Old Things and Inspiration

Amazing talents
The more I research, the more excited I get about some of the amazing talents around; embracing recycling and using elements within their work.

Zoe Murphy
Found a great designer the other day, Zoe Murphy, who’s British and from Margate. For all you retro lovers out there, take a look at these.



What a great way to re-invent a sideboard!

She was short-listed for the New Designer of the Year award, and promotes: “loving what belongs to you”, by re-using in an ethical and up beat fashion. Her imagery is inspired by her hometown of Margate, on the South coast on England. Her work is fun and colourful and her designs are reminiscent of the 1950’s.
See more at www.zoemurphy.com


Print designs are applied to wood veneers, Formica and even silk wedding dresses to create new works of Art. Also, her blog at www.zoemurphys.blogspot.com

Etsy, vintage renaissance
Also loving this etsy shop I found under the name vintage renaissance. It got me thinking about endless possibilities for re-using stuff. Check out that suitcase, great idea.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6821938

Forgotten Treasures
On that note, I thought I’d have a rummage around the fabric cupboard and studio! Found forgotten treasures ;-)


Look at this! So beautiful, 1940’s silk satin, which I bought from e-bay ages ago. It’s fantastic quality, and so lovely, I haven’t been able to bring myself to cut it yet!!! Love it with this pink satin. I might have to scour the charity shops for a very large standard lamp to use it on.

These are some of the vintage embroidery motifs, still attached to the original papers, which I use to decorate my lamps. I was lucky enough to come across this stash, many years ago and at the time didn’t realise what I would use them for.


Also found these old printing sets with letters and holders and pictorial stamps of stags and zebra etc.. found them at a local bric-a-brac place, perhaps I’ll try printing these onto ribbons, could work well with my lamps.


Jane Schouten
Last but not least had to show you the work of Jane Schouten. Those of you not on flickr may not have come across her amazing creations and re-invented furniture. Jane’s designs are vibrant and fun: she recycles previously loved items by customizing them in her own unique way.


How fabulous are these reupholstered chairs, using vintage blankets, and hand stitching in great colours, such as these orange ones.


The details are so beautiful, with motifs such as flowers hearts and hands.

She also has a handmade range of gorgeous items to pick from, available on her website and an equally colourful and stylish home to match, which you can see more of on her flickr photostream, search ATLITW.

Love the Wall Art pieces, they’re an eclectic mix of found treasures, and almost forgotten memories.

You can buy Jane’s work including the recycled and the handmade items at www.alltheluckintheworld.nl take a look it’s really great.

Polkadots and Fairytales

Thought it would be fun to feature one of my favourite shops for inspiration.

It is called De Sprookjeskamer and is in Amsterdam. It was discovered by my good friend Amy whilst on a trip there. It is the stuff of dreams and is crammed full of the most delightful things! See: http://www.desprookjeskamer.nl/

Started in the year 2000 by two sisters, Caroline de Groot and Ingrid Korteknie, they are passionate about POLKADOTS and FAIRYTALES. The range covers everything from homewares and fabrics to children’s products and clothes. Myself, I love the dotty shoes, the fairytale lamps, the cuckoo clocks and everything Red Riding hood!

You can order on-line too, to anywhere. Here’s some stuff they’re sending to Datcha in Moscow.

Thanks for catching up with me this week a welcome to all those new followers who’ve just discovered my little blog.

Vintage and New

I had a very inspiring week, photographing the home of two glass blowers. It was teeny tiny but soooh sweet. See it on my interior design website www.boboho.com

They very generously gave me a beautiful hand blown bowl which I had to photograph to show you, with pink tulips.


Christina is combining vintage or discarded crockery lids with her glass making to design new pieces that fit together. I haven’t seen any other glass artists working with the old and the new together before, I think it’s really inventive.

So, if anyone has broken your favourite vintage teapot or heirloom and the lid is still intact, please send to Christina Hellevik, c/o Christian Bjerregaard, Bakkevej 13, 8400 Ebeltoft, Denmark . I’m sure she’ll make good use of it. Here’s some of her designs.

See more glass design at www.lmnxglass.dk

Birds and Flowers

The sun is shining today, a welcome change from the dark Danish winter, and I’ve been thinking about flowers and birds.

In fact, I made some as brooches, from vintage newspaper and magazines, then decorated them with ephemera and vintage haberdashery.

There is also a couple of bowls.

Like Vintage Postcards

Well, it’s been an amazingly busy fortnight but have finally got around to continuing with my blog.

The following pictures are from my dolls house series and I hope to use them as designs on fabric for some of my lamps and also as huge hand tinted prints.

The lighting has been a bit tricky inside such a small dark space. But with the use of several flash guns and directional lights,we finally got there.

I’m so happy with the results and love this little set of dolls. I bought them on e-bay as a set, previously loved by one other since the 1950’s. They’re now mine to cherish. Their clothes are original and I think they’re just so charming! Some of my friends think they are a bit scary but they are not! Strangely, I’m not a massive doll addict, it’s only some dolls I like, They have to have a certain charm and some really are scary!!

Two of the photos show before and after manipulation. I played around on photoshop with colours and filters to achieve this look. My goal is to give the feel of an old hand tinted postcard. I have been collecting these for many years and love the soft colours and Sense of nostalgia. The result is good , but I feel I would like to achieve it with hand tinting on top of a sepia print, instead of everything being done electronically. Have sent one off to get printed so that I can check that the grain is not too big when it’s blown up, but hopefully the resolution will be fine.

Will do another shoot on the dolls house when I’ve bought more vintage items as I can create more narratives with more props. A tea set might be nice to begin with!

It’s been a really busy week meeting up with more people to feature on our boboho site and making valuable contacts around the globe, but it’s also been very rewarding.

I still managed to recycle some vintage magazines and books this week Into brooches and bowls for my summer Gallery, will photograph soon so you can see them.

Redesigned and reinvented

The following are lamps I’ve made using previously loved materials. The first was a satin peach coloured Danish lamp from the 40s or 50s. I stripped it completely down and reinvented it.

The see through panels look a bit like net but they are in fact ‘scrim”, a tough material used to clean printmaking plates. I like the contrast between the vintage fabrics and the illustrations and photographic additions, think I might develop this idea further in other works.

I have a small collection of previously loved toys which I’ve rescued over the years, some of which I’m using now in smaller works. The next two lamps have been developed from this collection. The shades are completely handstiched to the point of repetitive strain injury on my thumb! but entirely worth it!

I love the yellow pony, bought on a trip to my favourite town Brighton. I’m thinking of adding a knitted yellow fringe to this one, must scour some charity shops for second hand wool.

The shade for both lamps was made from an old Canadian quilt, the colours are just beautiful and the patterns have a wonderful naivety about them.

These lantern lights used to hang in my sons room when he was little! He’s now 23!

I’ve customised and adapted them using ephemera, French sugar papers, and serviettes. The lights are not as bright now but very atmospheric, which I like. They really took ages to do!

I’ll be continuing this week with my photography of the dolls house and will post later this week. Until then, please take a look at the blog, Hens Teeth, discovered recently with the realisation that it is written by and old friend of mine. http://www.hensteethart.blogspot.com/

She makes the most beautiful things from old scraps of vintage everything and stitches them with skill and love. She also has a link to her Etsy shop for all purchases.

How great to blow up small things

I am currently busy photographing my dolls house and quirky vintage objects for an art project, assisted by my wonderful husband Jesper, himself a talented photographer. He’s very useful as he has great lighting skills!

Some shots will be made into hand tinted canvasses, I see them very large scale, A1 or A0 I imagine.

How great to blow up such small things that we would never normally see this size. It’s like a wonderland or imaginary world. I like to play with scale in this way,
and enjoy creating narratives with characters and old things.