We’re big fans of postage stamps here at H is for Home and this gorgeous example was designed by British fashion designer, Paul Smith. It’s one of a set he recently designed for the Isle of Man to commemorate the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Oh, and did you know that Paul Smith is a HUGE cycling fan?
The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair 2011 is being held this weekend in Manchester city centre – we went to the preview night on Thursday.
It was great to see designer-makers whose work we’ve long admired – there was also the thrill of seeing fresh, new exhibitors.
We featured Ken Eardley, whose ceramics are shown above in last year’s GNCCF blog post – once again, his stand had real impact. Things are going really well for him with magazine features such as this recent one in BBC Homes & Antiques.
Another striking space belonged to Jane Blease who works primarily with bentwood & reclaimed plastic often with her characteristic hand worked thread detailing. A recent artist residency in India has clearly inspired some of Jane’s new pieces. It’s interesting charting artists’ new developments & influences.
The Radiance stand belonging to Hannah Nunn always delivers the goods – her hand cut paper light shades look great when displayed en masse…
…and we loved her new seed pod window hangings.
Ruth Green, who we’ve seen at GNCCF in previous years, also had some lovely new works…
…and she’s also branched out into illustrated books, notebooks & note cards.
With autumn setting in, Andrea Lord’s &made display offered some warm seasonal comforts…
…such as these gorgeous cushions & cosies.
As we mentioned earlier, it’s really exciting to discover new makers and their work…
…we’ll highlight just a couple who made an impact on us.
The first was Gemma Truman, whose hand-blown glass & seagrass hangings and vases are absolutely exquisite – they’re inspired by South African weaverbird nests. We also thought they were very reminiscent of those old fashioned glass fishing net floats.
Second was Louise Hibbert.
Her pieces have a natural feel and use subtle, earthy, yet striking colours.
As you can see from her salt & pepper mills, they’re organic, tactile and oh so beautiful – they just cry out to be picked up, handled and caressed.
The show runs till this Sunday, so visit if you can! We’ve only featured homewares in this post, but there’s also lots of jewellery and fashion on display… and all of it’s for sale… so go on, get your Christmas shopping done early!
We have a really fabulous book for today’s Bookmarks post.
It’s Menu Design in America, 1850-1985 by Steven Heller & John Mariani and edited by Jim Heimann.
The book charts the history of menu design in America in the 19th & 20th centuries.
The menus featured inevitably incorporate the evolution & development of food…
…but they also draw in American and social history, politics, immigration, civil rights, prohibition, social taboos & norms for various eras – some of which can be quite an eye opener.
Fans of graphic design and typography will also be in heaven!
There’s a broad subject overview at the start of the book followed by further insightful captions on each page.
They add details for specific venues or menus – artists/designers, who owned/frequented an establishment, its popularity, dates, details about the food – chefs, new introductions, where items may have been sourced etc etc.
In some cases, there are accompanying photographs of the actual restaurant locations, buildings, interiors and the diners themselves.
The menus are the real stars of this book of course. There are nearly 400 pages crammed full of fabulous examples – both the stunning covers and their menu contents will give hours of pleasure.
We’ve included lots of images for this post, but even this is only a small proportion of those contained within the book.
Art Nouveau to Art Deco, Jazz age to Space age – it’s all here!
The menus are sourced from hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, diners, steamships, cruise ships, trains & planes.
We know one thing though – after browsing this book for an hour we were starving!
Some of the menus had up to a hundred items to choose from.
There are familiar dishes such as steaks & burgers (done in a myriad of different ways of course).
Others have choices that were new to us – ‘stewed terrapin with hominy’, ‘fried smelts with figaro sauce’, ‘calfs head en tortue’.
There are enjoyable aspects to take from all the menus – our favourites in terms of design & artwork are those dating from the 1930s and the 1950s. There’s a few in this book we’d love to add to our collection.
We started acquiring vintage menus some time ago. In fact, we’ve blogged about the subject before.
We love both the artwork and browsing the dishes on offer. They can be stored in a folder, but also look great framed – and as you can see from the wonderful examples in this book, the designs can be just stunning.
So we were sold even before opening a page, but if you are a newcomer to the subject, this book can be enjoyed as pure eye candy or will provide a fascinating insight into the history of a nation through its culinary culture.
Mouth-watering stuff – we can highly recommend it!
Menu Design in America, 1850-1985 is also available from Hive and the H is for Home vintage design bookshops – UK & US
[Many thanks to Taschen for supplying this review copy]
These are the big eyes of our latest owl – in this case a pottery money box.
They never stay with us long as these feathered friends are consistently popular in our shop.
Whether in the form of money boxes, mugs, pot stands, textile prints, pictures or book illustrations.
We’ve blogged a fair few times about the great illustrator, Kenneth Townsend. He designed the cutest owl as part of his Menagerie series – apparently the owl was his favourite animal!
Another wonderful illustrator with a thing for owls was Celestino Piatti who once said, “You can draw an owl a thousand times, and never find out its secret”.
image credit: Fishink
We’ve had a quick trawl on the web for some more owls – here are some favourites:
image credit: Vintage Kids’ Books my Kid Loves
Wise Ol’ Canister, Orange: £118 – Anthropologie
Happy owl open edition print by Matte Stephens: $35 – Etsy
image credit: mmmcrafts
image credit: Shailesh Chavda
We have a regular book review feature on our blog, but today we’re looking at a magazine.
The biannual publication of Midcentury has recently been launched, so it’s especially nice to be able to cast our eye over edition number one.
It’s a subject close to our hearts too – namely Mid-Century Modernism.
We’ve been reading our copy over the weekend and have been thoroughly enjoying it.
Articles in this edition include an in-depth look at the ever-expanding Midcentury Modern Show and an interview with the founders & organisers, Petra Curtis & Lucy Ryder Richardson.
The Festival of Britain features prominently – both details of the original spectacular exhibition and current events to mark this, its 60th anniversary.
There’s a look at the hit TV show, Mad Men and its influence on the current Mid Century Modern renaissance.
Regular features are set to include the Buyer’s Guide to a design classic (the Eames rocker); Collector’s Perspective (the sculptures of Brian Willsher), Designer’s Eye (fashion designer, Margaret Howell‘s choice of 3 fave MCM pieces)’ Curator’s Choice which highlights a current exhibition (Robin & Lucienne Day at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester) and Mid Century Home, (in this edition, a tour of Cathy Spooner & Peter Walls’ house in Crystal Palace, London).
There’s an excellent directory of specialist MCM stockists, designers & dealers.
Format wise, it’s between A4 and A5 – and there are 66 pages in all. A subscription costs £6.95 per year for two issues, £10.95 in Europe and £13.95 to the rest of the world. The price includes postage.
Hopefully this is the start of something great – so get your hands on a copy, have a browse and let them know what you think.
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