Larsson mania

We love Lisa Larsson's ceramics - have managed to restrain ourselves to just a couple of little pieces at home, but get a bit antsy whenever we see others for sale ... so hard to justify buying little pottery knick-knacks, but they're so sweet!

Lisa is a Swedish ceramic designer who started at Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory in 1953. Since 1980 she has worked as a freelance designer and sculptural artist.  A distinctive style with a unique charm, her abstracted animal forms are the Scandinavian equivalent of our local maestros Ellis and Gus McLaren. 

Our new shipment from Sweden has put us in an awkward position, can we justify expanding our own collection, or should we share?

 

As well as the great little dogs and her cuter than cute people, we're lucky enough to have a couple of big pots and lamps she designed for Gustavsberg in the early 70's ... keep an eye out - they'll be popping up on the website this week (just waiting for the photos to come back from the chemist).

eeeep!

In between all of the other fun over the last few weeks, we have been chipping away at the mayhem of the garage behind the shop - years of weak-willed "see it - love it - buy it - stash it" has pretty much filled it up with a 3D to-do list.  AND what the heck are we thinking - it's a big floor-space that should be displaying more stock ... and being a restoration workroom ... and not being a cluttered stack of would-be gold.

Well - now we have to get serious ...

That's right, after nearly 12 months of sourcing and hunting, our amazing friend in Sweden (thanks, as always Craig) has shut the doors on OUR NEXT SHIPMENT!  Uh-oh.  It's on the water, and due to arrive here in 2 or 3 weeks!  We need to make space (ie - sell some stock and clear some floor - come to the website or our ebay store - make us an offer ... buy in bulk if you like!) so we have a spot for a fresh batch of amazing rarities from the chilly north.

A little taster of the next shipment?  Oh, alright then ...

Some very special chairs, amazing lounges, vintage hi-fi and some really, really lovely ceramics and glass coming soon ...

restoration files ... papercord ...

Well hi, been a few weeks since we've passed on any news ... you know, summer, all that.

So over the last few weeks we've been pondering a new take on restoring Fler 64 dining chairs (a favorite we have collected a bunch of - usually we re-web and reupholster, but ... meh ...).  Having seen and admired so many Moller chairs, we thought it was time to try our hand at weaving Danish paper-cord - and the structure of the Flers is pretty right for the task.

This is what we did today ...

 
Our buddy Steve (one of eBay's best stores for retro homewares, rocket2retro - check it out!) long-ago found us a rare footstool from the 64 series, which was the perfect candidate for our first try ... we ordered a big box of paper (yes, paper) cord from a supplier in the northern hemisphere, and here we go!

If you're interested, we've documented the process - just finished today!

So here's the 'before' - such nice shapes, eh?  First step was to strip the stool and remedy some very dodgy restorations from the previous owners (bless 'em).

Since the cording is a big job, we thought it best to dismantle and re-glue the frame too.  And we really can't do the job with those corner-blocks in there, so the frame needs to be as stable as possible ...

We gave the rails a good sanding too - don't want any rough edges or snags where the paper-cord is going.  Next job is pre-drilling and tacking in the L-nails that hold the cord (88 in total - crikey!).

Now, there are several ways of doing the weave - I have read that the masters at J.L.Moller do the whole job with a single strand ... I went with a 3-step technique - first wrapping the front and back rails, with caps for the warp strands ... which took 24 meters of cord!

Then a single piece doing all of the front-to-back runs - 4 strands at each side, with pairs for the rest ... all the wisdom we found on this part suggests it's about 'feel' - not too tight, but not too slack ... so far so good ...

Then it kind of got exciting - the stool is looking OK, but the third step takes the most work, and loads and loads of cord ...

This stage was kind of tricky - everyone who walked past the shop wanted to chat about what was being done, and it's pretty important not to forget what you're up to ... or loose tension in the cord ... or cut yourself on those nails underneath ... let's say I was about 50% successful in all of the above.
But after an hour or two of weaving away, with the cording getting tougher and tighter the further things progressed, there was no room for more weaves, and it was time to knock those nails in properly.

And there you go - job done!  It looks really good, feels great ... very satisfying.

So ... we do have 8 Fler 64 dining chairs tucked away in the warehouse - if you're looking for something special (and definitely unique), email us and we can talk!

whew ...

Hey, sorry we've been a bit quiet over the last few weeks.  Been cooking up a shiny new website for KYP!

We kind of knew it would be a bit of an exercise trying to move from an online catalogue to having an online store ... but it has given us plenty of perspective on just how much stuff we collect (and how much we love it all, too). 

There's nothing like taking half a dozen photos of each item, and then measuring and weighing and describing it, to remind you of what you have stashed away.

It's been pretty fun though - and today we 'go live' - hope you like it ... we are pretty happy with things so far.

rearrangement

Always nice to freshen things up with a big re-jig at the shop ... anybody walking past on Friday would have thought we were converting to a sidewalk market - everything out, chairs all over the place ...

But by sundown it was all back in and looking good again ... ahhhh.

Now it's time to part with a few pieces and make space ... for the next rearrange.

refreshment

After a couple of years of talking about how the shop needed a freshen up, we took the plunge last week and did it.  Took us a few days (and many van-loads shifted into temporary storage), but we emptied it out and gave the store a re-paint. 

Walls, floors, ceilings, all white ...

So nice and clean we were tempted to just keep it that way ... maybe just pop the mac on a desk hooked up to our website so visitors could pick what they liked and we could deliver direct from storage.

We spent the weekend re-stocking, though.  Pretty pleased with the outcome.

Now we just need to keep it tidy.  Love a challenge!

phew!

From this ...

 ... to this!

That's major progress.  The shed is done ... and pretty full already ... definitely need to do some work on our 'good use of space' techniques.  We're pretty happy though - and getting plenty of use out of our allen-key collection turning it all back into furniture.

This is DEFINITELY the fun part ... assembling, polishing, repairing, cleaning ... we just have to stop picturing everything in our house and start imagininging more of it in the shop!  We are taking pics and gradually getting it all onto the website now - so keep an eye out.

another new year's resolution out the window ...

Well, here we all are - new year, new decade.  Hope yours has started out well ...

This was to be the year when we got our furniture collecting under control. 

We know it makes sense - if you collect swapcards you can go nuts and accumulate - always room for a few more - but if you have a weakness for chairs, a little self-discipline is called for.

We started the year well - were out of town for the first 4 days, and nowhere near opportunity.  Tragically, the next 3 days made up for it somewhat.  A quick mental inventory shows that we have picked up 34 new chairs between the 5th and 8th of January!

Naturally, we did need all of them - a set of Fler SC55 armchairs (see above) - just can't deny their beauty ... 5 very old Fler LC chairs, dating back to the early 50's (below) ... and then the usual assorted mid century dining chairs and stools.

So I guess the plan for 2010 is to build a very big extra room at the farm and give these guys a good home.  In the meantime, you are most welcome to sample their delights down at PRODUCT - they are in-store and available - unless we get too attached and sneak them off to the stash!

welcome to PRODUCT

Hi all ... sorry we have been a bit lax on the new entries over the last couple of weeks.  We've been busy with our new baby - a gigantic new store ...

For the past year or so, visitors to Know Your Product have been known to ask "Do you have any more stock that's not in the shop?" to which we reply that we have lots, just nowhere to display it ...

So when the opportunity arose for a short-term rental across the road from us in a big, big space, we jumped.  After much moving of furniture, and a few late nights, we are proud to present PRODUCT ...

We are loving being able to see our collection out and on display - hope you will too ... there's a big mix of Australian and Scandinavian furniture and hi-fi - all of which would be in our loungeroom if we could fit it in.  Mum always said it's good to share though, so it's all for sale.

The new showroom is at 118-122 High Street Northcote, and is open Wednesday to Sunday until the end of the year ... now we just need to get to work on taking photos of everything for the website and we'll be sorted.

Come visit if you get the chance!