dig the woods

One of the best parts of any stroll up the hill to Northcote 'proper' is seeing the latest installment of window-dressing-art at 'in the woods'.  The current plywood bear scene is beautiful.

They have a pretty compact space, but make the most of it with great stock and fantastic display ... definitely one of this town's finest ... 246 high street ... go visit!

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.

with wool, you say ...

Cath picked up the seminal 1977 edition of "exciting things to make with wool string and thread" recently.  Fun book, nicely illustrated ...

Amongst the many exciting things to make (with wool string and thread, of course) are these 'witch doctor masks' which look so fantastic, but might end up being the basis for some creepy 'haunted children' type horror film in the future ... hmmmm ...

Yeah, yeah, all fun putting it on ... 'make a scary face for the camera Bradley!' etc ... but how are you going to feel walking into a dimly lit room and seeing these 3 sitting silently on the floor?

Embodiments of evil ... or maybe it's just us?

nordic but nice

we were just googling to find a little more about the origins of some Swedish glassware we picked up, and one click led to another ... we came across a blog by a Canadian (we believe) couple, with super-scandinavian tastes.

Hindsvik are a couple (Daniel and Valeria) who specialize in kind of earthy industrial homewares via their etsy store ... nice things ... their blog's also really nice - with a bit of attention on their progressing home decorating project - it's looking pretty great from what we've seen.

They made this unit for their entryway from metal pipes and fallen wood ... inspiring!  Here are a couple of items in their etsy shop at the moment ...

They have lots in stock - and we love just about all of it ...

Pretty nice, worth a look, for sure.

... a few of our favorite things ...

Wah - back to the big city again after a couple of days at the ranch.  As usual, we were sad to pack up the van and head back to town - it's all chaos and traffic in the city, pretty harsh contrast to the 'roos and trees.

Thought we'd start posting a few pics of our favorite bits and pieces from the farm ... no reason ...

Our porcelain rabbits - Mr Toothpick and his assocate ...

The dining chairs ... they are the coolest shape, and we've never seen them anywhere else.  The farm had always been the (neglected and seldom visited) holiday house, furnished with everyone's 'throw-away' things.  When we started heading up there in '08 our first priority (aside from getting solar power so we could see what was going on) was to donate everything to the local Salvos.

These chairs came from some neighbors in Northcote, and we fell in love instantly - NO WAY could we sell 'em.  Inspired by their moquette upholstery, we have ended up doing the whole interior in a mix of mid-century pieces - all in green to match the chairs and what's outside every window ...

Over the next few months we'll keep popping up snaps of our collection.  What the heck, it makes us happy ...

And walking out the door ain't so bad either ...

... enough already.  Back to work.

new curtains!

Good old internet shopping - we got some cool vintage barkcloth curtains in the post today.

 The plan is to use the fabric on some deserving chairs at some stage, but 'til then they're a welcome addition to the place.

In other news we are pleased to announce that we found a new addition to our woodgrain porcelain collection in the form of a pretty funny toothpick holder ... classy.

... and I found the first piece of my collection of iittala tapio glasses - been seeking them for a while, so pretty pleased to have found one - another 7 and there's a set.

There's just something about that bubble.

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!

best woodpile ever?

Another one via Ouno Design, this is a work by Alastair Heseltine, a sculptor from British Columbia ... suddenly we're not that impressed with our firewood pile ...

Probably wouldn't be able to bring ourselves to burn any of it though.  Wonder if he's planning an upright version?

public seating

a couple of park benches in Mexico City we saw on Ouno Design's blog ... fun!

nice.

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!