Tag: silver

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Designers Homewares

Silver, copper and brass tableware made by age-old techniques

Believing tableware should not just be functional, but beautiful and long-lasting, silversmith Alison Jackson launched her first solo exhibition, Table Tools, featuring 48 high-end, handcrafted pieces.

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Created using age-old techniques and fine silver, copper and brass, the consolidated body of work includes one-off, individually made pieces. Vessels of many shapes and sizes, spoons each with their own personality, quirky whisks and flexible serving utensils, all marry form and function to produce table tools designed to last.

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Starting each vessel with a flat sheet of metal and sinking it into the hollow of a tree stump to give it some shape; each sheet was then annealed-heated to a critical temperature that returns the metal to its soft state. Next, came the raising process: “Raising is time-consuming and labour intensive, but also an incredibly rewarding process,” says 29-year-old Alison. “It’s amazing what you can achieve with a sheet of metal and a hammer.”

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While each piece has a name, Alison doesn’t dictate how they should be used. “They’re designed to be flexible and I want people to use their imagination and not restrict themselves to one use. These are tactile pieces you’ll want to use, not just store away for a special occasion. They make everyday experiences special, like eating a bowl of cereal.”

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The exhibition also features a project very close to Alison’s heart, ‘10 vessels 10 days’. “To challenge myself, I created one vessel each day for 10 days and all during work hours. Not every vessel is 100% perfect, but they all hold special meaning and value.”

Table Tools is on until 24 October at Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre, Canberra. For more information.

Photography by Angela Bakker

Categories
Designers Homewares

Dinosaur Designs’ sculptural Flower collection

Sculptural and beautiful, the upcoming solo collection by Louise Olsen, creative director of Dinosaur Designs, sees floral forms reinterpreted and designed as stunning objects for the home and wearable pieces for the body.

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Entitled Flower, the homewares collection brings large petal forms together to create a field of flowers, in pieces ranging from servers to flower-like plates. The vases resemble blossoming flowers, long and delicate in shape.

Bold opaques mix with the glowing transparent colours of pastel peach and green, and the warm purple swirl applied to the flower plates evokes the incredible spot-like markings of an orchid.

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“This collection is about the sculptural forms of flowers, the unexpected nature of nature,” explains Louise. “It plays on that sense of wonderment that flowers gives us through their form, colour and scent”.

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With a palette that mixes resin with the more muted accents of sterling silver and brass, the Flower collection comprises of 11 homewares pieces and 34 new jewellery designs.

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Flower will be in Dinosaur Designs’ Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, New York, London and online stores from 4 May. For more information.

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Furniture Homewares

Furniture with firepower: Jake Phipps shell stools

Check these beauties out! Dubbed “furniture with fire power,” these conversation-starting stools from British designer Jake Phipps have landed at Australian online store Everything Begins.

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Resembling a spent shell case, the stool is available in silver and bronze. Take just one for a simple and striking statement or go for several, and create your own bespoke bench or table/seating configuration.

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Interiors Addict

Gold & silver glamour from Worlds Away

I’m not usually one to gush about furniture but this stuff? Wow. Love. It. All.

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Regency Distribution is exclusively importing US interiors brand Worlds Away to the Australian market. Founded in Memphis, Tennessee, it has been a hit brand Stateside in the interior design industry for more than 20 years.

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Interiors Addict

14 gifts for mum: personalised necklace for $79

I discovered Edenborough Evans on Facebook some time ago. My pick for Mother’s Day is their personalised silver necklace for $79.

I have two bracelets (they’re $59) and one has my (future) wedding date on it, while the other  says ‘Be Nice’ but you can have whatever you want up to 8 characters (just enough for supermum?). Or buy her a gift voucher so she can choose her own.

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Interiors Addict

My trend report in Luxury Home Design magazine, out today

I was delighted to be asked to write a trend report for Luxury Home Design, which is out today. I picked metallics, and by that I mean accessories and furniture in gold, silver, copper and bronze tones.

Let’s face it, silver and gold will never go out of fashion, but copper (or rose gold) hues seem to be making a bit of a comeback. Yesterday I featured those gorgeous gold and silver objets from Mr Pinchy & Co and I’m currently lusting after the brass, stainless steel and copper homewares from Georg Jensen’s Ilse collection (yes, it is my birthday on Sunday!).

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Interiors Addict

Design icon Ilse Crawford creates stunning collection for Georg Jensen home

This Pom is very excited that British design icon and Elle Decoration founding editor Ilse Crawford has designed a stunning new collection for Georg Jensen.

The Ilse Collection comprises a set of beautiful universal objects that turn simple daily tasks into rituals – from a series of bowls to drop keys and coins in, to a bedside box for jewellery or a watch and a candle holder to punctuate the start and end of the day. Each piece is designed with a specific function in mind, but can easily be adapted to whatever the user needs. No matter what, these pieces will bring a sense of care, of “hygge‟ – the Danish word for cosiness and comfort.

The designs have evolved from a detailed study of the history of Georg Jensen and the company’s context of Danish culture. In addition to the polished steel that Georg Jensen is known for, Ilse, who guest edited an issue of Vogue Living last year, uses solid copper, brass and black glass to bring a warm and sensual materiality to the collection.

As head of UK design firm Studioilse, Ilse, who launched the first DKNY homewares line, designs across all disciplines from interiors and product to architecture.

Her big Mama Vase for Jensen has been selected as part of the prestigious Georg Jensen Masterpiece Collection, a series of stainless steel designs originating from the iconic Sterling Silver Ambassador Collection. As a special tribute to the Ilse Collection, the Mama Vase will also be crafted in sterling silver by Jensen’s most skilled silversmiths.

The Ilse Collection comprises two vases in two sizes, two bowls, three boxes and a candle holder.

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Interiors Addict

An afternoon of Danish silver style

What a delight to be invited by Corporate Culture and Georg Jensen to the first ever showing of the Silver Ambassador Collection in Sydney yesterday. It was quite magical to be surrounded by countless bowls, goblets, trays and pieces of cutlery, all made of solid silver and paintakingly made by hand in Copenhagen. Set against a backdrop of Corporate Culture’s wonderful furniture, flowers by Grandiflora and styling by the brilliant Steve Cordony and sparkling in the sunlight, it was a really beautiful experience!

If, like me, you’ve known Georg Jensen mainly for its stunning modern jewellery, it is well worth discovering the history behind a company which has been around since 1904. Head of Silver Anne Mette Muller-Krogstrup, brought that history to life as she spoke passionately about the craftmanship of a brand where only exceptional quality is good enough. Tableware like these are where it all started for Georg Jensen and it’s a huge part of their business today. You can see why Jensen brought her over from Denmark for the occasion as I’m sure not many people could tell the story better.

The most expensive piece on show is worth over $200,000 but when you consider it takes almost six months to make by hand, then it doesn’t seem so overpriced. I’ll take two!

Seriously though, while many of the bigger pieces are out of the price range of many, Anne Mette says we should all treat ourselves to a little something so beautiful, even if it’s just two wine goblets for you and your loved one or one incredible spoon you use every day because, after all, life is too short. And the late great Georg Jensen himself came from very humble beginnings. I’ve already started saving…

This Art Deco style teapot was one of my favourite pieces.

This silversmith gave a demonstration of hammering the silver by hand. It’s a highly skilled job requiring a steady hand, a lot of passion and 100 times more patience than I’ll ever have!

 

The beautiful furniture at Corporate Culture complemented the silverware so well. Managing director Richard Munao is known for his love of Danish design.