Dead drops

oh look!
here

Rain Catcher

So much prettier than our rhone pipes, you just buy the number of cups you need and link them all together, preferably hanging them over a garden like this one, thus using the rainwater as it was meant to be.

First Frost

There is a benefit to getting up at the crack of dawn and driving 20 miles out of London to do a day's work  - I saw the first frost on Tuesday and it was lovely.

Cute Japanese Car

Indigo, Boro and Sashiko

 

 

  

The Japanese tradition of stitching, patching, mending and recycling has resulted in a fantastic tradition of peasant, or folk clothing. The ragged, textured result of all the layers of stitching is called Boro.

The white mending stitches became a decorative technique in their own right called Sashiko. Intricate patterns were stitched onto woven indigo fabrics creating bold decorative detail.

See Sri Threads blog and gallery for some great items.

Hunsett Mill

Voted the best new house in the UK 2010 by RIBA
see more here

SAMPLE SALE 27 & 28th November

 

Just to let you know, SHELF, our neighbour Mimi and some friends are having a little pre Christmas sample sale...

An excellent way of buying really special presents at knock down prices!

Tokyo Tea Break

Scholten & Baijings

Beautiful woven pillow covers by Scholten & Baijings for Thomas Eyck

Play House

At what point in the boys life would this cease to be used!?
Play House, Jakarta

Wooden Giants

by PostlerFerguson

Peter Hardwicke, signwriter

Today's Spitalfields Life

FARM:shop

I've been walking past this shop on Dalston Lane since summer & wondering what these people were up to.
Recently, passing on a 38 bus, I saw them on the roof, erecting a chicken coop.

Then on the way to the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden recently, I peeked in and saw huge bubbling tanks of water, tiny plants growing in neat rows, towers of strange plant pot 'trees'...

Now they put a sign up, I've found their web site and I'm intrigued.

A Collection a Day 2010

Artist Lisa Congdon's collection a day is an almost daily visit for us, and a look at her home & studio make me wonder.

Where does she keep it?

Kastehelmi by Oiva Toikka

We love these re issued 'Kastehelmi' bowls, so much, we just had to stock them for Christmas.
yep there's no getting away from it, its coming!!

They were designed by Oiva Toikka in 1964, reissued by Iittala in 2010 to clebrate 50 years of working with Toikka.

Cant wait to get a set of them home & fill with delicious red pudding . . . .

Gropius

 

In Walter Gropius' home, I want one.

What IS it??

See who took the photos & more on Leslie Williamson's blog and buy her book Handcrafted Modern, so many beautiful & beautifully wierd houses to nosey around..

Laurie the Lion

Laurie the Lion is new in SHELF.

Ethically produced in Sri Lanka by Barefoot Design, and designed in the '60's,
Laurie the Lion is hand made from hand woven & dyed cotton, stuffed with Kapok and shipped slowly by sea to Cornwall.
(this is proving to be a problem getting more stock in time for Christmas!) 

Barefoot was founded in 1962 in Sri Lanka by colourist, artist, designer and entrepreneur Barbara Sansoni.

They work mainly with women.

Nothing is mass-produced.  

No child labour is used.  

All employees are given a decent wage and benefits.  

There are no factories and no production lines. 

Each worker is responsible for the quality of the final product.  

Barefoot teach the skills and strive for quality from the weavers and sewers.

If you are a small person, you can sit on his back!

Lisa Larson

Gustavsberg 1962, 1957