to a traditional muti (medicine) market in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

Dried, twisted, mashed or miraculously holding some of their original form, the plants are sold in a makeshift market on the pavement of the station, on the side of the road or in tiny downtown shops in areas where many fear to tread. These are healing plants, they have the power to transform, to magically reinstate the health of the sick and weary. They are blessed botanicals that have died so that others may experience heavenly health."


Subtraction is available for sale online, or at local bookshops. See more photos of the muti plants here, and then take some time to look at the other beautiful photos on Clinton Friedman's website .

Vagabond magic

How does this…

Turn into this?

Ask furniture and product designer, John Denis O’Leary, who designed the beautiful Vagabond Cabinet above, and this is what he says:

“Vagabond originated from a series of photographs I took over a 12 month period of ‘homeless’ furniture thrown out on the streets of Edinburgh. Amazed at the quality of such 'rubbish', I began to collect wood and various materials from skips and garbage bins. Vagabond is an attempt to give value back to these materials, once disregarded as worthless junk.”

Via Pan-Dan.

Psst: To see other beautiful furniture alchemised from junk, read this NY Times article.

Save the trees!

I think it's about time for a seasonally apt blog post, don't you?

This laser cut plywood Christmas Tree from Australian outfit Buro North Studio is a brilliant space-saver and planet-saver too.

The Green X-Mas Tree has minimal production waste, a flat-packed design and sources locally-sourced plantation pine. And, of course, the same tree can get hauled out year after year, keeping the kids occupied for hours as they try to puzzle it back together.

Unfortunately, ordering the tree from Buro North will add a couple of air miles to the ecological cost, but as with so much around this season, it's the thought that counts.

Via: ApartmentTherapyNY , and thanks, Doreen

Lori Andrews

See more beautiful photos of the home of interiors photographer, Lori Andrews at her Flickr page. (via maditi likes).

Update: I got a mail from Lori last night, letting me know that she's currently working on a coffee table book which is a collection of varied interiors matched with fiction stories. Check out more beautifully-shot interiors on her blog, InteriorStories

Bored of birds?

The birds trend has been around for ages, and even though I've been on that bandwagon myself (this kind of thing), it’s starting to wear a bit thin for me.

Still, birds are such beautiful creatures and dismissing them as just another trend would be awfully jaded, so I’ve pulled myself together and rounded up a couple of novel bird ideas seen around lately:

This delicate lasercut "birdmarker" is by designer Hung Ming Chen, and can be found at his website hommin. (via Style-files).

I found this Japanese Cast iron bird paperweight at the Curiosity Shoppe. The shape is so charmingly simple.

Nambu-tekki is the Japanese word for cast iron, and this traditional Japanese craft dates back to the middle of the 17th century.

Another example of Nambu-tekki is this bottle opener from online shop Canoe.

I bought one of these for my husband’s birthday in June. It’s dual-purposed in that it’s beautiful, and also makes drinking beer lots more fun! It fits in the hand really nicely too.

Also from Canoe, and also from Japan, come these vaguely creepy battery-operated singing birds. They’re based on scale models by a University of Tokyo ornithologist, and embedded microchips cause them to move their tail and head in a lifelike way, singing songs taken from recordings from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. My cats would shred them in an instant!

Somewhat more portable, this lasercut Bird Brooch by Australian clothes designer Beci Orpin of Princess Tina can be found at Rare Device.

And something for the locals! In July this year, I bought this little stone bird by Benard Nkanjo from the Park Bench Gallery in Cape Town’s Kloof Street.

I was there again this week, buying a whole bunch more (shh, Christmas presents!). In fact, there aren’t many left, so hurry!

Now, I I'm off to Birds Cafe for lunch.

SA Designers on Design*Sponge

Design*Sponge is arguably the most influential design blog out there. Any designer who gets onto this blog is pretty much guaranteed to be noticed by design junkies of various degrees of influence all over the world.



So I'd say that 11 local designers owe Gary Payne of SprayGlue a big hug for giving their careers a great big global boost by writing his SA Design roundup for Design*Sponge.


Gary's guide is also brilliant exposure for the whole SA design scene, because of course, this selection of designers only scratches the surface of all the marvellous design we have around here. Now all those design junkies will know that (as Heath Nash puts it)...



Take a look at Gary’s fabulous roundup, and then take a look at the comments section too, to check out the debate about who got featured and who didn't, and why…

Guest blog - Jesse Breytenbach

Today we have a special guest blog from illustrator Jesse Breytenbach, who has recently begun block printing on fabric for interiors and accessories use. This is one of Jesse's most recent prints, and you can see more at her blog and online shop.


To open the Elle Decoration readers' eyes to some of the processes that make the prints on our curtains and furnishings, Jesse's done us a fascinating roundup of what's going on the block printing world right now. Read on...

Block Printing

Although I studied printmaking at University (and wore block printed t-shirts when I was a kid), it's only recently that block printing on fabric has become something of an obsession for me. It's a time-consuming, very hand-made process, but it produces results that are quite beautiful.

It seems as if I'm not the only one rediscovering this ancient technique; I've noticed more and more block printing around the web recently.

The printing is done with carved blocks, either linoleum or wood, which are inked and then pressed onto a surface to transfer the design.

These photos are from the website of Hugh Dunford Wood, who designs and prints astonishingly lovely wallpaper:

More designs and colourways on his site.

A South African company that's doing block printed textiles is Side Attraction 3, who produce luxurious cushions, tablecloths, curtains, and more.
Items can be purchased by phone, fax, post or online. See their website for details. (Side Attraction 3's photos by photographer Alastair Mclachlan).

Slipstream, the company responsible for printing some of the Side Attraction 3 textiles, also sells limited edition block printed fabrics of their own.

The name of another South African company - Zambane - gives away their unusual printing technique. In Zulu, "amaZambane" means "potatoes", and these prints are made with potatoes as printing blocks.

Read more about Zambane here, and order these cushions through Babazeka, a great new local online shop.


Also worth a look: Galbraith & Paul, who produce fabrics for home furnishings and lights. Printing with linoleum, they create wonderfully subtle and intricate patterns. Their site has some great 'process' images too.

The basic tools and techniques of block printing are very simple, but the range of designs that can be produced is dazzling! If you're feeling inspired to try your hand at block printing, you'll find linoleum, cutting tools and fabric paint at most art shops. Potatoes are even more readily available, and can be carved with craft knives! Once you've printed, all you need to cure your fabric is a hot iron or oven.

I've written a three-part block printing tutorial over at my blog. Start with part 1 here, then look through my archives for the rest.

Mikado chair

Most of us are fairly familiar with this kind of chair, even if we don’t know that it’s called a Windsor chair (I didn’t), and that the original English design was refined in the American colonies during the 1700’s.

The Mikado chair by Danish designers Foersom & Hiort-Lorenzen is is a modern interpretation of the Windsor chair.

The designers say that "the new, dynamic and lightweight version [has] no comb on the back, nor are there any horizontal spindles between the chair legs. This lends the chair a beautiful peacock effect, which looks a bit like Mikado sticks just before they fall to the ground."

I think it works as a modern reinterpretation of a classic design, but I just can't help wondering whether I'd keep catching my cardigan on those spindles!You can get the Mikado chair at DanskDesign, and read more about the history and construction of Windsor chairs here.