100% Norway

Actually, I am only 50%. Norway, that is. The other 50% are Northern Irish. Not the most common of combos, but it works for my sister and me.

But this is about 100% Norway, which will be presenting 33 of Norway's most talented designers at Tent London, the international design event that forms part of London Design Festival. Tent London will take place at The Old Truman Brewery in East London from tomorrow.

My immediate favourites from the exhibition catalogue are these beautiful pieces by Andreas Bergsaker

 Beech 'Piedistallo' table lamp

 

Beech 'Blossom' accessories tray with mirror, lamp and magnifying mirror

 

Aluminium 'Pendini' dimmable pendant lights

 

You can find more information about 100% Norway here

Mikaela Willers - a Formex favourite

I spent a whole day visiting Stockholm's Formex trade show last week, and among the many many fantastic exhibitors my favourite was one that my advance radar had somehow missed: Mikaela Willers' ceramics.

 Photo: mikaelawillers.se

Walking past the stand I was instantly drawn to the beautiful colours and shapes of Mikaela's range of urns, pots, candlesticks and tableware. Wow, I thought, I want everything here! Mikaela herself was glamorous and charming and very happy to chat about her craft.

 

My particular favourite in the range is a scented candle in a small bowl which can be used for keeping small pieces of jewellery, or table salt, or any number of things once the candle is finished.

 'Pistill' bowl with scented candle. Photo: mikaelawillers.se

'Pistill' bowl. Photo: via Pinterest

Easter Inspiration

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, leading us into Holy Week and then Easter proper. I'm planning to decorate with soft pastel still-lifes hither and thither, and while I have lofty intentions of painting eggs by hand (eggs which were collected two years ago, no less, and have awaited my gentle brush strokes ever since...) I am very tempted to order some of these everlasting ones as well

 Photo: Royal Copenhagen

I love this still life by Royal Copenhagen, where they have used pendant egg ornaments and egg bonbonnières teamed with simple green recycled glass. Fill a bonbonnière with Anton Berg or Waitrose marzipan eggs and watch them disappear in a twinkle...

Photo: Royal Copenhagen

Photo: Royal Copenhagen

Fill the bonbonnière with a posy of spring flowers such as anemonies and ranunculus from the garden

 

Photo: Royal Copenhagen

Photo: Georg Jensen

Georg Jensen's feather-light 'Daisy' ornaments appeal to those of us who like the golden warmth of brass...

Photo: Lene Bjerre

While Lene Bjerre has lovely earthy ornaments in soft grey

Photo: Royal Copenhagen

A little arrangement of pearl hyacinths and miniature narcissi in a pretty cup, like here, would make a beautiful decoration without spelling out Easter in capital letters..

 

Photo: Royal Copenhagen

And then there are these pretty Hydrangea vases from Royal Copenhagen, which aren't actually Easter ornaments and would therefore be infinitely useable throughout spring and summer

Purple Inspirations - Kähler

Photo: Kähler

Lovely smooth pod-like porcelain boxes by Kähler.

Counting Down to Christmas

I know it's not even Advent yet, and to be honest I don't really like the fact that all the shops in London have put up their Christmas decorations already. But, when it comes to planning flowers for Christmas one does have to start early. Earlier than this weekend actually, but unfortunately I am not that organised.
This week I received a batch of amaryllis bulbs and small hellebore plants, which I intend to nurture to the best of my abilities in the hope that they will flower for Christmas. 'Hippeastrum Carmen' is a variety that produces rich dark red blooms - as you can see from this photo they are absolutely beautiful

Photo: Anna Linder

I plan to pot 3 bulbs up in a bowl for a central table display (I have no idea which bowl yet so I will have to start them off in something humdrum) and then 3 bulbs planted individually in these smoky green glass pots from H&M Home

The little hellebore plants are a luscious purply red, called 'Helleborus Purpuracens'. I hope to bring these to flower for Christmas, and afterwards I will plant them in the garden where they will bring a welcome shot of colour to the darker corners during the winter.

 

Photo: Gardens4You

I ordered the bulbs and plants from a firm called Gardens4you which posted them to me from The Netherlands. If I had gotten them here in England it could easily have cost a fortune. And yes, I do believe in buying locally, but unfortunately the two florists in our little town do not have the same tastes as I do...

New from Iittala - 'Ruutu'

Finnish home and tableware brand Iittala keep launching beautiful new designs. Next up is a new collection of vases to be launched early next year. 'Ruutu' is the name, which means 'square' in Finnish, and they are beautifully square and simple. Like couloured glass cubes. Anyone who already has an Iittala vase (and most Nordics probably do) will know how versatile they are. 'Ruutu', as you can see from the pictures, can stand alone or in a group - and preferably in a setting where light can filter through the glass.

The 'Ruutu' vases have been designed by the French fraternal duo Erwan & Ronan Bouroullec, and are handmade by Iittala's craftsmen in Finland. Each vase takes 24 hours work to finish. A true artisan piece of glass art for the home, in other words.

Iittala doesn't have an online shop, but their website lists retailers in the UK - and personally I tend to go to Skandium in London when I want anything from their collections. I find Skandium's light Nordic environment very soothing. If you cannot make it to Skandium they have a very good online shop.

Skultuna

I have coveted the brass plant pots by Swedish brand Skultuna for some time now, and I finally decided to buy one for myself as a birthday present last month. I opted for the brushed finish, which is luminous in a subtle way and goes well with my deliberately tarnished (yes, deliberately - not because I can't be bothered to polish!) 70's brass side tables either side of our sofa. It lights up a corner of our sitting room now that the evenings have become so much darker. It is larger than I expected, the medium size which I selected would suit a decent-sized pot plant (therefore, if one wasn't up to spending too much money one could perfectly well chose the small size, which would fit most indoor plants I should think).

One of the reasons why I had delayed in aquiring one of these gleaming pots was simply that I didn't know where to buy one here in the UK. Until I discovered an online shop called Royal Designs which sells a very good selection of Nordic designs. I think this could become slightly dangerous, as there were so many things on their site that I wanted... In any case, they were very efficient, my parcel arrived less than a week later and postage (it came all the way from Sweden) was very reasonable.