Famille Summerbelle

Drawing on the windows

When Ophelia comes back from school she often comes to my studio and ask to do stuff with me (like drawing and making things). I had a dozen of Posca (water based paint markers. They are very easy to clean with window cleaner product) on my desk in front of me, and don't ask me why but I thought it would be fun to draw on the windows in the kitchen while Lucien was eating his goûter (4 o'clock snack). Ophelia was of course very excited as we usually never draw on the windows. We had a nice time making web shaped stars and leaves and other random drawings...

Enjoy your Easter weekend!

On saturday we will be at the airport to welcome Simon's brother and his 2 daughters who are coming all the way from Blenheim in New Zealand to visit us for few weeks. We haven't seen the girls since we went to New Zealand in 2008! Ophelia is super excited to see her cousins. The rest of the weekend will be enjoying eating chocolate! Enjoy your break.

The bunny was hand cut for the occasion. We went to the woods next to our home with my son Lucien to pick up sticks and we painted each one with different colours. Our son is loving bringing back home lots of wooden sticks at the moment so I thought it would be a nice thing to decorate them!

Homemade dollhouse

Ophelia (our daughter who is 5 and a half - very important the half) has been asking me to make her a dollhouse for a while. So when my mum moved house, she gave Ophelia this little wooden cabinet for her bedroom. We decided to transform it into her own dollhouse. It is now inhabited by Playmobil little people. Ophelia made some artworks for the walls and has kindly included her brother's name on one of her drawing but he is so not allowed to get near the house for now said Ophelia - he is 2 and a half and loves to trash anything his sister owns!

Pantone cakes

This will change the way I look at my Pantone book...yummy! Merci Emilie from Griottes! If you like creative food then check her blog, you are going to be very impressed.

Making things

After school relaxing time with my daughter.
Her, dressed in a pink synthetic princess dress drawing the castle she would like to live in with her prince.
Me, painting triangles and sewing a cushion.
Nice.

Serpentine chair

By Eléonore Nalet and distributed by Ligne Roset. A delicate metallic chair dressed with long and comfortable cushions. I tried it and it's indeed very comfy!

Macon & Lesquoy

Marie Macon and Anne-Laure Lesquoy are the French associate designers behind Macon & Lesquoy. I first discovered their products in Bonton, so I was pleased to see their entire collection of cute brooches and repair patches at Maison & Objet.
This is my little selection:


Silver cloud with rain (5cm x3cm)

Gold moon

Repair patches.

Wine Cork - second life

The other night I got lost the web looking at the amazing window displays from Anthropology (see my previous post). This one really caught my eyes...last Spring, Anthropology design team collaborated with the Cork Forest Conservation Alliance to create stunning one of a kind window displays. In an effort to raise awareness for the preservation of the Mediterranean cork forest, they donated 2.5 million corks to Anthropology, who used them to create these unique recycled displays...

Via Bubby and Bean, Natural Home & Garden.. View the making of here.

Geometrical clouds

At the end of December last year, Simon and I went to NYC for few days. We stayed in the Meatpacking District very close to the Anthropologie store. I remember being very impressed by their window displays. Apart from the beautiful colours and visual layout, it was their attention to details and the hand made feel that I liked most.
The window displays I'm featuring below are not from this season but from Fall last year.
I love the geometrical shapes made from dyed fabric, paper and cardboard. It was nicely inspired from the Clouds from Kvadrat designed by the Bouroullec brothers.

Wearable sculpture

Warning! This is not my usual kind of post...but I had to share these amazing heels with you in case you're still looking for your animal themed New Years Eve outfit...anyone?!
Hand made by Kobi Levy.

RGB wallpaper

RGB is a work about the exploration of the “surface’s deepness” by Carnovsky, a Milan based artist/designer duo comprised of Francesco Rugi and Silvia Quintanilla.

Exhibition at -JaguarShoes, East London.

RGB designs create surfaces that mutate and interact with different chromatic stimulus.
RGB’s technique consists in the overlapping of three different images, each one in a primary color.

The resulting images from this three level’s superimposition are unexpected and disorienting. The colors mix up, the lines and shapes entwine becoming oneiric and not completely clear.
Through a colored filter (a light or a transparent material) it is possible to see clearly the layers in which the image is composed. The filter’s colors are red, green and blue, each one of them serves to reveal one of the three layers.

They also have a stunning range of limited edition prints, cards and iPhone covers!

Endless Chair

Instead of sending old refrigerators to a scrapyard, Dutch artist Dirk van der Kooij ingeniously recycles and reuses the materials to create a chair made of one ‘endless’ piece of plastic string.

The ‘Endless’ chair is crafted by a robot that Van der Kooij has specially created for this purpose. The process begins with old refrigerators, which are ground then melted and processed by the robot. Since each fridge used is a different colour, every resulting chair is totally unique.

Van der Kooij says he had always struggled with small, complicated moulds, so he wanted to find a production process that could allow him to adapt and change designs without moulds.
‘I adopted a retired robot,’ he says. ‘With this robot I can build a chair out of one plastic string and refine it endlessly. The colors can be determined by adding different pigments.’
He says the robot took about a year to rebuilt and serve its new function – building a chair of one interrupted line of string.

Watch the making of the chair film on Frame Mag.

Graffiti East London

Just off Redchurch Street.

Coral & Tusk

Coral & Tusk designer and founder Stephanie Housley has launched a new impressive collection of delicate embroideries on pillows (check the hidden pocket), baby slippers, cardigan and felt.

Ontwerpduo

'A dreamer and a mathematician'. Designers Tineke Beunders and Nathan Wierink - both graduated from the Design Academy of Eindhoven in 2008 complement each other well. The work of Ontwerpduo is playful, experimental, eccentric, functional and very engaging.

The Marbelous table is a beautiful work of woodcarving for design savvy parents and for children who would rather spend a long dinner playing under the table.

For Tineke, the world of adults and the world of children are two different ones. In the Raster design of curtains and pillows, they have combined both worlds. Children can weave patterns with ribbons and play with the items, although they don't immediately look like toys, they also are just beautiful items for the living room.

Softly rock your baby to sleep in this Rockid chair.

The Room 407 was commissioned by the famous Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam for a temporary event during 'Inside Design 2010' organised by Elle Wonen. Ontwerpduo set up in this monumental room their latest designs based on different fairy tales. On the images you can see the ceiling light (Light Forest)overgrowing the room like the roses overgrew the castle in Sleeping Beauty and the bed is a reminder of the Princess and the Pea.

Pretty Pillows

Marika Giacinti is launching her eponymous pillow label from Paris. They are manufactured in a traditional French home linen factory. Each pillow is beautifully crafted with pompom, fringe and screen printed patterns. Her online shop will open around September/October time.

Phat knits

Dutch designer Bauke Knottnerus used giant knitting needles to design the oversized Phat Knits rugs and furniture. I also love his trompe l'oeil curtain.

Parisian Rabbit

I wanted to get this little rabbit from Miko Design for a long time and now I've done it. I bought it this morning for Ophelia's 5th birthday in a few weeks time. I look forward to make it with her over the Summer and I think it will go nicely alongside Apoline à Paris Rabbit that is hanging in the children bedroom.

Paper cut guarlands

I'm making several paper garlands to decorate our stand at Pulse show in London next weekend. Come over to see our new products if you're around (sorry it's only for trade and press).

I'll give one away after the show so check the blog!

Spring colours

Fabric samples, vintage belt buckles and buttons I got yesterday at the Cloth House on Berwick Street, London.