Make do and mend..

Of course there is nothing we like better than finding an old handkerchief or a treasured shirt at a flea market, faded with age and repaired in all corners with intricate stitches..precious things that were worth the time spent to repair them.. in days where it is more normal to discard ripped blouses or broken plates it is a delight to see such beautifully repaired items especially when it comes beloved household items. So we thought we would share some images from one of our favourite blogs, Past Imperfect, that is dedicated to all things that that have been inventively and lovingly repaired, from stapled plates and cups, patchwork teapots and wire weaving a pearl-ware ladle back to life, and don't they look all the more beautiful for it!

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Streetscape Carousel

 Streetscape Carousel is the latest offering from young architecture and design collective PUP based in London.

 'Each Carousel relates uniquely to its area showcasing its character through a display of its architecture: contemporary and historic buildings alongside landmarks of local importance, reflecting its cultural and physical diversity. The selected buildings and structures of different scales are collaged together to form a silhouetted wrapped around the inside of a cylindrical drum which is raised up on legs. At night, a central light illuminates the silhouette from the inside, projecting the silhouetted streetscape in light and shadow back onto its surroundings. By turning a crank, the layer of silhouettes can be made to rotate animating the shadows across the surfaces of the urban space in which it rests.http://cargocollective.com/pup/Streetscape-Carousel'

Le Corbusier and Chandigarh

 

 Vihan Sabha

 High Court

 High Court

 High Court

 Secretariat Building

 Vihan Sabha

Main central plaza

On researching the next adventure to India we came across these incredible buildings by French (born Swiss) Architect and urban planner, Le Corbusier in Chandigarh. So Chandigarh was an experimental city built in India in the 1950s and is the biggest and most significant example of urban planning executed by Le Corbusier.Looks amazing and can't wait to pay it a visit, wonder if they have any Government guest houses to stay in!

Pictures and great info from Travel Blog
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A Tropical House

This week were going to take a look at the work of the engineer and designer Jean Prouvé. Starting with a look at this video of his Tropical House, a prefab eco design manufactured in the 1950s. 


From Antiques and Boutiques Interior Design tours Barcelona

Around Town

Out and about on a lovely tour this morning I was lucky  enough to come across the work of Maarten De Ceulaer in one of my favourite design stores here Open House, De Ceulaer  trained as an interior designer before deciding to concentrate more on objects. Open House is one of the few places to be showcasing his balloon bowls, of course I fell in love with the colours their organic shapes as well as the shiny smooth surfaces! Having investigated his work further I discovered his pile of suitcases project, and loved the concept and colours. He vision of design is as follows " to use my work to tell stories, to stir people's emotions, to tickle their imagination or to make them wonder. A project can result from an observation of the society around me, or a reaction on something that simply crosses my path, but can as well be the expression of a very personal thought or feeling that I want to communicate to the world. I want to explore materials, and investigate and play with production techniques and crafts. Some projects are more functional in the traditional way, while others perform a function on a different level, the emotional aspect of objects is of equal importance"...

Caroline Swift

We Love|these pieces by designer Caroline Swift, a British designer based here in Barcelona, pieces include bare unglazed bone china, displayed simply between rusted nails, a simple approach to displaying precious objects. We also love her glass installations that we first came across in one of our favourite showrooms here in Barcelona. More recently she has also started a small collection of clothing...what next!

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The Art of Craft

My good friend and fellow shoemaker Isabel de la Roche just sent me this short film from Caroline Groves bespoke shoemaker. It really does show the hand crafted shoe making process in motion and as an art. 

Deco illustration

Wow.....so beautiful. I found these amazing hand painted interior design illustrations at the flea market. This is a small selection of them.... I'm dreaming of shrinking myself down into a small illustrated version of my self and moving in!  if you're lucky I might post some more! 
Antiques and Boutiques...for sourcing of beautiful and amazing things! 
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Artist Inspiration

 Love this work by Australian artist Rosalie Gascoigne that I found on this great Blog poulwebb.blogspot.com. she worked with mostly found materials such as wood, iron, wire  and feathers and materials that had been “open to the weather”..really love the faded colours and pattern.

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Map inspiration

 I was looking for something else and kind of got side tracked down this route...I'm glad I did. Cool ideas for old maps. 

Organic illustration

We found these amazing paper cut illustrations from Japanese born New york based artist Kako Ueda. The paper work, a reference to the Japanese art from is so fine and intricate that it takes on the illusion of illustration. Her inspiration comes from nature and its relation with culture, with insects, plants animals and life and death featuring in many of her works. Very beautiful. 

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Lets talk about shoes...

So ..as a shoe designer you'd think I would have done a few shoe blog entries by now...more to come, but for now we can start with some inspiration. 
Andre Perugia - my favourite shoe designer of all time...inspiring, innovative and illusive. Its difficult to find out much about him, there are very few pictures of the man himself and not even so many of his amazing designs. 
I'v selected a few of my favourites. You'll see that a lot of 'innovative' modern footwear definitely has its roots in Perugia's genius. 

Andre Perugia was born in Nice, France in 1893 of Italian parentage. He trained in his father's workshop and at the age of 16, in 1909, he opened a shop in Paris where he sold handmade shoes and was planning to concentrate on design and creativity. He later moved to Rue Faubourg St. Honore, where all the fashion designers had their salons. After World War I, he made shoes for fashion designer Paul Poiret, and it was through his association with the world-famous couturier that his success was assured. Among his clients in the 20's were stars of the Folies Bergere and movie actresses who wanted shoes that epitomized the glamour of the stage -Josephine Baker and movie siren Gloria Swanson, silent movie star Pola Negri and Mistinguette – queen of the French vaudeville, whose legendary legs were inspiring artists fantasy and creativity. Always eager to experiment with new materials, shapes and textures, Perugia continued to create shoes of startling originality throughout a 50 year association with I. Miller and then with Charles Jourdan. Humor and originality were distinguishing his models. He was known to talk to his shoes, so he earned a reputation as an eccentric as well as a genius. He wrote a book "From Eve to Rita Hayworth" in which he said that the way to unveil a woman's personality was to study her feet.

         Text courtesy of Shoe Icons...thanks!
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