Established & Sons have produced and ombré version of the Bouroullec’s Quilt chair.

At Milan Salone del Mobile Moroso showed a very controlled Ombré sofa that graduated from a light to dark pink. Incredibly confusing for the camera to shot.

Flip Flap Fold by textile designer Margrethe Odgaard. The dye seeps across the folds of the fabric enhancing the effect of the delicate origami folds

Textile designer  Josefine Wiel Fredén produces some beautiful fabric that has less control than the previous examples. The dye is allowed a little more of a free run. Huge patches of indigo and scarlet dyes have been manipulated just enough to create a repeat pattern; but not enough to feel mechanical produced. Each bolt of fabric is unique.

Alexa Lixfeld’s Cashmere throw uses the old method of tying the fabric to prevent the dye taking in those areas.

Underfull Tablecloth by Kristine Bjaadal At first glance the tablecloth appears to be an ordinary damask tablecloth. Its only when the cloth has been used and abused that the pattern really forms. “Some stains , like red wine, are hard to clean, but since they will be formed as figures, the tablecloth will not look stained. The figures will form a pale, shadowy pattern that will grow as the tablecloth is used over time. This creates stories and can contribute to giving the tablecloth a sentimental value.”

Sonya Winner’s After Matisse rug is inspired by the paper cut outs of the painter. Blocks of colour are overlapped like floating pieces in a kaleidoscope; the thick New Zealand wool pile is hand carved to give variations in depth. Its a beautiful piece that I had the chance to stroke at Super Design so I can personally vouch for its vibrancy and soft touch. You can also read an interview with Sonya on Pop Art Rock Girls blog

Plaid Bench by Raw Edges for Dilmos

“Each of the designs can stand alone however, Raw Edges has made the three benches in such a way that they interlock into one another horizontally and vertically, creating a large rectangular platform forming a vibrant plaid pattern.”

Boca do Lobo’s Pixel Cabinet features 1088 individual triangles of lacquered wood. The pieces have been overlay ed with gold and silver leaf and translucent lacquer applied to give the cabinet a lustrous shimmering finish.

Bashko Trybek’s Color Wheel Clock  “A Color Wheel clock provides a new per­spect­ive on the way of com­mu­nic­at­ing time. This idea refers to the Sun — the first, primt­ive clock in nature, reflect­ing the passing of time. The Sun emits light, a spec­trum of col­ours vis­ible while going through a prism. This phe­nom­ena was an inspir­a­tion for design­ing the face of the clock. Read­ing the time from the color wheel clock is simple: red stands for noon, the wheels from biggest to smal­lest stand, respect­ively, for hours, minutes and seconds.” I found it a bit tricky to read at first but pop back to his webistie and you’ll see an online real time version.

Bright vibrant colours have also been used in a couple of Hotel refits that have opened up this year. In Paris Matali Crasset has designed the interior for Hi Matic

The hotel contains 42 flexible cabins that allow the visitor to use the space as a home from home. With 100% internet access a memory foam bed that serves a sofa during the day the cabin is designed to change with with your needs througout the day. Each cabin features bright panels of colour with translucent panels allowing the light to filter through.

In Barcelona the Hotel Mimic aims to further enhance your mood with a shot of colour. As designer Xavier Claramunt says “Colours provide a dose of optimism: vibrant colours are capable of lifting the morale as a palette of dull greys is to make it sink. Colours will not raise the economy but they can brighten your mood”

Inga Sempe’s Ruche bed for Ligne Roset was a last minute change. “I thought this was going to be blue!” she said as she bounced onto the bed shown at  Maison et Objet. A quick change  had been made to a softer feminine nude tone for the room set. As you can see from the image Inga left the bed unmade!

Also at Maison Object the Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec display had their Slow Chair for Magis in brighter ice cream pink.

The theme continued into Milan where any number of chairs appeared in fleshy tones through to deep raspberry.

Bouroullec’s Quilt chair for Established & Son was updated in a faded pink.

Stefan Diez Houdini Chair mixed pink with dark leather.

Floris Schoonderbeek’s Axe chair also has a pink version.

Patricia Urquiola’s Klara Chair for Moroso was amongt many pink pieces on the Moroso stand.

Comet Chair Gunilla Allard for Lammhults comes in a range of pinks from soft light through to raspberry.

Maarten Baas used very fleshy tone of pink for his Clay range at Spazio Rosana Orlandi

Home accessories have also had the pink treatment Established & Son’s new Serve tray is edged in raspberry.

For textiles pink is an accent. Seen here Sebastain Wrong’s Zig Zag rug for Established & Sons, and finally Studio Makkink & Bey for Hay Studio who’s rug also appeared on the Vitra stand.
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 Industry Series by Studio Job.  Using a mix of contemporary and traditional  iconography they draw on the same themes and images used for the Gospel According to Saint Job displayed in Milan last year. Tanks, grenades ,helicopters, insects and butterflies, chimneys billowing smoke, skeletons all feature in this homage to the marquetry methods of André- Charles Boulle.  Dispensing with bright colours used in the Bavarian series the inlays look like fossils of an industrial age. Laser cut pieces of white birds eye maple have been set in Indian Rosewood in a symmetrical layout. We expect symmetry in marquetry but the effect here is like the inkblot patterns of Rorschach. Its no coincidence that these pieces are a commentary on the collective psyche and our concerns with the mass destruction associated with industrialism.

The work can be seen at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery and are sold as limited edition pieces starting at over $30,000.   

Curiously it is a fashion designer rather than a furniture designer who has probably done more to promote the craft. Stella McCartney has repeatedly used marquetry and commissioned UK companies to produce work in different forms for her new stores. For her London store Aryma were commissioned to produce a contemporary angel that glides across the wall. The use of colour and complexity of the piece is an eye opener to the versatility of marquetry. 

In her Milan store, the ground floor is covered in oak parquet arranged in a multicolored pattern created by the Israeli designer Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay for Established & Sons. The store opened in February 2010 and had the official launch during Salone del Mobile last week.

Toby Winteringham’s work made with Patternity is another example of colourful geometry. Pictured above is his Shift coffee table made of sycamore with coloured veneer. Its an exciting and bold use of marquetry and a wonderful example of how a traditional craft can be spliced with contemporary graphics. Shift was launched along with the Patternity Bureau (pictured below) at Salone Satellite this month.

 Since writing this I’ve found a rather wonderful blog on marquetry http://www.miartstudioblog.com/ Do please click through and amire the work.

This post has nothing to do with post holiday blues and the dullness of those long dark winter days - no really. This is an appreciation of Blue and how designers have used this incredible colour in its various shades and hues. Blue has long been associated with quality work. Far back into the Middle Ages the cost of  Ultramarine led to its use sparingly for the finest works, and so our association of Blue with quality began. 

Whether a luminous iridescent or a flat matt pigment designers have chosen a variety of shades to launch and promote new products in the past year. Starting from the lighter brighter blue from a spring morning (its January - I’m feeling hopeful!) down to a deeper day-into-night shade  

At the beginning of the year in Stockholm Ineke Hans chose to exhibit her Fly Chair  in a beautiful matt sky blue. Produced by Arco  its simple oak frame has been matt lacquered, allowing the form of the chair to been seen in varying shades.

At the same show Ligne & Roset displayed Confluences by Philippe Nigro seen here in a range of tonal blues.   Launched at IMM Cologne the interlocking yin yang design not only allows different arrangements but also posture settings for the different users.   

Quilt by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec was launched by Established & Son at Salone del Mobile Milan. Using a shade of blue that expresses the moment that day turns to night . Appropriately enough, the day I got to see this the chair had been taken over by a lady in her twilight years who just wouldn’t move. For anyone.

At Design Miami/Basel 2009 designer Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny of Studio Libertiny  The Bic Blue Cabinet. As the name suggests  Tomáš has used the ink from the ubiquitous Bic pen to colour his cabinet  not for him the finest most expensive natural pigment! That said though he hasn’t just coloured in an MDF cabinet and whacked on a bit of varnish. For 26,000 you get a handmade American Walnut cabinet, coated with Bic ink and hand-finished with French Polish; layer upon layer applied as you would to antique furniture. The combination of ink and polish give the cabinet an iridescence; a reminder of why this colour has been inspiring and intriguing artists for centuries. The finishing touches of gold plated hinges and Libertiny logo are hidden inside, there is no handle, it is a push to open system.

At the London Design Festival Benjamin Hubert chose blue for Splay his Coat stand for De La Espada. Seen here with all the other products this prolific new designer has launched in the last year.

And if you wanted to completely immerse yourself in blue, you could have visited the magical art installation Seizure by Roger Hiorns. Created by pumping 75,000 litres of copper sulphate into an abandoned council flat at letting the evaporating liquid form incredible blue crystals. It must have been quite some moment cracking open the seal to see if it had actually worked. Thankfully it had. Sadly the block and its crystal contents will be demolished – but then they said that last year… http://www.artangel.org.uk/

Artist Yinka Shonibare covered walls, furniture and created clothes from traditional ‘African’ fabrics bought from Brixton market.  Although the fabrics look African,they are in fact Dutch and English. The designs appeal to African taste with colours and symbols of Africa mixed in with objects of life, for example mobile phones, and pictured above game consoles .  As Yinka says “They prove to have a crossbred cultural background quite of their own. And it’s the fallacy of that signification that I like. It’s the way I view culture—it’s an artificial construct.” 

I suppose with this in mind its ironic that Italian firm Moroso should create M’Afrique installation by American Stephen Burks and  SpaniardPatricia Urquiola.

“We wanted to showcase the creativity of a few of the great artists and exponents of contemporary African culture,” explains Patrizia Moroso, who devised the event, “because looking at Africa through the eyes of contemporary art, photography, architecture and design is perhaps the most appropriate way of approaching this vast, powerful continent, so creatively rich and diverse that today it is still one of the greatest sources of inspiration for modern design”.

Mixing recycling with traditional craft techniques is what we have come to regard as “African design” But companies like Moroso are now looking at using these skills, born out of necessity, to produce marketable products.

Seen below right is a design by Ayse Birsel & Bibi Sek being produced for the show. With traditional weaving skills which have previously been used on recycled cable, the artisans were set to work with new supplies to create products for the high end furniture market.

 And should you have your own idea or project that you would like to develop, Link Africa based in South Africa can help you get in touch with fair trade programmes who can produce your project.

http://www.linkafricahome.co.za/whatwedo.html

I’ve previously mentioned Philippe Bestenheider in my patchwork post but its worth showing his Binta chairs again “Binta was inspired by Africa. Its sculptural shape evokes African wood carvings, but its polyurethane rubber forms are softer. Like a baobab tree, Binta anchors itself firmly to the ground with thick, trunk-like feet whose elegant forms bring to mind the weighty baobab.” Gathered together they do look like a group of Yinka’s characters.

Building on his links in Africa and again using their traditional skills Philippe has gone on to produce his Kente range through Varaschin.

Traditional Kente woven cloth is produced in Ghana with each colour having a symbolic meaning. I’m not sure if Philippe’s colour selection is based on the symbolic meaning or purely on aesthetics , but heres a list of the symbolic meanings anyway, judge for yourself.

Artists and designers have been fascinated by invertebrates for a millennium – or two or three or more… If you think of how the ancient Egyptians revered the humble dung beetle, maybe the start of our recognising beauty in something that on closer inspection can be rather monstrous. Perhaps the current interest has something to do with our sense of decay in both the environment and the economy. Our little bug friends are particularly good at clearing up our shit and surviving in the worst of conditions.

 Seen above a wallpaper designed by Alain Couillaud, used by Ineke Hans in her room set for Stockholm Furniture Fair

http://www.yourwallpaper.se/collection_item.php?id=79

Lou Rota uses reclaimed chairs covers them with newspaper and a range of beetles and bugs playfully scuttling across the seat. Each piece is made to order from http://www.lourota.com/

Above some creepy fridge magnets by Atypyk.

 A little Etsy find. Metal draw pull with a vintage illustration, would look great on the right reclaimed chest of draws.

Flypaper by Rob Wynne at  Studio Printworks  http://www.studioprintworks.com

Below a napkin by Gina Pericinihttp://www.flockhome.com/

Paperweight by John Derian http://www.johnderian.com/

Above: I love Inke Hans Flow Chair in this fabulous shade of blue.

I’m also coveting a McQ jersey top in the same shade but that’s another story…

Above: Etage table by Claesson Koivisto Rune

3 tables made of high gloss formica. The tables slide into one another allowing different layout combinations. Made by  OFFECCT

http://www.offecct.se/

Above: Frame by Marco Maran Design

I’d give you a link but the site just didn’t work!

Below:  Hangers by  danish firm Bent Hansen – Spots of colour that are functional and rather fun.

They can be attached onto any blank wall to add a bit of colour and give you somewhere to hang your coat.

http://www.benthansen.net/

Right: Stitch Chair by Adam Goodrum for Cappellinni. The chair folds away, hinges inbrightcolours are as much an aesthetic feature as functional.

Left: Stack Chest of Draws by Established & Son. Breaking with tradition the draws of this floating unit can be pushed and pulled in both directions allowing it to be positioned anywhere in the room rather than just propping up the wall.

I’ve seen a green version but not a blue…

Round created by Dissing + Weitling for the University Library Copenhagen.  Comprising three different blocks creating different landscapes in social or lounging areas.

http://www.dw.dk

Cristian Zuzunaga’s sofa , such a beautiful design his work is inspired by architecture and the urban enviroment. For more of his designs heres a link
http://www.cristianzuzunaga.com/

 Left: Ayme Fitzgerald  – Wildside Wallpaper.  Combining photography and digital manipulation Ayme produces imaginative wallpaper designs that can be embelished with flocking,  foil.  Citing  inspiration from a wide range of sources Las Vegas  to the Safari.

http://www.aymefitzgerald.co.uk/

Flow Chair by Micheal Sodeau covered in grassy pixelated textile. Produced by Swedese.

 Left - Iiro  A Ahokas textile design  for Marimekko  uses faceted stripes of colour giving a playful optical design.

Right – A2’s Cupboard – shown at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2009

It’s safe to say we’re fed up of drab beige and neutral living; could colour be the antidote to our current malais?

We’ve had a shift in perspective, looking at what we already have and adapting to our environment. We’re looking at ways to reconstruct our living space with maximum effect. Colour, whether through vintage pieces or new design, is mixed up and mashed up. It’s not the clean aesthetic of modernism, real life is more messy, more colourful, more beautiful. We live with pieces around us from different eras; different generations have added to the mix of stuff we all have in our homes. We have a new respect for colour mixing and a new attitude to splashes of colour. We’re being more playful and witty with ways of using colour.

To follow: 3 different themes featuring this colour trend coming through into interiors.

Image by  http://mwmgraphics.com/