Formex spring 2012 part I

Source

FORMEX is still going on in Stockholm, and we will be taking another tour today. The trends seem to be splitting a little for the spring, which is very much welcome. It seemed to be more and more ethnic, like batik above. Batik is beautiful - we may associate it mostly with the inexpensive beach wear we buy from India, Thailand, Indonesia or Malaysia, but of course it is a true art form, as well. One of the very known batik artists is Dato Chuah Thean Theng, or just Teng, who is said to be the father of batik in Malaysia. When living in Malaysia, I had the great chance to visit his gallery in Penang. Unfortunately I haven't found images of his work which he had there, as it was pure fantastic!! His son was present during our visit, and was able to tell us a great deal about batik painting, as he is continuing in his fathers footsteps. If you would like to know some more, a couple of good links are

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batik
http://www.joaniemitchell.com/

More trends? Some rust, well, a lot of rust :). The industry style is clearly moving to the falling-apart industry style...I love the authentic, but making new production and then banging it with hammers and having it outdoors for it to rust...hmmm. The style was extremely obvious in Tendence during the fall, and was now coming to Scandinavia, as well.

Personally I am more Tolix and Jielde kind of person, and I love the new TVs, radios, cameras and cars in an old package so to say. Olsson&Jensen had a beautiful cabinet with glass doors at their stand - romantic industry style is what you would call it, I guess. They had 20 pcs, and had sold out every single of them during the 1st hour of the fair!! I promise you will be seeing this piece in the home decor magazines during the spring.


What else caught my eye? The unbelievably beautiful home textiles by Fabric Copenhagen. I always appreciate when the owners or founders themselves participate the major fairs. We had a nice chat with Annette Egholm, the textile designer behind the brand. The textiles are produced in a family business in Northern Vietnam. Having lived 4 years in my childhood in Vietnam, they really brought a big smile to my sisters face, as well as mine. The softest soft Vietnamese silk, some velvet, and those wonderful buttons or knots which are so special for Vietnamese clothes and textiles - a perfect combination.

Here a couple of images of Vietnamese silk products

Source

Source

Well - this blog was more text surprisingly - let's make part 2 only pictures then!

***
sisustuksen trendit, sisustusmessut, batiikki sisustuksessa

Hmmm...

Back after the fall - a busy such. It is no secret - starting to write this blog made me so itchy about opening finally the home decor store that I just couldn't resist. And there it is now in the web - and it is called Werannas Warehouse.

The dream I had had for years - the first business plans must be from 10 years back. But the work load - heh!! Let's put it this way - someone has learned how to manage with 4-5 hrs of sleep. And you know what? Enjoyed fully every moment of those hours awake!!

Anyways - I promised myself (and the others) - once the store is open, the blog will be continued, as well. But but but - it is tricky. How do I write about home decor without promoting Werannas Warehouse? If I do, You will get tired of me IMMEDIATELY. And most importantly - how to write a blog without promoting other stores and brands, which don't exist in Werannas Warehouse?? Well.

A decision: this blog will continue as it was. It will still be a flow of mind. You will have links to Werannas, but as before - to other sites, as well. Deal?

But here and now - there will be a post of Kenana Knitter Critters. I will be meeting with them, and You will hear the story. It is wonderful. The Owl, you know. (Sorry, I cannot resist!!!!)

There will be a post of Samantha Holmes. The alpaca booties. The story is as wonderful, and deserves to be told.

There will be a post of Rice. Especially the Raffia baskets from Madagaskar.

There will be a posts of some other partners of Werannas. But it is because these stories need to be told and spread. There are good people in this world. They make their living out of helping others, even good business. And that is just wonderful.

***
Reilu kauppa, käsintehdyt sisustustuotteet, käsintehdyt sisustustekstiilit, Werannan varasto

Alacati Turkey

The summer has started to turn into fall in Sweden, and I keep going back to my photos from Alacati, Turkey, remembering the warm summer breeze (even cool at times!), the fresh lemonade and the wonderful salad offered on many of the Cafe terraces. AHHH, what a place!! Alacati has definately some Greek inspiration, as well, as you see:

But clearly, clearly it is Turkey at its very best. Here you still see Turkish people enjoying their vacation in rather than masses of foreigners. Almost all of the hotels are boutique type small instances rather than huge tourist 'factories' like in the Antalya and Bodrum region. The food is excellent Turkish cooking rather than the tasteless club sandwiches with turkey bacon.

The mayor of the town is a true visionary - he has banned both kebab joints AND plastic chairs in the restaurants :)!

It was such a joy to walk the narrow, winding alleys and admire the small antique stores (only admire, as it is impossible to take anything more than 100 years old out of Turkey) as well as the little shops selling everything imaginable. There are 2 really, really nice home decoration stores next to each other, especially Red Horse - Red House is a must. Cok güzel!!

***
Matkailu, Turkki, turkkilainen antiikki, oliiviöljyruukku

IKAT silk

When rushing through Istanbul Grand Bazaar last week, I stopped to admire Ikat silks, these ones hand-woven in Uzbekistan. Now, I'm no expert in such, but grew very interested in these pieces, as some of the sellers seemed to be so proud having them in their selection. Of course partly they were pure polyester, accidently slipped to the pile probably ;), but some of them were genuine, like these ones shown in the photos.

The more complicated the pattern (like below), the more valuable the piece is. I rather like the bit simpler ones, so does that suggest I have a cheap taste :)?? That would be the first!! Well, the 'designer' cushion covers made of these silks cost around 100-150 euros / piece, so no exact relief on the finances expected here...

'Ikat, or Ikkat, is a dyeing technique used to pattern textiles that employs a resist dyeing process similar to tie-dye on either the warp or weft fibres. Bindings, which resist dye penetration, are applied to the threads in the desired patterns and the threads are dyed. Alteration of the bindings and the dyeing of more than one color produce elaborate, multicolored patterns. When all of the dyeing is finished the bindings are removed and the threads are ready to be woven into cloth. The defining characteristic of ikat is the dyeing of patterns, by means of bindings, into the threads before cloth constrution, the weaving of the fabric, takes place. Herein lies the difference between ikat and tie-dye. In tie-dye the fabric is woven first and the resist bindings are then applied to the fabric which is dyed.' (source)

If you are interested to read more, there's quite some nice information on Posh Interior Design 's website. And lastly - wish to purchase some, google ikat silk, and you find quite a few websites, with a huge variation in prices. Your call :).

***
silkki, silkkityynyt, etninen sisustus, etninen kuvio, ikat silkki, sisustuksen trendit, sisustustrendit

TULU Istanbul

Does it ever happen to you that while driving you all of a sudden step on the breaks ignoring the location AND situation, all because you have seen something absolutely delicious driving by? Well, something like it happened to me on thursday in Eminonu. I scream ‘STOP!!’, get out of the car and run across the street to a haven called TULU, a home decoration store just.... STANDING there. Ahhhhh….

Barching in almost wild (well, wild J), I’m welcomed by the friendliest host – I’m calling her this as it best describes her role during my visit – a friend of the owner Elizabeth Hurley, designer and antique textile specialist. Really, this is the way to do it – my host is able to tell me everything of the pieces they have available, where the inspiration came from for the fabrics I’m admiring, how they are made, and where, and more and more and more.

My dear reader - Fancy some lightning?

Perhaps you have some items you would like to have available, but out of sight?

Or just MAY BEEE need some  new textiles to refresh your home?

Some Mediterranean inspiration?

Or just pure beauty?

And the below marble plates are especially adorable! 

If you are in Istanbul, I would say this is a must :)!

***

matkustus, matkailu, sisustustekstiilit, etninen sisustus

Iznik ceramics

While visiting some handicraft stores in Eminonu, Istanbul, I dropped by an old friend’s store selling Iznik ceramics.  What wonderful pieces he had again available! Unfortunately they require some serious packing to bring back home, so I had to settle for one bowl which had gotten broken during our move from Turkey to Sweden.

But the tiles and plates and bowls he has…Instead of the 2 artists he was working with before, he now has 3, each working in their very specific style. They are using both the antique Iznik patterns in their work, as well as creating new ones, like this granate apple (NAR in Turkish) pattern in the below bowl. If you wish to learn more about Iznik, below some good sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0znik_pottery

http://www.iznik.com/flash/en

If you have a chance to visit Turkey,  you have plenty of options to choose from;  from the cheap (or not so cheap depending on your bargaining skills J) pieces sold in all the bazaars to the real antique pieces which are not affordable to most of us, as beautiful as they are. Somewhere in the web there are some pieces sold for $45 000, so you get the picture... These shown here would stand somewhere in between – they are made by artists using mostly the ancient techniques and colors. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful…


***
keramiikka, etninen sisustus, sisustuksen trendit, sisustustrendit

Marine antique

Without realizing, my blog has been on a very undeserved vacation for almost a month! Sorry for that - the summer was busy, and hot, and - well, PERFECT! Now full of energy and tons of things to write about, this will change!

Do I write a lot about my husband? Perhaps, but you tend to think of the things you love in this world, right :)? Well, he is a big fan of marine antiques, and when we lived in Turkey, we found a really nice shop which sold the rusty, worn-out-kind-of marine antiques.

So quite frequently we would visit the shop, but guess we were one of the few purchasing something every now or then, as the owner decided to go for - what is the term they use for not-so-authentic handbags - REPLICA designer handbags. My guess is he wasn't much of business man when it came to the marine antique pieces, more he loved the things he had in his shop, and I guess appreciated when someone came in to admire the things he had found in auctions. Unfortunately that don't bring too much bread to the table!

Anyway, we shipped our findings to Finland, and lost the most valuable items on the way. Mystically the box with the Russian diving helmet (similar to the below one at Trinity Marine), and the wheel had disappeared! And even more spooky - similar items were sold near the Russian border the same summer at a market place. We don't draw any conclusions, of course.

Secretly it wasn't SOOO bad to loose the items - the above one is only for decoration, and it is big and heavy - where do you put it? Rather I have things with function. The wheel we were planning to turn into a lantern, but now instead we have the black one shown in my post 'black and white inspiration', and it fits far better the long table.

But like everything nice at our house, they need to find their place in our house. If it doesn't exist, it needs to be built. So like the below large lantern - it has waited for our terrace to be ready, now it's waiting for electricity to be pulled in the ceiling. After that it will be used other than sitting on top of a cabinet...

***

kesämökin sisustus, meriantiikki, antiikki, käyttöantiikki, antiikkiesineet sisustuksessa