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Merry Christmas

23/12/2014

Just popped in to Ochre's gorgeous Clerkenwell showroom to wish the creative folk a happy Christmas. Such a wondrous place with heavenly lights and a new Divine Recline chaise longue in a red reminiscent of a child's cap in a Renaissance painting.

On to Pentreath & Hall for some last minute festive bits - handmade Christmas crackers, rouge napkins and berry felt coasters. The new Ikat cushions are beautiful, but I only have one pair of hands, so a couple are already and on my New Year's wish list.

Back home drafting the Paris Deco Off and Maison & Objet press releases before closing the door of my office for a few days of daft paper crown hats, family ring on a string., The Railway Children (hear that groan from the kids) and Christmas dinner cooked by others. Bliss.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on
our troubles will be out of sight

Merry Christmas and here's to a prosperous and peaceful 2015!

info@elizabethmachinpr.com

Christmas Crystal

17/12/2014

From the warm density of New Zealand wool emerges a delicate winter garden hand carved with the grace of a falling snowflake. ‘Crystal’ by Michaela Schleypen is a festive gift to Interior Design this Christmas.

Michaela Schleypen is true innovator. She was the first to start rug sculpting, translating her nature-themed concepts into tactile three-dimensional designs. Her award-winning designs are exclusively handmade using a dense tufting technique with New Zealand wool and Chinese silk as well as bold and surprising materials, such as lustre cotton, neon threads and denim and moisture-resistant fibres.

FRONT London is the only rug showroom in the UK to exclusively present the work of innovative designers, Jan Kath and Michaela Schleypen. Both challenge convention, developing techniques and seeking creative solution to realize their design concepts and translate these into original floor art. The collection is showcased in a contemporary 200 square metre exhibition space in the heart of Mayfair, a destination for discerning customers, interiors designers and architects.

wearefront.com

The Lure of Leather

9/12/2014

Some things just get better with age. Yes, I actually do enjoy a malt whisky at Christmas and a wee dram transports me to the peat-scented Highland firesides. I also love the smell and feel of leather chairs. Did you know that you can combine both pleasures in a ‘Dram’ chair designed by London-based designer maker Gareth Neal for The Glenlivet distillery? No, I didn’t either.

But the theme of this blog is Ochre’s new leather dining chairs that are beautifully hand crafted and clad head to toe in leather. This is the sort of leather that gets better with age.

Sable, metal frame clad in the finest Italian saddle leather with hand sewn pinched seams and scalloped corner details.

The finest Italian Saddle leather is hand dyed to Ochre’s individual specification before been sent to a specialist leather workshop in the UK, where each metal-framed chair takes a whole take to finish.

Each piece of the leather is cut to measure and skived to the required thickness depending where it is placed. Each piece is then hand stitched and wrapped round the metal frame. The edges are dyed if required, and burnished at the end. It is a complete manual process, resulting in a contemporary piece of craft that you can use everyday and keep for a lifetime.

Ochre’s individuality is expressed through the use of luxurious complementary materials. Each design begins with understanding the possibilities and limitations of a material and the designers spend time working alongside specialist craftsmen, in their workshops, exploring traditional techniques such as glass blowing, bronze casting, leatherwork and hand weaving. This is done to create beautiful, highly crafted and highly valued pieces and in doing so bring traditional techniques into the present to serve a modern sensibility.

Ochre's individual commissions allow them to explore and experiment with materials, to adjust their methods and the scale and dimensions of their work.

www.ochre.net

Chim Chim Cher-ee

2/12/2014

At this time of year in the home of Will Fisher and Charlotte Freemantle, a sweep is as lucky as lucky can be. This is the house of the historically appropriate chimneypiece. It was seven at the last count and fires are lit every night in the winter.

In the drawing room there’s a Palladian chimneypiece that inspired Jamb’s Oxford design; the dining room’s original stone chimneypiece circa 1740 inspired Jamb’s reproduction Montford design, while in the master bedroom the English 18th-century Italian Breche marble chimneypiece (my favourite) inspired the St. James design.

Will’s fetish for historic chimneypieces led to Jamb, which he co-founded in 2003 with his wife Charlotte Freemantle, to sell antique mantels and reproduction fireplaces, lighting and furniture that capture the essence of the classical English country house. Between them they have sourced some of the finest antique chimneypieces to come on to the market including designs by Sir Isaac Ware, who once remarked,

‘The eye is immediately cast upon it on entering, and the place of sitting down is naturally near it. By this means, it becomes the most eminent thing in the finishing of an apartment.’

The chimneypiece is the focal point that sets the scene from which life flows. Will Fisher and Jamb are the source.

‘I love there to be a fireplace as the centerpiece instead of a television, and it should have an amazing chimneypiece around it. I kind of like them all, they’re like children. And then you fill your hearth with the firelog dogs and some fragrant wood, and your house is instantly a home.’

In this whole wide world, there’s no happier bloke than Will Fisher.

Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim cher-ee, chim cher-oo!

Jamb, 95-97 Pimlico Road,  London SW1W 8PH

www.jamb.co.uk

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and here's to a prosperous and peaceful 2015!info@elizabethmachinpr.com

Christmas Crystal

The Lure of Leather

Chim Chim Cher-ee

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Merry Christmas and here's to a prosperous and peaceful 2015!

info@elizabethmachinpr.com