Lecture: Das Deutsche Aktwerk

Designer of the Day: Emma Bridgewater

I was in Edinburgh recently and one early morning, I received a special treat to visit one of the shops of Emma Bridgewater before it opened. I am embarrassed to say, I was not aware of her. Functioning only on a few hours of sleep, my initial reaction that her designs were sweet, even fun. But then as the caffeine I slammed 20 minutes prior was beginning to pump through my veins, I began to gain a much, much greater appreciation for her work. I needed to dig deeper to understand what she was all about.

Emma Bridgewater is the eldest child of a large family. She grew up in Oxford and was enormously inspired by her mother’s colorful, mismatched china. With a degree in English Literature, Emma graduated from London University. Her first job was working for knitwear designers Muir & Osborne. There she became involved in every aspect of this small fashion company but she wanted to do something for herself. She had no formal training in design or even business management, but she wanted to make pottery using traditional methods rather than machinery.

In 1985, Emma established her company and began decorating vessels on her kitchen table with the sponge technique popular from the late 18th to the early 20th century. She recognized that the market was lacking fresh, contemporary designs. So she created and array of different patterns on traditional English shapes favoring Josiah Wedgwood's creamware of the early 1800s.

Figs (1987) also the year she married Matthew Rice, who joined her company


Emma believed to be a good designer, one needed to have control over pattern and shapes. She also keenly recognized that this was a time when women were working in increasing numbers and formal dining was quickly fading into the past. She smartly concentrated on providing forms needed for less ceremonious dining.

Emma Bridgewater opened her first shop in 1990 and within six years her wares were in high demand. Each year she creates a new pattern -- some more popular than others -- with Polka Dot launched in 2002 still being the most popular pattern today.
Her company is currently the sixth biggest employer of potters in Staffordshire.

Hellebore

Her company is the only English factory today producing the traditional underglaze sponged pottery.

Dogs

Birds (I bought this french bowl while I was there)
lithographed birds designed by her insanely talented husband Matthew Rice who is an incredible watercolorist. He now has rendered over 60 birds.

Toast and Marmalade
My most favorite pattern, introduced in 1992 with lettering designed by Matthew Rice. The typography is applied to the glazeware and then refired. I am determined to trade in my plane jane white dinnerware for this series.

Starry Skies (2010)

Union Jack

She offers tea towels and wrapping paper and cutlery and advent calendars too....

(all images from Emma Bridgewater)

I Scream You Scream We All Scream for Ice Cream !

There are a number of great things about my home state of Missouri. And a number of not so great things. But cicada ice cream?

These crunchy, creepy insects with their haunting screech apparently are quite flavorful.



Employees of an ice cream store in the college town of Columbia plucked these prehistoric looking creatures from the trunks of trees, riped off their wings, boiled them, ground them up, then coated them with brown sugar and added this crackly crunch mixture into a base of buttery-flavored ice cream. The first batch made sold out within an hour.

Would anyone try this ?!?

I've had a fear of these things ever since I was a kid. When the sun begins to set in the hot, steamy months of late summer they start up in chorus from the branches of trees -- a mournful mating-call howl. The family dog would always catch one of these dumb, fumbling things when it fell on the ground and bring it inside. The bug flying and flailing about letting off a screeching, piercing, unsettling sound. My mother would chase it with a broom trying to sweep it through the back door.



These chitinous insects climb out of their skin and leave the outer shell perched on the side of a tree. In my youth, my brother would always pry the skin carcass off and try to scratch my arm with their prickly, gross legs.


(images from: How Stuff Works, Cletus Lee's Flicker Acct, and What's That Bug.)

The Sky Over Downtown Kansas City Today

Photo taken by Gary Lezak, (television meteorologist).

Item of the Day: Boyd Reath Wallcovering

I canNOT get enough of this wallcovering designed by James Boyd of Boyd Reath. Colonial Revival -- an American favorite -- has been revived and revived and revived. But regurgitated and never reinterpreted in a new an unexpected way. Boyd has taken it and put a new twist. Not only has he made it whimsical but featured in his silhouettes such figures as as Nefertiti and Charles de Gaulle, (though my favorite is the dog).

Mint

Vermilion

Ecru

Azure

Maize

Rose

Which one is your favorite?

(see Studio Print Works HERE and Boyd Reath) HERE

Designer of the Day: Sophie de Vocht

Sophie de Vocht is a young Dutch designer.

She has designed a number of different creations from clocks to furniture to plastic frogs. (I'm crazy for her frog.)

For the Italian furniture company Casamania she designed this lounge chair.

The Loop Chaise Lounge features a metal frame constructed with gigantic woven yarn.


She was inspired by the technique of tufting.

The seat and back are tightly woven, the weave gradually becomes looser spilling out on the floor.

The concept is an object that works as both carpet and furniture.

What triggers your thoughts?

Crochet pot holder from the 70s?

Beautiful 18th-century dress with a fitted bodice that explodes into a skirt?

Or disemboweled intestines?*


do not google
image these words. i anticipated to see woodcuts from the middle ages,
but this horrendous practice apparently still continues in some parts
of the world.

Images from Sophie de Vocht, Casamania and designboom

Design Idea of the Day

LOVE this fabric by Michael Miller Fabrics. It is called Dressform.

For down pillows. An upholstered shaped and sculpted headboard. Something to dress up windows.

Or, upholster walls of a small room. You can also buy from here.