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).

Another score ...

In our continuing challenge to see if there is actually such a thing as 'too many chairs' we scored another Bruno Mathsson chair on ebay a few weeks back ...

She had fallen victim to a pretty rough re-stretching of her canvas, so was kind of wonky and skewed, but still all original.  We dismantled and re-aligned everything, and she's now ready to join her cousins the sofa and beautiful webbed chair in the bedroom at the farm.

Sure there are worse habits to have ... and while the good people of Melbourne are still not 'getting' the brilliance of Bruno's designs, we have to make hay!
 

coast modern

Came across this site the other day, promoting a new film being made about modernist architectural practice up the West coast of Nth America.  Coast Modern looks like a fantastic and enthusiastic examination of a great time for design ... one which the world is re-embracing now.

Their blog is well worth a visit for some great stills and info, and from the film's trailer it looks like it will be a beaut too ...


Coast Modern Trailer from Coast Modern on Vimeo.


From their 'about' page:
Filmmakers Michael Bernard and Gavin Froome will take us on a journey from Los Angeles to Vancouver; from 1922 up to the present exploring modernist architecture on the West Coast.

Not sure when we'll see the production completed and released, but can't wait.

by wire ...

With Summer looming, the verandah at the farm needs a bit more chairing up (as with most spots around our place, need may be a mild exaggeration), and we have been hunting for something to compliment our long-time favorites ...

Of course, the problem is that any new addition has to be vintage, look good, and have a decent pedigree ... oh, and fit our budget if possible.

Today things came together nicely - we were off to Richmond to deliver some chairs and thought we should take the opportunity to check out the recently launched Permanent Collection on Burnley Street.  A great stop all 'round.  The store is stocked with some officially fantastic mid-century pieces, Charles is a lovely chap to chat with, and ...

... a vintage (c.1950) local-production of the sweet Bertoia 420c side chair - quietly waiting for us.  With nicely cracked plastic-coating and just enough rust developing to fit in with the verandah's current set, she's just the thing.

Joy.  So now we just need maybe one or two more nice bits of white wire and ... oh lordy ...

Like Charles Eames, Harry Bertoia's sculptural chair designs from the 40's+50's have become fodder for those 'reproduction' monkeys (MattBlatt, Click-On, Sokol, etc, etc) who are getting low-quality copy furniture SOOOOOO cheaply from China and populating every real-estate brochure and carbon-copy renovated house in the western world.  So we know that for $149 (+ delivery) we could have as many of those $12 (wholesale - check alibaba.com for a laugh) knock-offs as we please ... but does the world really need to put our dwindling resources into turning classic design into disposable, paper-plate chairs?

As for the originals ...

A vision of tomorrow before we humans got together and trashed it!

Or maybe we'll just move to Palm Springs ...

Sure, every decent town has it's enclaves of nice modernist architecture ... driving through parts of Kew, the back-blocks of Toorak, or the side-streets of Beaumaris reassure us that Melbourne was well-blessed during the 60's. 
But Palm Springs!

That combination of Hollywood dollars, mega-star extroverted reclusiveness, and the future-inspired architects working out of California in the mid 20th Century made for a pretty cool little area.
These are pics of William Krisel's work - haven't seen much of it, but it looks kind of nice.

From an interview Krisel gave to Dwell magazine a few years back -
My ideal project is a tough challenge with a minimum budget and lots of conditions to be met. I like doing houses with a minimal square footage that have all the comforts of an expensive place; budgets and costs aren’t criteria for doing good design. Design is design, and it has nothing to do with dollars and cents.

"Here's a story, of a man named Brady ..."

Despite the near-continual re-runs that made the Brady family a part of many of our lives (in the same way generation Y will remember the Simpsons forever), we sometimes forget ...

The perfect family, sure ... but later we realized that it was the perfect house that was the best bit ... the central lounge, Mike's fantastic home-office ...  that great open-plan kitchen and dining area ...

Too cool - I think Mike Brady was the inspiration for a generation of architects ... maybe?

Would love to live there ... maybe we should hang onto the plans in case we somehow end up with a construction budget and a nice spot on a sunny suburban street ...

Thanks Sherwood Schwartz ... RIP.

light fantastic

Poul Henningsen.  Danish design maestro.  From the 1920's thru to the early 60's he was laying down the template from which many much 'modern' lighting has been traced.

His career in design apparently stemmed from observations during the early years of electric home lighting, when he observed that homes generally had bare bulbs on cords hanging from their ceilings, which he found to be ugly and harsh. 

He worked for many years on variations on the idea of pendant shades which diffused and directed the light, and concealed the source.

You would have to say, his designs haven't dated too badly, huh?  Many of his works from the 30's to the 60's are still being produced by Louis Poulsen, and reportedly about 50% of Danish homes have at least one example.

We have a few at the farm ...

We also have an enormous one stashed away - it's a pendant about 120cm tall with 10 or so metal rings - we plan to renovate our verandah over summer and give it a worthy place.  In the meantime there are a few pendant fittings and a couple of Henningsen's desk lamps on their way to our store on a slow boat from Scandinavia, so we will let you know when they arrive.

ahhh ... Lautner

Well, it took us long enough, but we finally sat down and watched Tom Ford's movie 'A Single Man' last night.  Really enjoyed the film overall, but naturally we were totally hypnotized by the fantastic house it plays out in ...

The place is a neat glass and redwood house designed by the remarkable John Lautner.  So many great spaces and angles in a modest 2 bedroomer ...

Did we mention the copious wood?  Just amazing.

If you like Lautner's work or want to see a bit more, there's a doco on ABC2 tomorrow night (Sun 11/7/10) called 'Infinite Space' which promises to be a fun ride.

 ... see how satisfied he looks - how could you not be with a room like that around you?  Lautner's homes (many of which were built in the Hollywood Hills, as well as Malibu and out in Palm Springs) pop up in movies, so seem pretty familiar.  The Sheats Goldstein house is so familiar you almost feel like you've been there ... nuts!

modern love

No big news, just a gorgeous house we saw in Bendigo ... can't understand why people are demolishing mid-century beauties to build hollow rehashes of the same design principles.  This place has it all (at least what we could see from the street) - crazy-paved walls and verandahs, floor-to-ceiling glass panels, cantilevered skillion roof-line ... too cool.

It's a pretty simple formula, but we'd take this over some new-build metricon shack any day!  C'mon people, buy 'em, save 'em, love 'em!

truck and roll

Conserving and restoring mid century furniture is our preferred pastime, and with so much product still out there looking for love we can never understand why people opt for sub-standard new pieces, or cheaply produced (though seldom cheaply priced) knock-offs ... no not much respect for 'new' mass-produced stuff.

We recently came across the site of a Japanese company who seem to be crafting new pieces with absolute respect for the look and feel of vintage, though.

They are called TRUCK, and their stuff is super-cool ...

Heck, maybe we have been fooled into thinking they are doing something that they're not ... neither of us is too hot at reading Japanese - but whether it's all original vintage or all new stock with a great deal of effort put into making it look old, it's hard to deny the aesthetic ...

super-cool - we love it ... take a look sometime.

more reasons why 2010's not so bad ...

so, we are totally blessed to have a like-minded friend on the other side of the world who helps us with our chair-sourcing ... he's got very similar taste in design to us, plus the energy to scour and hunt for hidden gems.  and he found us ...

we're not label-snobs looking for 'designer' items (heck - we appreciate design, but it ain't the label that gets us excited), but we can't believe that we will be sharing our lives with the lovely 'pernilla 2' by Mr Bruno Matthsson.  1941 - that's crazy! 

the next shipment should be here in late march, all going according to plan ... not sure that pernilla will be on display in our store tho' - haven't met her yet, but i think it might be true love.

travel safe baby!

Let's get over to Hamburg!

Just been checking out this amazing shop in Hamburg, Germany ... imagining that one day we'll get Know Your Product looking this amazing.

The store's called 'Wohnkultur66' - and is run by a couple named Martina and Manfred - and specializes in Scandinavian mid-century furniture.  They stock a nice mix of pieces from some of our favorite designers - Wanscher, Juhl et al - and their display is nice if you're into that kind of thing.  We most certainly are.

We first came across them earlier this year when their home was featured on the apartmenttherapy site ... just nice all 'round!

Take a look if you have a few spare minutes - beautiful place in a nice setting.  Though I suspect they suffer the same problem we have where friends come to visit and often note that our house is just like our shop, but with a tv ...

dream home

That's why we dream in black and white ... pic by Selwyn Pullan - prolific architectural photographer - via Ouno Design, a canadian blog well worth frequenting. Thanks!

john brack exhibition

Well, we finally got the John Brack exhibition at the NGV yesterday ... once we were there we didn't want to leave! The sheer volume and variety of the work on display was amazing.

Read in a recent interview that his wife Helen Brack felt that his best work was the precise, surrealist pieces of the 80's and 90's, but we fell pretty heavily for his 50's and 60's period - the colours, the cartoony qualities, the modernist content ...


Highly recommend a visit if you are in Melbourne with an hour or 2 free ... genius!

They weren't selling, so we'll be have to be content with prints in our loungeroom for now.