Category Archives: Ceramics

Design Indaba 2012: Ceramics

By Marica

There were more or less 17 stands devoted to ceramics at this year’s Expo. Immensely popular and usually exceptionally crowded, I had the rare luck of strolling through the ceramic section whilst it was relatively quiet. This allowed me to have a good look.

I was exceedingly impressed with not only the talent but also the diversity of the ceramics on display. It was also nice to see the well-known familiar faces like Sootcookie, Tamarillo Ceramics and Liesel Trautman intermixed with other talented established ceramicists that are (sadly and undeservedly) lesser-known.

As time permits me from giving you a breakdown of all seventeen, here are the two stands who’s designs made the greatest impression on me…

Clay Art by Sonja Moore:

My favourite stand in this category was occupied by Rondebosch ceramicist, Sonja Moore and her beautiful ceramics.

Her beautiful tableware range, which consists of bowls, plates, dishes, mugs and platters, features bird-on-a-wire imagery which is her current signature design. Each piece is 100% handmade which gives it a rather organic character. The range is also dishwasher and oven safe and is available in 5 glaze colours – white, aqua, grey, and now also in ocean melt, and drips & splatters.

What really grab my attention were Sonja’s gorgeous hand-painted vases. Beautifully “illustrated”, she uses a layering process to add colour, texture and visuals to the vases. Her ongoing theme of “freedom, sprout and grow” is quite evident in these delicate whimsical pieces of art. And of course, I think the Spring-coloured combos are simply stunning!

Mervyn Gers Collective:

Another serious head-turner was the combined works of Mervyn Gers along with ceramicists Diana Ferreira, and Karen Kotze of Woven Ceramics. The combination worked together quite beautifully – Mervyn’s beautifully decorated pieces with bold crisp graphics; Diana’s gorgeous earthy, slightly rustic vessels; and Karen’s lovely organic pieces with feminine floral designs.

The show-stealer was Mervyn’s Koi and Blue Willow set which won the prestigious Best Decorated Award at the Ceramics South Africa Cape Regional last year. The detail in this intricate orient-inspired set is quite breathtaking.

Now, I’ve bookmarked these two and most of the other ceramicists and I’ll be keeping a close eye on them. Which means – hopefully many lovely updates and features to follow!

Be sure to keep in touch with Sonja and Mervyn on their Facebook pages here:

Clay Art by Sonja Moore
Mervyn Gers Ceramics
 
Images via Sonja Moore and Mervyn Gers Facebook page
 
You might also like…
    

Design Indaba 2012 Is Here!

Design Indaba Conference & Expo 2012

Images from the 2011 Design Indaba Conference and Expo

It’s finally that time of the year again! Design Indaba 2012 is but a day away, whoop-whoop!

This year however, Rose and I are extra excited as we have been given media accreditation and will be attending the live simulcast of the Design Indaba Conference which starts tomorrow as well as getting up close and personal with all the exhibitors at the Expo.  The Conference is held over three days, with a back-to-back speaker programme that features a wide range of designers, artists, social entrepreneurs, ad gurus, filmmakers, culinary masters and this year even a scent expert!

We are practically bouncing up and down in our seats from excitement! Keep your eyes peeled as we will be soaking up all the design goodness and posting regular feedback and play-by-plays! YAY!

Design Indaba Expo 2011

Images from the 2011 Design Indaba Conference and Expo

For those of you unfamiliar with Design Indaba, it’s THE event on the South African design calendar which includes the design conference, expo and other design festivities. To further explain the significance of this annual design celebration find below a few excerpts from the proverbial “horse’s mouth”, i.e. The Design Indaba website…

Highlights of the Design Indaba Expo 2010.

Presenting the very best of South African creativity, Design Indaba Expo is a showcase of exceptional design across all disciplines, including advertising, architecture, craft, décor, film, fashion, graphic design, interior design, jewellery, new media, publishing, product design, visual media and more. Every year sees a more sophisticated interpretation of what South African design is.

Setting a high professional standard, each exhibitor is pre-approved by a curatorial panel of industry experts, ensuring that you will only see bespoke designs of the highest quality on the Design Indaba Expo floor.

In 2010 the core Design Indaba Expo, showing more than 280 exhibitors, including 80 first-time exhibitors and 40 Emerging Creatives, drew well over 35 000 visitors, including 379 journalists and 427 buyers – one third of which were international.  - designindaba.com

Design Indaba Expo 2011

Images from the 2011 Design Indaba Conference and Expo

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So why all the fuss?

1. Design Indaba Expo is your all-in-one creative stop, recognising and celebrating local creative work across all fields.

2. All designs are quintessentially South African – no derivatives, no imports.

3. An influential contingent of local and international buyers consider Design Indaba one of their key shopping destinations, creating a platform for productive trade relationships.

4. On the Design Indaba Expo floor you can catch all-day fashion shows, short films and Pecha Kucha presentation, chat to the designers or simply browse the gorgeous creations on display.

5. Design Indaba Expo coincides with Design Indaba Conference, resulting in a week of creative rejuvenation.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Images from the 2011 Design Indaba Conference and Expo

THE DESIGN INDABA EXPO takes place from the 2nd – 4th MARCH 2012 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Opening Hours:

Friday 2 March:  10h00 – 20h00 (On-site tickets sales close at 19h00)
Saturday 3 March:  10h00 – 20h00 (On-site tickets sales close at 19h00)
Sunday 4 March:  10h00 – 18h00 (On-site tickets sales close at 17h00)

Price:

Adults:  R60
Pensioners and Students:  R40
Scholars and Children:  R30
Kids under 10:  free!

 Info & images via the Design Indaba website (be sure to check it out for more info)

You might also like…

    

Cross Your Heart…

So, we entered the week countdown before Valentines Day 2012. To inspire you, here is a handful of quirky gift ideas for V-Day… all featuring the traditional Valentine’s heart! Like last year, we strive to keep V-Day cheese-free…forget the tacky plastic roses, rather get your loved one of these original beauties!

…oh, and keep your eyes peeled – there’s one or two more Valentines Day post coming your way this next week!

 The talented Heather Moore, aka Skinny LaMinx, started making these awesome ceramic mugs with some of her designs on it. As you can see, there’s one or two Valentines Day mugs too! All available from her shop in 201 Bree Street in Cape Town.

I love, love, love these beautiful embroidered scatter cushions from @Home. Released with Valentines Day in mind it’s got a lovely handmade feel to it – I especially love the intricate almost crochet-like pattern…and the cute little birdies of course.

A whole heart & polka dot range from Ckramics – a variety of bowls, sugar pots, and the cutest milk jugs, but to name a few. The range includes these beautiful handpainted ceramic  bowls with lovely whimsy phrases, heart & dot designs. These beauties can be ordered through us.

One of the best-sellers at QuirkyMe, the heart-shaped Kiaat chopping board usually FLIES off their shelves. The lace-like engraving is simply beautiful – this chopping board would look stunning if used as a serving plate – maybe with gorgeous home-made bread or dainty appetisers on it?

If you’re still looking for the perfect V-Day gift for the lady in your life – what about this lovely little ceramic jewellery box with heart detail from The Pause Room (and be sure to hide something special…and expensive in it)!

I’m in love with this funky little addition to the Sagaform product range – a heart-shaped stoneware bowl in passionate red with a matching bamboo spoon. Even the spoon’s hanging hole is a little carved heart! Luckily, YuppieChef is the local supplier for Sagaform – so South Africans can also own some lovely Sagaform awesomeness.

  

This creative light from TinTown has love written all over it…literally! Love the intricate detail and the two little kissing Lovebirds at the top! Now that would be a romantic gift!

Or what about opting for one of Freshly Found‘s awesome message cards. They’re hand cut, lightly padded and stitched from various vintage record covers – awesome! A blackboard card heart is attached to the back along with a piece of chalk for your love message. The card is mounted on a vintage knitting needle – so you can pretty much stick it into anything. So clever!

Images sourced via specific suppliers (see link in text).

Décor Diva: How To Snuggle Up This Winter

10 Essentials for a lazy winter’s evening…

At the moment in time, we are going through our winter season here in SA.  Having said that, in Cape Town we are experiencing the most gorgeous warm winter days, when it should actually be grey, wet and cold days (much like it was up until about 10 days ago).

BUT – I am not fooled.  Those cold, wet and grey days are going to be back.  And when it does, I hope you have that the 10 Décor/Lifestyle essential below will be found in your living room.

1.   Comfortable sofa to stretch out on. OR that easy chair in antique leather that shouts out “sink into me”. This comfy sofa is from Klooftique.

2.   Ottoman or footstool, onto which to lift up your feet. Ottoman from JVB.

3.   Scatter cushion in warm tones filled with part goose down inners – to further ‘sink’ into. Scatter cushions from Cushion Snob.

4.   Warm winter throw blanket. Beautiful fluffy throw from Loads of Living.

5.   Fireplace with the real thing going OR heater if no fireplace. Image via Pinterest

6.   A side lamp or standing lamp- both for the ambient effect / reading. GORGEOUS brass Lab Light from Anatomy Design.

7.   A good sized TV. Image via Pinterest

8.   Slippers. These funky sheepskin beauties are from Sheepskin Slippers via Etsy. Love the colours!

9.   For the ‘I don’t watch TV’ people – a good book or magazine. Image via Pinterest

10.   A hot toddy or cuppa hot chocoffie. Stunning translucent ceramic mugs from John Newdigate Ceramics.

You now have the essentials for a toasty winter’s evening at home.  Catch up with you again soon.

Colour-Coded Inspiration: Orange

By Marica

About.com has excellent descriptions of colour and the feelings and emotion specific colours invokes. This is what they had to say about Orange (I find it quite accurate):

“Orange is vibrant, flamboyant & energetic. It denotes energy, warmth, and the sun. But orange has a bit less intensity or aggression than red, calmed by the cheerfulness of yellow. As a warm color orange is a stimulant — stimulating the emotions and even the appetite. Orange can be found in nature in the changing leaves of fall, the setting sun, and the skin and meat of citrus fruit. It represents the changing seasons so in that sense it is a color on the edge, the color of change between the heat of summer and the cool of winter. Because orange is also a citrus color, it can conjure up thoughts of vitamin C and good health.”

A good colour to pair with orange is a nice cooling blue, like this turquoise-y blue we used below. Now the orange really pops. It can be really refreshing, don’t be afraid to use it. Here is some Orange beauties to inspire you…

Main Image via Pinterest / Scatter Cushions: Weylandts / Orange Fabric Swatches: Design Team / Chrysanthemum Vase: Anthropologie / Orange Pouffe: Fatsak / Orange & Blue Framed Print: Mengsel via Etsy / Alarm Clock: LIM / Ceramic Tiles: PaperCake / Orange Single Cup Bodem Plunger: Yuppiechef 

Main Image via Desire To Inspire / Orange & Grey Rug: Anthropologie / Glass Tea Candle Holders: Weylandts / Retro Pendant Lights: Mid-Century Modern / Orange Stackable Stools: Tolix / Africa Scatter Cushion: Mr. Price Home / Red & Orange Scatter Cushions: Yda Walt/ Pug Print: MonsterGallery via Etsy / Orange Refrigerator: Smeg

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 166 other followers