Home Store Hastings - A Marvellous Store

A marvellous and intriguing new store has opened in the old town district of Hastings.

As I'm currently living in the area I was delighted to have a look around and chat to the owner Alastair Hendy, who obligingly let me take some interior shots.

He is well known in the area, and has always had connections to Hastings as his Grand Parents used to live here. He explained that this area has always felt like home to him.
Alastair is a well established photographer, food writer and stylist and regularly contributes to journals such as Marie claire, Olive, Saturday Telegraph and the mail on Sunday. He is also a style and food consultant for M&S and Sainsburys.

I felt quite privileged to have this opportunity to write about this latest project of his which he has been planning and collecting for, for about six years.

The concept is essentially a hardware store delivered with style, and attention to detail. Like a bygone department store on a small scale; selling beautifully crafted brushes, kitchen ware, sanitary ware, textiles and vintage pieces. Alastair explains that it reflects a conscious return to old values; values that he's always had.

The products have a utilitarian feel, and simplistic beauty. Alastair feels that in times of austerity people are wanting to choose their purchases more carefully; something useful and decorative, that has quality and will last.

I was very pleased that the majority of Alastair's suppliers are in the UK, with a small amount from Germany. They are sourced with ecology in mind and are well made from natural resources such as boar hair and sustainable woods. I particularly like the mushroom brush, surely everyone needs one of those.

If you are an avid collector of well known vintage crockery such as green Beryl Ware or need to replace some broken pieces, this is the place to come as Alastair has a huge range of pieces in excellent condition.

He is still on the look out for a good string supplier and would like to stock an even greater selection of quality scissors than he already has. The current range made from Sheffield steel, includes even candlewick snippers and Tailors shears, amongst others.

The bones of the building are quite beautiful, from panelling to peeling walls and woodwork, all of which give the impression that they have always been there. However, I was astonished to hear that this was not so. Alastair had to source some of the backdrop from London and salvage places elsewhere. The building did have some of the desired 'look' but the enhancement of this is down to Alastair's creative abilities and meticulous attention to detail, all of which are testament to his vision and passion for his concept.

There is something here for everyone ; Alastair confirms that he has a broad customer base from London professionals to Local pensioners and his fan base is likely to get bigger, with plans in place for an on-line shop and the addition of a cafe serving sea food and local produce. The visit for me was a real experience.
I asked if he intended to role out this concept in other towns and he confirmed that he would like a Home Store London....watch this space.

Tinker Tailor - recycled design

Fresh from their debut in Selfridges “Bright Young Things' exhibition, where they re-created their studio space in the window, is design duo Tinker Tailor AKA Katy Gray Rosewarne and Adam Towner.

Now here is a couple after my own heart, as they too specialize in recyling and the re-working of old materials. From a discarded camera to a derelict building, these two can create exciting new products and spaces from virtually anything.

Here are two of their latest designs, The Handi light, and Vinyl Cake Stand.

Finally someone who can make good use of those old records.

Also take a look at their latest Interior project '£500 house.' They set themselves a budget of just £500 to create a stylish interior for this building...now thats creative recycling. More pictures on their site.

Tinker Tailors range of products lights and soft furnishings are available at The Dead dolls club London, which also houses creative studios, or via their website at www.thedeaddollsclub.com

Great Design Items

I wanted to share with you, a great gift I had at Christmas and those I bought for others. My husband likes to make my present a complete surprise so I usually have absolutely no idea whatsoever, which could be a bit worrying, like some random, on a whim present. He always pulls it off though! And it’s never what I think I might get! But I always really love it.

This was the gift of 2009, designed by Ramin Razani. Isn’t it great? Couldn’t have chosen better myself! You can see the site at:

www.officinacrea.it This one is part of the Zoo animals, wall collection.

Great Tins
I decided to shop more on-line this year as I’ve discovered so many gorgeous and talented designs out there and thought it would be interesting to get some things from other parts of the world.

Bought some great tins for my friend Carrey from an on-line shop called Blafre Design, in Norway. They also have a great blog here: http://blafre.blogspot.com/ for those of you who aren’t familiar with them.

The range has some wonderful stylised and colourful designs on tins, paper, cards and canvas, by the owners Ingrid and Remi, Perfect for children and for those of us who can never get enough tins, to fill with haberdashery items! The tins I ordered were very well made and the owners very thoughtfully gave me a booklet about their range and some free stickers, which are really nice. A fabric range is coming soon.

Recycled Card Toys
My other great finds were thanks to my Flickr friend Kay in Holland, whom I regularly swap style magazines with. She had sent a couple for me just before Christmas and there were some gifts featured which I liked, in Holland at www.kidsonroof.nl I bought this wonderful Totem Tree for Indigo, my son and the City collection. Made from recycled card and printed with colourful and intriguing designs, fun to make, fun to play with and they look great displayed.

The Kidsonroof ‘Totem’ was chosen as one of TIME Style and Design’s Green Design100, it was also nominated as speciality Toy 2009 by the American Toy association. Check them out; they also have some large play houses and insects.

In case you’re all wondering why my blog updates have become less frequent, I’m in the process of moving house and to another country, so very stressful! not enough hours in the day! Bear with me over the next 4 weeks as I may not have complete access to the internet and will be busy looking for a home and unpacking!

New Feature on Boboho
Welcome to new followers and thanks to all readers for continuing to show interest in my blog. I will soon have 200 followers so my next post will give details of a celebratory ‘giveaway’. In the meantime, for those of you who are not yet familiar with my interiors site, we have a new house on there, which is kitsch delicious! See http://www.boboho.com/

Recycled and Re-made

Hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine right now. I’m glad to say it has finally returned to Denmark after a very rainy June.

I have a couple of items of my own work to show you, thought I’d never get finished as I’ve been so far behind, but I’m happy with the results.

Chandelier
The chandelier will form part of a collaborative July exhibition at our Gallery. Most of the Artists exhibiting use vintage or recycle in some way; it’s very different from other stuff we’ve shown in the Gallery, so it may provoke some interesting reactions from the visiting Danes and foreign tourists.

I found this brass chandelier in a charity shop, looking like it had seen better days. I’ve used old quilt fabrics; I find that they have a lovely faded quality that I like. Went the whole hog on this one and decided to wrap the links of the chain with embroidery cotton and wool to tie the colours together. The only new item I’ve used are the wooden balls which again I wrapped to form decoration where you would normally have crystals on a glass chandelier. Added some paper mache flowers, some bias binding and some paint for the candlestick parts and ‘Voila’!

I secretly want to keep this one but I always feel like that when I finish a piece! I must get a grip, and sell it!

Lamp
The lamp I’ve made for my own home using vintage silks I’ve had for many years.

I think it’s quite a fun piece now with the ribbons and the wrapping, and the light has a really warm tone when it’s on, so will be nice for cosy evenings.

I’m still playing around with ideas for the trimming, hence the pinned lace doilies!

Bowls

Had some fun making some paper bowls last week, wanted a nostalgic feel so used vintage books and magazines with colours and text that was appropriate for the ‘feel’ of them.

Have just started a larger bowl to exhibit along with these and am experimenting with stitching some of them too.

Thanks everyone for continuing to follow my blog and for the lovely and sometimes funny comments you leave, they make me smile.

I’ll be back soon with some of my favourites in Art, Design and Vintage.

Large Luscious Woolly Pom-poms

Calling all crafters and skilled creative people everywhere, please be part of my flickr friend Elvis Robertson’s pom-pom project.

For those of you who haven’t seen it on-line, this is a wonderful collaborative project which aims to bring together the International craft community and show what they can do by creating ‘blossom’ in the Autumn. Elvis will hang the pom-poms in the trees in Lower Gardens park area in Bournemouth, once the leaves have fell from the trees.

Having been part of various collaborative ‘art happenings’ or events myself, when I lived in the UK, it feels great to once again be part of a wonderfully worth while project.

It gives you a great feeling to be involved with the community and contribute towards something as visual and fun as this, and the pom-poms are not difficult to make. Here are some pictures from people already part of the group.

Elvis has set up a pom pom blog and flickr site specially for this purpose where you can see more images and find out more about the project, including a short tutorial on how to make the pom-poms. They are easy to make and very satisfying to ‘play with’ once finished as they are so soft and woolly! Even if you can only find the time to make one, that’s fine.

For me, an added bonus of this project is that you can recycle your left over wool or wool found in charity shops, boot sales etc…

Elvis herself, is an active and enthusiastic recycler. As an establishes Textile Artist, she only uses vintage materials in her work and has exhibited at liberty London, and Browns. Pom-poms are very much part of her own work where she uses them to finish and embellish her beautiful memory quilts. See below

She has a great personal blog which features not only her work and her memories but also the art and design of other great Artists.

Her flickr site shows more great pictures including some of her stunning home. Elvis’s work has a wonderful nostalgia about it and her choice of colours and fabrics are so well put together. She works under her label ‘Lovely’ and in addition to her memory quilts; she makes beautiful wall and window pieces, to commission.

Her work is concerned with memory, gaps in memory, intimacy, community and humility. Lets all work together to make Elvis’s Pom-pom event as spectacular as possible.

Before I end this post, I just wanted to say apologies for the wait, I am 3-4 weeks behind with my blog my website and my artwork, due to a severe eye infection!!!

I am now up and running again and will endeavour to finish my two new lamps so I can document them on here next week.
I would also like to thank and welcome any newcomers for joining my blog, and those that continue to support it :-)