Sania Pell

vintage booty

October 6, 2011  in vintage finds

I religiously go to my local monthly car boot sale and for the last few months I have been using my flea market finds as props in my next book. But now it has all been photographed, I can show you my latest finds from this Sunday and a few other recent vintage treasures I’ve picked up.

There is a great shop in Notting Hill, Couverture, which has a similar umbrella stand in its entrance and I have had umbrella stand envy every time I’ve been there over the years. So when I spotted this one at my carboot  I snapped it up! It is a little bit “Marmite” – you either love it or hate it. I love that it’s quirky and am thinking of using it as a vase for a little bit of wrongness!

I couldn’t resist these trinkets. The flower-shaped pin is a vintage ‘bachelor button’, the charms so sweet, old letters (I can never have enough), the little dog pin, cute on a lapel and a hand-carved skull bead for a little edge. I know that with small bits and pieces like this if the right project pops up into my head I’m ready to go.

This is a brooch made from cast metal that I bought as a gift for my mum. Its colour and patina make it look like a real autumn leaf. I like the way it sits in the flower shape of this vintage French tart tin, one of a batch of different tins that I picked up for a few pounds.

This bevelled-edge rose glass mirror will look lovely with candles and perfume, the little ring was a previous buy bought for £1. I have had the framed sepia photograph in the background for a while, picked up like the other pieces at the boot sale, and I love it. I have no idea who the couple are or why they were photographed surrounded by so many huge flower arrangements. Is it their wedding day, engagement or are they florists?

I’m always on the look out for fun things that my children can enjoy too. The colours in this game board are wonderfully saturated and the graphic quality is lovely. And finally a well-loved Dukes of Hazzard car from 1980 for my son – yeee-haaa!

If you like this you may also like my other flea market finds posts.

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london design festival fun

September 30, 2011  in handmade goodness, my london

London Design Festival – a pleasure every year, so many shows, exhibitions and events to go to. I love to catch up with people I’ve worked with before, design companies and designer/makers that I know from previous shows or whose products I have used in photo shoots. With my book deadline to meet followed by a photo shoot for a client I didn’t make it to as many shows as I would like to this year, but what I did see was great. There is always so much to see and do all over London.

First stop was the Tent London show at the Truman Brewery to wander round with lovely Elisa Rathje. It was really good this year, lots of interesting products and creative thinking from smaller design companies. In the afternoon we headed to Origin – the contemporary craft fair and met up with my friends Holly Becker and Leslie Shewring who were over from Germany and Canada to enjoy the shows for the first time. I only took a few photos (with the exhibitor’s permission) of things that caught my eye but thought I’d share them. I would have taken a lot more but I was too busy chatting, having fun and enjoying all the work!

I loved the colours and simplicity of the ceramics above, they’re by Belfast-based Derek Wilson.

It was great to catch up with textile artist Debbie Smyth whose thread drawings I love (above). I first met Debbie in 2008 when I bought some of her work from her at the New Designers graduate show. It’s great to see her doing so well.

Loved these handmade, wool knitted textiles by Stephanie Wooster.

This silver jewellery by Amy Keeper caught my attention too. It has a vintage feel and is etched with antique photos and text and looked great displayed in old printers’ trays.

The next day we headed to the much larger commercial interiors and design show 100% Design at Earls Court, where the big international names have their stands. An interesting contrast against Tent and Origin and it’s always good to see the bigger interiors picture.

On Sunday we popped in to see jewellery designer/maker Emma Cassi to stock up on lovely goodies then headed to Chelsea and one of my favourite stores Anthropologie where Holly and Leslie were hosting a talk on creating mood boards as part of Holly’s Decorate book tour, along with fab interior designer Abigail Ahern.

And finally a quick whizz around the Saatchi Gallery with the family afterwards for a contemporary art fix just to round things off!

It was a very busy few days in London. So much great work and such fun enjoying it all with good friends. I can’t wait until next year!

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embellished lampshades

September 28, 2011  in homemade, interior styling

This lampshade hangs in my bedroom and is a little idea to update a plain shade into something special. It is a simple, cylindrical white linen shade that I bought from John Lewis. I simply added a stripe of dove grey velvet ribbon, chosen to match the Fired Earth Graphite painted wall behind and help it look more considered in the overall room scheme. I then punched holes randomly around the bottom edge of the fabric shade then wired on a mixture of different types of clear, glass buttons and beads from VV Rouleaux – some tight to the fabric and some hanging slightly for added visual interest.

It only took an hour or two to make and didn’t cost much, but it makes the shade unique and adds subtle interest to the centre of the room. And the little glass details catch the light in a delicate, sparkly way in the morning when I open the curtains to a new day.

This ceiling shade hangs in my daughter’s bedroom and has been embellished and added to since she was born. It’s another shade from John Lewis that I bought years ago and is ceramic with pierced holes pierced that let light through when it is switched on. The linked ceramic discs, some with flowers on, were bought at craft fairs, a lovely glass bead and a stone with a naturally made hole found on holiday have also been added, along with an air-drying clay strip decoration that I made that hangs on white ribbon (it’s the same technique as the storage jar label project in The Homemade Home). I purposely added things of different lengths, sizes and textures in a non-uniform manner to make it more interesting and less symmetrical.

Adding little things like this is such a simple way to update a high street lampshade and help make it uniquely yours.

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coffee, art and flowers : Zagreb

September 22, 2011  in inspiring places, interior styling

This is one of my very favourite café-bar-galleries – Velvet –  on a quiet side street in the middle of the city of Zagreb. We stopped in on the way home from holiday last month for a light lunch after visiting my grandmother and before we hopped on the plane back to London. I was very kindly allowed to take a few pictures inside and wanted to share them here. The interior is the vision of the talented Croatian contemporary artist and florist Saša Šekoranja. I met Saša briefly a couple of years ago when I had visited the original smaller café and gallery with my mother and had bought a book of his drawings as a gift for my husband. He also owns a florists near by which is like an art gallery, exhibiting the most amazing floral creations combined with his artworks.

Velvet’s decor is filled with creativity, style and quirky details. I love the contrast in the centre of the room for example – a stack of ornate chandeliers boxed in plain, untreated wood resting on a big table, making an unexpected sculptural centrepiece.

The café-bar has now expanded next door with a darker, more vintage feel and a delightful terrace outside. Saša’s artworks are everywhere and are beautiful, expressive, decisive and I just love his mark making – it makes the interior so individual. The smaller café’s walls are covered in frames, some filled with drawings and some left empty, ready for new pictures that he draws when he visits. He uses a lot of aesthetic techniques that I love – simple line drawing, painted graphics, patina, texture. monochrome and subtle colour. It’s probably why I love it so much!

An exhibition of handmade ceramics displayed against a chalkboard wall with simple white chalk drawings mirror the geometric, monochrome paintings on other walls.

I love the use of classic black bentwood chairs, each one uniquely customised with a simple, expressive daub of red paint or the end of one chair leg dipped to match. The vintage tables too have been numbered with large simple stencils all adding to the graphic effect.

I love the details. Vintage books, tied in bundles as displays and placed individually on each table with the menu stuck inside.

Vintage metal containers used as planters and up-ended as side tables with an old mirror and bench are typical examples of the quirky but sophisticated decor. Our lunch was simple, fresh and delicious – fresh tomato and mozzarella and Caesar salads with homemade lemonade. It’s also a great spot for people-watching, with lots of stylish locals passing by or chatting over coffee or a glass of wine. I know I’ll be stopping in again next time I am in Zagreb.

By coincidence I had been flicking through August’s Croatian Elle Decoration magazine a few days before and a four page spread immediately stood out and grabbed my eye. I then realised it was Saša’s work. Simple, natural, expressive. Just lovely.

If you ever find yourself in Zagreb then I highly recommend stopping in at the florist gallery on Ilica (No. 82) then on to Velvet, just round the corner on Dezmanova Ulica. See the Velvet website for more details.

Food, family, friends, art and flowers in a fabulous setting – what better way to spend some time?

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barbara hepworth

September 15, 2011  in inspiring places

Sometimes I find when I’m rushing around the busy streets of London it’s easy to forget to look up. But there are visual delights up high everywhere in London – architectural features, vintage signs, statues and sculptures. I was on Oxford Street yesterday, nipping into John Lewis for some haberdashery supplies before heading on to have a look at a location house for the final shoot for my book. As I left I glanced up and remembered this wonderful sculpture that has graced the wall of their building since 1963. It’s called ‘Winged Figure’ and it’s by Dame Barbara Hepworth, one of my favourite artists. I had my camera so took a photo, and it reminded me of my visits to her home and studio in Cornwall.

The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden is one of my favourite places in the UK. I have visited a few times with my family whilst on holiday in St Ives. It’s absolutely beautiful and I could spend all day here even though it is relatively small. Dame Barbara’s sculpture studio has been left exactly as it was in 1975 when she died at the age of 72, with sculptures still in progress and tools lying all around. It’s run by Tate who also have the main Tate St.Ives gallery there. Both are must-sees if you are ever in the area.

The sculpture garden is wonderful too. It’s raised from the street and almost feels like you have stepped into another country. My little boy said it was his favourite place we visited on our holiday, even more than the beach!

There is also a large Hepworth sculpture at Snape Maltings in Suffolk that we visited in June and my son recognised the similarity with the sculptures he loved in St.Ives.

The new Hepworth Wakefield gallery opened earlier this year and looks amazing, I can’t wait to visit – a definite trip to plan for the future. And I’m sure my children will be happy to come along too!

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driftwood display

September 12, 2011  in homemade, interior styling

Following the lovely comments about our homemade holiday home I thought would post a few photos of some of the homemade artworks and objects that my family and I have made to display in the little house in Croatia.

I found this old piece of plywood on the shore, and after it dried a lick of white paint meant I could draw straight onto it. It’s drawn with a simple but sharp 4B pencil whilst sitting on the beach. It’s just a nieve little drawing in my wonky style of the view from the island across the sea to the mainland, with the jagged edge of the broken wood becoming the mountains in the distance on the horizon.

I drew this picture for my mum. We found an old discarded wooden panel on a walk on the island and brought it home and I thought it would make an interesting canvas after I painted it white. I picked some wild flowers from the garden and drew and painted them in a simplistic style.

I’ve called these toys but they’re really for display only. The fun is in collecting the wood and making them. My little boy and my father made these together. My son (he was six at the time) and husband had been out foraging for interesting bits of driftwood around the shoreline and he and his grandfather nailed and glued them all together, creating different things from the shapes that had been found.

This wall hanging was made from rectangles of rolled Das air-hardening clay, pressed with leaves picked from the garden, and wired together. They’re made in the same way as the storage jar labels project on page 15 of my book if you want to try it at home. The vintage beads were my grandmother’s and the feathers my children found in the garden and pushed into the wire loops. It hangs above an old driftwood fishing net that was found washed ashore – though the net had long since disintegrated– and a vintage Croatian milking stool.

Just a few little things to display in our holiday home that cost virtually nothing but mean everything to my family, and help our little house feel like home.

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