Inspiration | Unlikely places, part 2

Here are a couple more pictures from that book on cowboy boots - the last post was very popular, seems I'm not the only one who finds these designs inspiring - though it's probably safe to say that I may be the only designer/blogger who is talking about cowboy boots this morning!

Design | Vintage suzani upholstery

Love this chair. Love the movement towards using over scaled patterns for upholstery. Just a great way to bring some vintage, multi cultural style onto traditional furniture design. Nothing like shakin' things up in the living room.

Inspiration | Influences

Lots of similarities between the folk art design on this modern shade and the previous post, below, on vintage leather work.

Inspiration | Unlikely Places

When I scroll down through the last few weeks of posts I hope that you get a feel for who we are and what inspires our work. I love this image, it has all the elements of design I love - bold colour, vintage patina, folk art styling and traditional craftsmanship. And it's a boot! The best inspiration can show up in the most unlikely places! Fabulous vintage(1952) leather work from Cowboy Boots, The Art And Sole by Jennifer June. Have a great weekend - be inspired. See you next week!

Random Objects | Pack up your troubles!

A very extravagant, exotic way to travel from the people at Free People! I'm not sure that this would last long at the luggage carousels at Heathrow but it sure is cute!

Craftiness | Free Bag

No, it's not really free, sorry, it's from those people at Free People again. It's a bit of a grade school crafty project but I like it's rather scruffy Boho hippy vibe - what do you think?

Inspiration | Curtain fabric

 I am just getting ready to start designing a new collection for Cartolina so I thought I would post a few inspiring surface designs this morning. First up some great fabric from Anthropologie.

Inspiration | Blues and Greens

Great interior and plates from here.

Inspiration | Chocolates :-)

Amazing chocolates from Elbow Chocolates in San Francisco - hard to believe these are chocolates - give me one and I'll test it for you.

Window Shopping | John Robshaw

If you have been reading this blog for a few weeks it will come as no surprise to you that I am a big fan of John Robshaw textiles. The indian influence gets me every time - bold colours, block prints and misregistered repeating patterns - love it!

I especially love the brown duvet cover(above). I first saw John Robshaw bedding at Cabin Fever(which I wrote about here) where Rebecca had it matched with nautical ticking and vintage french linen - it looked amazing. That's a lot of pillows on that bed - exactly where do you put them all when you get in to sleep?

Random Objects | Vagabond Mirror

I haven't posted a mirror for a whole week. So how about this one?

Art | L'Affiche Moderne

Melanie wrote to me and asked me to have a look at her web site, L'Affiche Moderne. They sell limited edition prints from illustrators and photographers and they ship internationally. I was immediately struck by the beauty of this photograph by Cyril Auvity - really gorgeous. There are many wonderful prints in their online catalogue. Thanks Melanie!

Wndow Shopping | Oovoo Bags

As I was going through the list of our new retailers(and checking out their web sites) these bags caught my eye at R.H.Ballard in VA. You can see the entire collection from Oovoo here. I think they are quite beautiful and inspiring. I love the hippyesque shapes and embroidery combined with a sort of Upper Mongolian, goat herder look (bear with me, as a designer, I always feel obligated to define a style no matter how obscure!) 

New Cartolina Retailers | Tinsel Trading Co.

Just wanted to say thanks to all the wonderful people who came out to the New York International Gift Fair. A big welcome to our newest retailers who may have met Cartolina for the first time at this year's show. I was going through the list of new retailers yesterday and I am very excited to announce that Cartolina Cards will  now be available at Tinsel Trading Co. in New York. Any of you who have been following this blog will all ready know that I am a big fan of Tinsel and had great fun there in July.

Design | Simple drafting stools

Thanks to Michele at My Nottinghill I found these classic, steel stools for the studio. I love this simple, industrial design. You can find them here at the Wisteria catalogue.

Window Shopping | Accessories

Have a great holiday weekend everyone, I'll be back here on Tuesday - and yes I did put this pillow here because it looks nice with my banner :-)

Finally, before we break for the weekend, here are a couple more wonderful accessories to add some fun to the funky, vintage, industrial pieces that we found earlier this week at Cleveland Art and Modern Dose. The crewel embroidered pillow is from Anthropologie and the iron serving stand is from Cosas.

Trends | Indian inspiration

I cut this page(above) out of Country Home Magazine about a year ago. Believe it or not this is a room in a desert house in Arizona. I love it. I find it really inspiring and beautiful. This page has been hanging on my bulletin board for a few months now - thought I would share it with you today. I've noticed a real trend towards Indian inspired decor and accessories recently.

I think you can add these kind of decorative items to any style of home. There are loads of reproduction and modern Indian pieces out there but you do have to be careful that your home doesn't start looking like an opium den or the Taj Mahal! I prefer to see subtle use of authentic Indian antiques or Indian ephemera (though occasionally I think that stylized versions look good too like the pillows above). When we were in New York a few weeks ago I noticed loads of Indian stuff at ABC - fantastical, sculptural pieces and paintings that I just fell in love with. Pictures above from ABC Carpet and Home and John Robshaw

Studio | Doug at work

Well it feels like Doug has been spending a lot of time in his studio for the last few days, thought I had better go and check out what he's working on. Turns out he's working on a series of illustrations for a magazine out of New York. Here's a peek at what he's been doing. I think this illo is beautiful and it looks so much like vintage lithography(he calls it lith-faux-graphy)

Birthday Boy | Time for presents!

So, today is Doug's birthday. Happy Birthday Doug! And what a lucky guy because today he is getting a vintage Diana camera to have some fun with. We've had some great old cameras in the past - medium format Rolleiflex and vintage Leicas but never a camera that produces consistently scratchy, scruffy, distorted images. He's sure to get obsessed with this new toy!

The Diana camera is from a genre of photography known as Lomography. I had never even heard of this style of photography until I saw a Diana camera on Poppytalk. It has a slightly fish eye, plastic lense that causes the images to have that Coke bottle look, scratchy texture and dark edges. I am sure you have seen many photos recently taken with this style of camera - prints of these images are available widely on Etsy - it'll be fun to see how Doug uses it - he has a great eye. You can buy a Diana here. Picture courtesy of Kai Yamada at Dianacamera.com

Random Object | Westie bookends

Who can resist a pair of Westie bookends to sit on your desk top while you are working - perfect! Get yours here.

Accessories | Anthropologie

Just thought I would throw in some accessories that I think would go brilliantly with the industrial furniture we have been looking at this week. Just to add some colour and kick. Starting with a sheet metal mirror frame - how perfect would this be along side a few things from Cleveland Arts?

New lampshade and pillows from Anthropologie - the shade is gorgeous and would look wonderful with the oiled steel pieces from Cleveland Arts too.

Obsessions | Old scruffy table

Good grief I love this table! The scruffiness, the patina, the proportions, the scale it's all perfect! Well done Vagabond Vintage Furniture - we salute you. And thanks Di Overton at Designers Block for introducing me to Vagabond - we salute you too!

Window Shopping | Pearly pillows

Lovely, pearly, shell buttons on 100% cotton velvet pillows from RE. You really have to have both don't you?

Readers Tip | Cleveland Art

I love vintage industrial stuff. Yesterday, thanks to the people at  Paper Thieves, I found myself browsing through pages and pages of amazing industrial furniture and oddities at Cleveland Art. Now you might already have found this place but, if you haven't, you are going to love me for this - take a look at  . . . 

I have never seen such a brilliant selection of authentic, vintage, factory furniture - I had a hell of a time deciding which pieces to show you here. I love this stuff. They have great steel work tables, gurneys, armoirs, drafting tables, steel stools, lighting and objects d'art. Our home and studios are pretty big and kinda rustic and I find that big industrial pieces like these in our place can keep it from looking too "country" - know what I mean? In the right interior space the combination of well worn wood and oiled steel is beautiful. I often see pieces like these in photographs of stylish lofts and wonder where they get them . . . .  voila . . . . . .

Inspiration | Sara Paloma

How can you resist the elegance and simplicity of these vessels from Sara Paloma. I have seen them make the rounds on many blogs recently and I just had to jump on the bandwagon - magnificent.

Random Objects | Piggy bank

Couldn't resist this vintage iron pig  - you can get him right here.

Random Objects | Studio Storage

What do you think of these storage pieces from Modern Dose? They sure look vintage - but they're new - and I think they're fab! They are sturdy, practical and cool . The 4-drawer remind me of those crash carts that they used to use in hair salons(they would fill them with those neon coloured, spiky rollers - remember?)  I wonder if I could find authentic vintage versions of these - any ideas?

Window Shopping | RE

One of the the things I like about blogging is it gives me a chance to revisit websites that I bookmarked months ago - and it's great to see what's new. RE is one of those sites. Take a look at their wares and I think you will want to bookmark them too.

RE looks like a great shop to visit in person but their site is so fun. This time around I found these great little pendant lampshades made from tin jelly molds - aren't they wonderful - so fun!

Random Objects | Hourglasses

Here's a trend I have just noticed - hourglasses. These lovely coloured ones are from Anthropologie and they give you 30 minutes of time to relax, meditate, or sit quietly in one's studio blogging . . . . . . .Oh and while I remember I just noticed that Anthropologie also carries some very nice bell jars - remember we were talking about those a few weeks ago?