I recently spotted these lovely, fresh geometric bowls on the House and Leisure site. They’re by Carla da Cruz a ceramic artist based in Durban, South Africa. Along with making ceramic artworks, she also makes Token, a range of ceramic jewellery, accessories and decor items.
e-mail: tokenceramics@gmail.com
http://tokenceramics.blogspot.com/
You can also follow her on Pinterest.
Clint Campbell ‘Ampersand’
Clement de Bruin ‘Quit Slackin’
Dani Loureiro ‘Waiting’
Ben Johnston ‘Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt’
Justin Southey ‘Ice Ice Baby’
During February & March Salon91 celebrates design and typography with ‘Back in 5 minutes’ an exhibition featuring an award winning set of local designers, typographers and illustrators, including Ben Johnston, Clinton Campbell of Studio Muti, Clement de Bruin, Justin Southey, & Dani Loureiro.
Each artist has approached the discipline of typography in a fresh & unique style, playing with scale, materials, surface quality, form, colour, dimensionality & of course, words.
The show will open on the 27th of February 2013 at Salon91 in Cape Town.
The Exhibition will conclude on the 23rd of March at 2pm & is not to be missed!
Safia Stodel the talented lady behind Ilundi Designs tells us a bit more about her simple and beautiful range of leather goods.
How did you get started?
I was studying fine art and needed a bag for all my books and supplies. I couldn’t find any decently priced simple leather bags, so I tried to make my own. I didn’t have a sewing machine though, so after a lot of research I created a folding technique which I used to make the bag with. No sewing required! This is how my signature sling bag came into being. Afterwards friends and family commissioned me to make them bags too – and it grew from there.
Your favourite things:
- First parts of making a new product: dreaming, researching and sketching
- Grilled marinated artichokes and vanilla pod milkshakes
- Cats
- The way my daughter wakes us up in the morning with kisses. She’s 16 months old :)
- The earthy smell of new rolls of leather in my studio
Where can we buy your bags?
Ilundi bags and belts can be bought from Nap, Purr, Afraid of Mice, Mememe, Margot Molyneux’s clothing stall at the Biscuit Mill and very soon an exclusive range can be bought online from Presents in the Post (presentsinthepost.com). I also sell through my facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/Ilundidesigns.
Thanks Safia!
It’s almost Valentine’s day so here are some dapper, locally made accessories and attire for the handsome man in the boot of your car.
Bow Peep bow ties – from City Mob
Nic Socks (locally made from 100% bamboo) from Citymob
Chapel Navy blue & brown Wildebeest Work Carrier
Hand-painted bike by Studio Muti
Locally made David Red classic veldskoen R750 by Ninion.co.za
Matblac ipad sleeve R520
The New Year is usually a time for Intro/Outro-spection. Please watch this wonderfully inspirational video about Empathy and the reason we need to step outside ourselves and discover the lives of other people and other civilizations in order to find life/design/creative solutions.
Initiate.
Empathise.
Solve problems.
Create.
In a great little post by Seth Godin he talks about how it’s much harder to initiate something new (a blog, an illustration, an exhibition, an Instagram photo or a Facebook status) than it is to copy edit or criticise. People are often quick to point out that there’s a spelling mistake, that it’s been done before or that it’s no good and although criticism plays an important part in growth and development, it’s important that we don’t become habitual critics or idea poopers.
So this year let’s rather become habitual creators and innovators who live and create from a place of empathy.
Start something.
(Another great article on Empathy in Creativity and Design Thinking.)
Cool bat & ball set. Design by Lauren Fowler from Citymob R199
Cool bat & ball set. Design by Leah Flores from Citymob R199
Cool bat & ball set. Design by Sera Holland from Citymob R199
Cool bat & ball set. Design by Sera Holland from Citymob R199
Ok I’m a bat & ball junkie. So imagine my toe-curling delight when I found these cool bat and ball sets designed by some great local talent. They’ll make great gifts, but they’re also pretty enough to hang on your wall.
Greg Darrol
Jordan Metcalf
Adam Hill
Simon Berndt
Clement de Bruin
Johnny Kotze
Essie Letterpress has launched a beautiful new letterpress Artists Almanac (A calendar for 2013) which has been designed by 12 up-and-coming South African Illustrators.
“Twelve different artists designed and illustrated their interpretation of their respective months, resulting in an exciting journey through the year with an eclectic blend of styles and subjects.” - Ben Grib
They printed a limited Edition of 50 calendars and a limited edition of 50 artworks of each month which will be sold separately.
They have been featured on a Citymob weeklong sale, which started yesterday and will be available from their online shop thereafter.
Paper Tales is a lovely range of products ranging from hand drawn cards, illustrations, wooden badges, notebooks and a whole lot more. They’re based in Cape Town and you’ll find them at the Treasury Market in Stellenbosch this weekend.
Go check out their Facebook page for more.
This is just flippen awesome. Dave de Witt is a Durbanite who repurposes old “thrashed” skate decks and turns them into sunglasses. By hand. In Pinetown. What a talented guy. He chatted to Handsome Things about the many careers that led him to this and exactly how it’s done.
What is your background and how did this idea come about?
I am a qualified Weaving Mechanician on an Airjet Loom – that means when I was an apprentice at Frame Textile Corporation in the weaving dept. from age 19 to 23 where I learned to take things apart, fix them, and put them back together. I left there along time ago and have been on a journey from flowrider instructor, skatepark manager, rock wall attendant, cruise ship employee to self employed skatepark builder, cabinetmaker, custom furniture designer and now sunglass maker.
Sk8shades was born through necessity, my sunglasses broke, I wasn’t amped to buy new shades, but I had tools, Google, an old skateboard and some scratched lenses from my old Aviators. I made a pair of shades, posted them to Facebook, and a few months later, here I am making sunglasses, and have just ordered 120 pairs of lenses and am about to order the same amount of hinges.
Tell us a bit about the process involved in making the glasses?
The process starts with old boards being sliced up, planed, laminated, cut into veneers and then laminated into the final shape with a cross laminated core for strength. The temples are re-sawed noses and tails of skateboards taking advantage of the ready-made curves, or they can be made to match the layered frame. I have made custom templates and molds to shape the lens apertures and frame as accurately as possible.
To mount the lenses securely I custom made my own router bit from an old bit. Lenses will be polarized lenses, which pass European Class 1 and Australian sunglasses standards, the highest standards currently set. South Africa has no set standards, but I want to produce the finest quality product. Hinges are currently being imported from China, solid nickel, high quality. Spring hinges will be available shortly. Currently I am working by myself, but am looking into getting some employees to up production time.
At the moment I am selling at the I Heart Market in Durban and through my Etsy store for international orders.
I recently read a quote by Charles Eames that I loved, he said: “I don’t believe in this “gifted few” concept, just in people doing things they are really interested in doing. They have a way of getting good at whatever it is.”
But somehow when I look at Louis Minnaar’s work I can’t help but think he’s one of the gifted few. Go check out his website and you’ll see what I mean: http://www.louisminnaar.com/
This is the intro to his website:
“THIS IS ALL ABOUT LOVING CREATION. And loving to create – monsters, eyeballs, giant mushrooms, morbid crocodiles, pointy thrones, commas, spaces, tulips, wooden birds, pyramids, rockets, friendly germs, kissing foxes, smoking hounds, laser-eyed polar bears, lazy giants, polygon beasts, stippled dragons and whatever a sane mind can contain. This is a glimpse into a world… “
Enough said.
Nicky Savage is a wonderfully talented jeweller from Durban who loves to experiment with shape and texture. You can buy these lovely, delicate pieces from her Etsy store or visit her blog for more: http://savagejewellery.blogspot.com/
I chatted to Sera Holland the talented graphic and textile designer based in Cape Town who has recently returned from a stint in Ireland. Sera designs and creates bespoke fabrics which she makes into handmade products such as cushion covers, tea towels and napkins. She’s also just launched her new wallpaper range.
Tell us a bit about your background? How did you get into textile design?
I have been a graphic designer for over 10 years working in the design and advertising industries and I always wanted to make something useful as well as pretty, instead of working so hard on things I never really got to enjoy after they were done.
I found a sweet little course which was all about printing onto fabric by hand using different techniques which I really enjoyed. One of the designs I came up with then was my origami birds but back then I was cutting out each bird individually with a scalpel out of acetate (which is really not easy nor fun) and it looked pretty handprinted and messy too. Being the perfectionist that I am, I wanted to do it right and so began my quest and discovery of digital printing onto fabric.
Having the background and expertise in graphics and knowing how to set up artwork made it seem so easy for me to do. When my sister’s wedding came along I designed her and her husband a very special design inspired by their obsession with their 3 dogs. And I learnt to sew so I could give them cushion covers, napkins and 3 doggy bandanas as their actual gift. It was then that I realised what I could do and how much fun I had doing it, it wasn’t just designing the fabrics, but it was making them into something purposeful too that I and everyone else could love.
I love the beautiful bespoke wooden lettering by Tigermouse Design.
“Tigermouse Design was established by Andrew & Marija Van Rensburg, two freelance graphic designers who have a great appreciation for tangible designs. After months of planning and preparation Tigermouse Design was released from its cage in August 2011, with a desire to see unique wooden lettering made available in South Africa and the world.”
The process:
“Tigermouse Design focuses on true craftsmanship with all our words being handcrafted. Each word takes shape on-screen using our preferred selection of typefaces. The final design is printed and transferred by hand to the wood surface, giving a clear line for the trusted Bosch jigsaw to follow along.
The word is meticulously cut out, ensuring no rugged edges. An electric sander is then used to smooth everything out. And after a thorough wipe and possible splash of paint or polish your Tigermouse piece is good to go!”
Marmite South Africa sent me the loveliest goodie box this week. The box included this beautifully designed custom made Handsome Things Marmite jar. I was gobsmacked. The great campaign they’re running at the moment centres around the idea of the things your mother never told you about. They are featuring 10 SA blogs which they believe should’ve been on Mama’s list.
You can check out the rest of the list and the lovely write-up on Handsome Things at www.marmite.co.za
Thanks Marmite!
Design by Dani Loureiro and Copy by Gisele Human from Big Wednesday in Cape Town. Photo by Nick Muzik.
If you love letterpress like I love letterpress you’ll love the new Essie Press online shop. I’ve featured the lovely Essie Letterpress here before, but here’s a recap.
“Essie letterpress is a husband and wife design and print team, living and working on a beautiful flower farm close to Citrusdal. All of our work is custom designed – we work closely with our client to achieve a look that they are happy with.
All of our work is printed individually on a manually operated 1964 German Proofing Press. The letterpress punches the designs into the paper creating a beautiful relief not achieved with other kinds of printing. A clean, crisp look is achieved that can be both seen and felt. The cards have a handcrafted feel to them, which makes them different to cards printed on a more modern printing machine. Letterpress is a time and labour intensive process, but it is also a real labour of love for us.”
Check out the shop: http://store.essieletterpress.co.za/
