First day of Spring 2013 is achieved, and now it's almost time for sum, sum, summertime. Blazing glory is three months distant for northern climes, and yes London's sufferance of summer gloom will likely continue, but nevertheless your scribe is thinking summer madras...
Textiles
Bauhaus legacy: Ulf Moritz designs for Sahco
Twelve years before Ulf Moritz was born there was a celebratory summer knees-up at the Bauhaus in Dessau. Georg Muche, Master and Head of Weaving was leaving for a post in Berin, and he and his wife El were guests of honour at a party held in their soon-to-be former...
The pop! of modern African textiles meets Roy Lichtenstein
Over the river, and through the woods, but your scribe isn't going to grandma's house. A visit to the British Museum's African Textiles Today requires perseverance to cross multiple galleries, wend through crowds, until Gallery 90 is reached by fleet feet up four...
How nice of you to let us live in Kvadrat House!
Raw-Edges say "picnic in an enchanted forest", your scribe envisions Moomins in a Finnish forest. Either way it means one thing. The talented folk at Raw-Edges have done it again. Commissioned by Kvadrat to design the firm's stand at the 2013 Stockholm Furniture Fair...
Jack Frost declares Winter war: fight back with flannel
Jack Frost? Wee Willie Winkie wants a word with you. It's not enough your scribe's domestic BTU usage means she is burning money faster than pound notes ignited on The KLF's infamous bonfire. No, this morning Jack Frost laced London with a sheet of snow and for that...
Peace on Earth 2013: Scabal’s peace fabric
"Clothes make the man". So said American humorist and author Mark Twain. His famous quote was a comment on power. "Naked people", he concluded, "have little or no influence on society". In the hundred plus years since Twain's observation, considerably less of our...
Musings on Queen, Country and table mats
Beware the office whip round. A strong arm tactic to collect money for a gift earmarked for a colleague; opt out at peril of your weak limbed grasp of the greasy pole. Workers know their drip feed investment into the office equivalent of a Ponzi scheme is as as likely...
Ho, ho, ho! Merrymekko!
Confession. Your scribe Christmas self-gifted on her way to the Anne Kyyrö Quinn reception last week. Signposted by a clock on the pavement of the retail juggernaut that is Oxford Street, St Christopher's Place is a wee lane with enticing small shops. Marimekko is...
Fabulous textile Christmas stocking stuffer under a fiver? Artisan du Chocolat!
Chocolate is your scribe's Achilles heel. Never ever ubiquitous cheap chocolate, but always luxury dark chocolate requiring a mindful journey to the byways of Chelsea and Artisan du Chocolat. Founded by artisan chocolatier Gerard Coleman (famous for his creation of...