These images show our Vintage European Breadboard, a few pieces of vintage cutlery, Vintage Marmalade Jars used as utensil holders which are all still available, alongside our Handspun Eri Silk Cushion Covers, Classic French Table Glasses, Brass Water Mister, Shuro Palm Broom and Shuro Palm Hand Broom all of which are available in our webshop.
]]>We are excited to share this new collection with you and hope you will join us for its launch.
These images show our Copper Kettle, Handwoven Towels in Organic Cotton, Brass Coffee Pour Over Stand, Shuro Palm Broom and Shuro Palm Hand Broom, Shuro Palm Trivets, Handmade Linen and Waffle Linen Kitchen Towels, Handmade Speckled Matt Glazed Side Plates, Handmade Fluted Utensil Holder, Various Natural Cleaning Brushes, new Savon de Marseille (coming soon), Copper Bundt Cake Mould, Copper Tea and Coffee Canisters, new Decorative Handmade Ice Cream Spoons (coming soon), Pallares Solsona Professional Kitchen Scissors, Handwoven Cotton Cushion Covers in Traditional Stripes and Tea-Dyed Handmade Eri Silk Cushion Covers as well as various different items from our upcoming Vintage and Collected Collection (coming soon).
Because most of the items in our Vintage and Collected collections are one off pieces, we release these collections exclusively to the people on our mailing list first before later making any remaining items available to everyone through our shop. This gives our email subscribers the best chance of purchasing one of the unique items before they are released to everyone else. If you would like to gain access to the collection once it is released, be sure to sign up to our mailing list.
As well as our vintage pieces this photoshoot also shows some of the items from our permanent collection: Tea Dyed and Onion-Skin Dyed Eri Silk Cushion Covers, Handmade Speckled Matt Glazed Cup, Handmade Crushed Linen Blanket in Hay, Safari Daybed, Kapok Safari Daybed Mattresses, Handspun Merino Wool Blanket, Copper Kettle, Brass Coffee Pour Over Stand and Brass Water Mister.
]]>Designed and handcrafted specifically for Ellei Home by KAL, who believe that the value of handmade goods lies in the whole ecosystem consisting of farmer, material, maker and tradition. Each cushion cover is entirely made by hand by a small community of individuals working together to create KAL. Made up of farmers, spinners, weavers, nomads, designers, and traditional handcraft preservers who aspire to make every item with respect for the people who make them and the environments which they are a part of.
The silkworms are reared by tribal people along the Assam-Meghalaya border in North-eastern India. The raw Eri silk made using their cocoons is subsequently spun by hand on drop spindles by women of the Kamrup district in Assam. The Eri silk thread is then taken to the homes of KAL weavers in Assam where it is dyed by hand by the team leader Latika using dyes made from natural materials such as black tea leaves or discarded onion skins collected from the local market. Chemicals are not used in the dying of the silk in order to preserve the environment, the health of the weavers, as well as the natural fibres, allowing the original properties of the Eri silk to be retained. The naturally dyed Eri silk is then woven on traditional pedal looms located in the weaver’s gardens using no electricity in the process.
KAL believe that the distinct identity of different cultures is preserved in the things that people make. For many local communities, farming and craft are an expression of their heritage that has been handed down for generations. These skills not only support the local communities by generating income, what’s more, traditional skills such as weaving and dyeing provide independence and a sense of empowerment that can be particularly important for female weavers in rural areas.
KAL believe that the recognition of these skills can strengthen the sense of autonomy and identity of the artisans who possess them. This can foster a will to nurture and pass skills on to younger generations while creating opportunities for generating income as well as self-expression. Wherever the value of traditional handcrafting is not preserved and recognized we see a loss in skill. Once these skills are lost, they can be incredibly difficult and costly to regain.
With all of this in mind, we collaborated with KAL on the design of our new range of Eri silk cushion covers. The cushion covers were designed in a range of sizes and with an envelope closure rather than a zip, making them one more mono-material product in our range. Not incorporating zips not only reduced the energy consumption of production and transport but also reduces waste, ensuring that the all-natural Eri Silk product can decompose entirely when it is no longer in use.
As with all products made entirely by hand, variations in size, weave finish and colour are a natural part of the hand-making process. The onion-skin dye in particular creates a significant amount of variation and so our green cushion covers come in lighter and darker shades (which have been captured in the product images). If you have specific questions about the colours please do get in touch with us at hello@elleihome.com.
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Narrowing down: The first part for the process is a simple narrowing down of what I am looking for. The markets we go to have thousands of beautiful products that are different every time. This uniqueness is the beauty of vintage and antique items. It also means we never quite know what we will find. The first stage involves disregarding anything that does not meet our requirement for size and/or weight. There are so many gorgeous large pieces at these markets and fairs but our business is not currently set up for shipping large items such as furniture or large decorative objects. This means that as difficult as it is to ignore these gorgeous items, with limited time (we usually only have one day at each fair) I have to ignore anything that doesn’t meet our shipping requirements. This quickly narrows the search down right from the get-go.
Narrowing down, style: The second stage of narrowing down involves style. There are many objects and items that I personally like but that do not align with our store’s aesthetic. Preserving our shop’s visual identity means narrowing down the criteria for which products do and do not align with the overall look and feel of Ellei Home. I therefore try to ignore all the lovely items that do not align with our shop’s aesthetic: nothing bright, polished or new, too decorative or ornate. Instead, I focus on natural materials, aged pieces or objects with a rich patina, neutral colour, simple and timeless design but with something slightly special.
A simple design with something special: I’ll expand on this final point as it is one that is key for guiding my visual search. When thinking about timeless pieces that will look good years or even decades down the line, simplicity is often key. The more understated a design is the more likely it is to be able to blend in with a variety of styles and therefore stay relevant through passing trends. However, if an item is too plain, without even a hint of something that catches our eye, it can make objects feel bland and lifeless. The perfect balance for me is a simple design with a little something extra. For example, I usually choose simple cutlery designs, but I look for a rich patina and something that helps it to stand out: a pattern on the handle, a quirky cut to the tine, a decorative element on the neck. Nothing too over the top but eye-catching enough to make the set feel unique while still remaining elegant, understated, and timeless.
Versatile staples: We come across many truly unique pieces, but we are also always looking for certain staples that I adore and think work well in many different kinds of interiors. A few of the pieces we are always on the lookout for include vintage wooden stools (these can be used as bedside tables, additional seating, drinks rests beside a sofa, or large plant pot holders), vintage wooden cutting boards (I love these because they can infuse an entire kitchen with that vintage look simply by adding two or three of these boards), vintage cutlery (these can be mixed and matched with new flatware for a collected look and feel), and brass candle holders (vintage brass candle holders look great in almost every style of home). We can usually find at least a few of these pieces at every market or fair we go to so I always keep my eyes open for them.
Material and colour: A further important selection criteria is material and colour. We always go for natural materials such as wood and clay, fabrics such as cotton or linen, and metals such as brass and copper. I like to select neutral colours that provide a versatile base onto which our customers can layer their own style. Rather than offering loud, bright, eye-catching pieces, I select warm items in muted colours with a rich patina. These pieces add character without overpowering a decorative scheme. Whether it is an aged brass candle holder or a simple clay vase, the idea is that they can blend into a variety of decorative schemes and look good mixed with flowers and candles in neutral colours as well as provide the base onto which bright and vibrant colours can be added.
Creating a collection: finally, I like to consider how all of the pieces will look together. Mixing and layering is what gives stylish interiors that creative, collected look that distinguishes them from interiors that look like every item was bought all at once. I want the items we offer to work well together and enhance one another so that when purchased together they add up to more than the sum of the individual parts.
Art: I am always on the lookout for art works. I am looking for pieces that are not too large and with a calming or creative theme. I am always drawn to landscapes, still life, and art that captures something of the creative process (from cooking to agriculture to paintings of artists or musicians). But the single most important element in selecting an artwork for the shop is colour. Muted colours allow art to blend in with the colour scheme of our permanent collection enhancing any other products purchased alongside them as well as allowing the piece to blend more easily into a variety of homes. Finally, if the art work is framed, the frame itself needs to be simple, elegant, and enhance rather than detract from the art work (a lovely patina to the frame is a bonus).
My final selection criteria is the one that is impossible to accurately explain. It is always frustrating to hear something like this mentioned when someone is explaining their process, nevertheless, it is a crucial part of my selection process: does the item speak to me? Does it capture my attention or my heart? While difficult to capture in words it is a skill that can be honed over time. Continuously reflecting on what we like and why, what captures our attention and what unites the objects that we grow to love more over time rather than tire of, is like a muscle. The more we use it the easier it becomes to exercise this skill and slowly, with time and patience, we begin to develop our own unique style.
It's important to remember that everyone gets it wrong sometimes. I put great care into my product selection and over the years I have honed the skill of selecting lovely pieces I am proud to stock in our shop. However, each time I go for a buying trip I will get something wrong. I’ll be too quick and not check a product over well enough and discover later that it has a crack, dent, or blemish that is just too intrusive to pass on, or I will select a product that felt good at the time but out of the context of the jumble of the antiques market just looks odd and unappealing. Part of creating a collected home is that every so often we will get it wrong. A piece that looked great in store or a market just doesn’t work in our own home. When this happens, I tend to find different ways of passing the item on, whether it is giving it to friends in whose homes it would work, or selling it at a second hand market. The point is that no matter how much we hone our skill, occasional errors are unavoidable, and that is part of the process.
For me, vintage pieces are a joy to collect. Sourcing new items from antiques markets can feel like a treasure hunt and I love the pleasure of looking through our finds, over the following weeks while we prepare them for our new collection release. While these trips are very time consuming and preparing our collections very labour intensive, I have come to value the Vintage and Collected collection as an integral part of our store’s offering and love how it adds character and uniqueness to our product range.
As a thank you to the people signed up to our mailing list, and because most of the items in these collections are one off pieces, we release our Vintage and Collected collections exclusively to the people on our mailing list first before later making any remaining items available to everyone through our shop. This gives our email subscribers the best chance of purchasing one of the unique items before they are released to everyone else. If you would like to gain access to the collection once it is released, be sure to sign up to our mailing list.
Images above show several new items from our upcoming Vintage and Collected collection as well as our Handmade Linen Tablecloth in Warm White and Handmade Linen Napkin Sets in Off-White, Sisal Lantern Lampshade, Handmade Speckled Matt Glazed Ramen Bowls, Breakfast Bowls, Side and Dinner Plates, Classic French Table Glasses, Hand Forged Copper Stacking Cups, Handmade Linen Kitchen Towel in Hay, Brass Water Mister and Handmade Crushed Linen Blanket in Hay.
]]>The pleasures of experiencing can be amplified when taken in through multiple senses. This is particularly true for the pleasure of eating. When we eat, we don’t just use our sense of taste to enjoy what we are taking in but also our sense of sound, our feeling of texture, our sense of smell and our sense of sight to enhance the full joy that food can bring.
While the ritual of preparing, consuming and sharing food is a complex and varied part of the human cultural repertoire, undoubtably, for many of us the way in which food is presented plays an important role in the pleasure the experience of eating can offer us.
With the idea in mind that we consume food through our eyes and hands as well as through our mouths and noses we wanted to offer a set of handmade ceramic dishes that would enhance the everyday experience of cooking and eating at home. Designed with both function and aesthetics in mind our Speckled Matt Glazed Ceramics are created for everyday use with the intention of enhancing the pleasure of fresh, homemade meals.
While the ceramics collection is designed to make ordinary meals feel a little more special, the dishes are nevertheless functional objects intended for everyday use. The plates are designed with an elegant rim that prevents saucy food from spilling over. The cups have a comfortable handle and are neither too large nor too small. The bowls are sized to accommodate everything from small portions of dessert to large servings of stew or ramen.
Aesthetically, and in terms of how the dishes feel in hand, the speckled clay combined with the matt white glaze creates a smooth, powdery surface that is as pleasurable to hold as it is to look at.
From serving homemade granola and yogurt for one to making ramen or pasta dishes for friends, this handmade ceramics collection makes every meal a true pleasure to savour.
Designed in collaboration with Skye Corewjin, each plate, mug or bowl is handcrafted by Skye in her London studio. Skye throws each dish individually on the wheel before engaging in a multi-step crafting process that spans over several days.
These dishes are created for enjoyment, whether they are sitting on the kitchen shelf, in daily use for breakfast, lunch, and dinner or enjoyed on special occasions and gatherings.
Our Speckled Matt Glazed Stoneware Ceramics Collection includes:
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We added these towels to our range a few years ago and they have been popular across the globe ever since. You can read more about how they are produced in our original blog post as well as the slow method of breaking them in in order to increase the absorbency of the unbleached organic cotton.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in otuch with us at hello@elleihome.com.
Images above show our Handwoven Organic Cotton Towels in Ecru, Handwoven Organic Cotton Striped Towels in Ecru, Vintage Storage Jars, Classic French Table Glasses.
]]>As we prepare to launch our second Vintage and Collected Collation, I find myself reflecting on the many and varied merits of decorating our homes with vintage pieces. I wanted to mention a few of these points, reiterating why I am so pleased to be offering some vintage items in our shop alongside our permanent collection.
Ethical, Environmental
One of the main advantages of decorating using vintage and found (ie. second-hand) items is the many environmental benefits that these pieces have over buying new products for our home. Consumption and waste production in the modern Western world have reached a level that feels entirely unsustainable. The majority of new products sold require the use of raw materials and energy in order to be manufactured. Additionally, trend-focused cycles of modern consumption see products manufactured for seasonal use rather than longevity. These short life cycles create an enormous amount of waste not only through the waste of the raw materials and energy used to create them but also in the land, sea, and air pollution they create when no longer in use. Buying vintage home goods contributes to reducing the use of raw materials, energy, and waste by re-circulating and thereby extending the life-cycle of products that have already been made.
Quality, Timelessness, Individuality
Homes that incorporate vintage and antique pieces have a timeless quality that stands out with the flow of passing trends. The incorporation of vintage items into our homes has a kind of inoculating effect against the look of datedness as a result of shifting trends. Because vintage and antique pieces occupy their own timeless style niche they have the unique ability of doing the same for our interiors. By their very existence many decades or centuries later, pieces that have stood the test of time demonstrate their quality and enduring appeal. In a world of mass production where low quality, low cost pieces ubiquitously fill homes across the globe, vintage items infuse spaces with a sense of enduring quality and individuality.
Rich, Characterful Interiors
A home décor scheme that incorporates vintage items has a richness, unlike the flatness and sterility of mass-produced, trend-focused décor. Due to their age but also the fact that many vintage items come from a time when objects were made or finished by hand, vintage pieces tend to be more unique, making the interiors they fill more individual and characterful too. Each new vintage piece incorporated into a modern interior brings with it the character and depth inherent in its storied past.
Comforting Warmth
Homes that incorporate worn and well-loved pieces have an instantly warm and comforting feel to them. There is something about objects that have acquired a patina, slowly over time, that adds a richness to them that cannot be recreated in new pieces. Spending time in spaces that have well-used objects subconsciously signals to our minds and hearts that this is a space we can relax in. We don’t need to keep up the pretence of perfection; we can let our guard down to settle in and feel at ease. What’s more every vintage item comes with a story that speaks to us of the continuity of our place within the greater scheme of human culture. We are not the owners of vintage pieces, we are simply their current keepers before we too will eventually pass them on to someone else.
A Slower, More Considered Approach to Decorating
Decorating with vintage items encourages a slower approach to creating our homes. Searching for an item that is just the right size or colour can take time. And because vintage products tend to be one-of-a-kind items, they encourage us to slow down when decorating our homes. This in turn creates a more thoughtful decorative scheme compared to purchasing everything all at once. Our homes become individual to us, tailored to the slow unfolding story of our unique life.
We are happy to be able to offer a unique selection of vintage items in our upcoming Vintage and Collected Collection. You can see many of the unique pieces that will be available for sale in the images below. As most of these pieces are one-of-a-kind items initially they will be released exclusively to the people on our mailing list in order to give them the best chance of purchasing the item they want. Subsequently, any remaining items will be released to everyone else through our online shop. To gain access to the collection you can sign up to our mailing list and you will receive an exclusive access link once the collection is live.
Sign up to our mailing list here.
The images above show many pieces from our upcoming Vintage and Collected Collection as well as our Handmade Fluted Side Plates, Copper Tea and Coffee Canisters, Handspun Cotton Cushion Covers in Ecru, Shuro Palm Trivets, Handmade Fluted Utensil Holder, Classic French Table Glasses, Handmade Linen Napkins in Off-White, Copper Bundt Cake Mould, Vintage Transferware Plates, Shuro Palm Broom and Hand Broom, Hand Carved Black Walnut Cutting Board, Brass Water Mister and Handmade Linen Kitchen Towel in Taupe Grey.
The struggle between differentiation (becoming an individualised self) on the one hand and integration (feeling that self integrated into a wider whole) on the other, follows us through much of our life. In our own way, each one of us struggles to on the one hand, differentiate ever more fully from the world around us, defining with ever sharper clarity, obtained through the unique experiences we collect throughout our lifetime, who we are on our own unique path. At the same time, the process of differentiation is necessarily connected to our environment and the other living beings we interact with. It is through engaging with the wider world that we can begin to define what we are and what we are not, thereby creating an authentic sense of self rooted in real-lived experience.
In the book “The Meaning of Things” psychologists, researchers, and authors Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton point out that this two-sided dialectic of differentiation and integration is also reflected in the history and etymology of the word symbol. They point out that “in ancient Greek, sym-ballein meant to ‘throw together” or “join”. The phrase came to designate a coin that two friends break in half, each with the hope of reuniting. When the two friends would meet again, the joining of the two half coins signified the relationship between the two persons, so the separation of the coin served the larger purpose of unity. Thus, symbol originally meant that which brings people together.”
It is fascinating to consider that the very origin of the word symbol captures both the ideas of differentiation and integration. Throughout the course of human culture people have used symbols as a means of both highlighting their uniqueness and as a means of integrating the self into large identities. For example, symbolic decorative elements in body art such as tattoos serve to both distinguish the uniqueness of the individual, for example by drawing on their unique story to emphasise something personal to them, while at the same time using wider cultural references, aesthetic styles, and symbols that have meaning within the wider culture.
The deeply ingrained tendency toward symbolism within human culture is also at work within the spaces and environments we create. As Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton highlighted, we may live in physical environments, but we are constantly creating cultural environments within them.
Our homes can be powerful symbols of the self when we have the freedom and the means to construct them in a way that embodies aspects of what we consider to be valuable and significant in our lives. There is no space more amenable to being shaped according to our unique preferences and desires than our home environment. Our homes are our physical shelters and places of emotional solace and rest. Our homes are spaces that can represent and reinforce who we are making our sense of self tangible to ourselves and visible to others.
Our homes contain many of the objects that reflect the diverse elements of our personality and are therefore valuable expressions as well as reinforcers of who we are and what we value. Our home environments don’t just serve to facilitate the activates of our daily lives but also act as the containers for our emotional worlds and the activities that make life meaningful.
Our homes exemplify that there is more contained within our physical environments than merely the sum of the objects within them. The unique combinations of spaces and objects that are specific to each individual home often reveal the personal and cultural symbols that are cherished, whether consciously or unconsciously, by the people who live within them. Our homes not only reflect something about who we are as individuals but also something about what we have internalised from, and how we relate to, the world around us. Our homes are a reflection both of our personal sense of self as well as the wider cultures and systems we are a part of.
Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton argue that due to their symbolic nature, our homes are an important tool in the process of differentiation and integration. With regards to the process of differentiation, our homes contain objects that serve the symbolic function of highlighting our uniqueness – for example, our skills, or personal interests, our superiority over others, etc. Objects that highlight achievements such as accolades or the unique qualities or experiences we have had, such as our travels, qualifications, trophies, etc. all serve the process of differentiation, distinguishing us form others and emphasising our individuality.
On the other hand, many of the symbols within our homes serve to highlight and reinforce our sense of belonging to groups, organisations, to family, or belief systems and ideologies. The objects within our homes that highlight our shared origin with others, shared belief system, shared values, shared belonging to groups or institutions all serve to symbolically express and reinforce the integration of the individual within their wider social, cultural, and relational context.
Through displaying photographs of family and friends we both reinforce the value that these relationships hold for ourselves as well as signalling to others that we belong to a wider group of people. Similarly, by displaying religious symbols, we highlight and reinforce our shared beliefs and values to ourselves as well as affirming our affiliation with our religious group to others.
Moreover, this distinction between the objects that serve to differentiate us from others and those that serve to integrate us into the broader systems we are a part of are not always clear cut. Often times, the objects in our homes serve both purposes all at once. For example, the display of trophies, qualifications, and accolades serve to at once reinforce the sense of affiliation and belonging to the institutions and activities that award them as well as highlighting our own unique achievements that distinguish us from others.
In order to thrive across the human lifespan, we must continually finesse the difficult task of staying connected to both ourselves as well as the wider world around us. We must cultivate our individuality in increasingly complex and differentiated ways while at the same time discovering ever deeper ways to integrate this individuality and put it to use in service of something beyond ourselves. The more we can cultivate our own unique story and point of view, talents, and abilities and put these to use to serve other people and the world around us, the more whole we grow to feel.
It is one of the great ironies of life that we become whole by giving up ever greater parts of our ego. A further paradox is that this has to be done while simultaneously cultivating an increasingly individuated sense of self; one that does not rely on the external world for validation or its understanding of itself but instead uses the unique experiences, skills, and perspectives to tend to something in the interconnected sphere we all share.
When we are mindful and considered about how we create our home environments and the objects we bring into them our homes can help to cultivate and reinforce this process. They can help us to cultivate a self-world system in which our unique psychic energy becomes increasingly invested in goals transcending the personal needs of the ego while ultimately nourishing it and helping it to individuate. In a very embodied way, our homes can help us to clarify and reinforce who we are and what matters most to us. When we use this ability mindfully in service of understanding, connecting to, and developing our unique sense of self while at the same time integrating that self deeply within the context of the world around us, our homes can help us to grow and develop in ways that are essential for thriving.
The images above show various different items from our upcoming Vintage and Collected Collection as well as our Safari Daybed, Kapok Safari Daybed Mattresses, Handspun Cotton Cushion Covers in Ecru, a brand new Handspun Eri Silk Cushion Cover that will launch soon, Hand Forged Copper Bundt Cake Mould, Handmade Linen Napkin Sets in Off-White, Copper Tea and Coffee Canisters, Shuro Palm Trivets, Hand Carved Black Walnut Cutting Board, Hand Carved Coffee Scoop, Brass Coffee Pour over Stand, Pallares Solsona Professional Kitchen Scissors, various natural cleaning brushes, Tawashi Brushes, Classic French Table Glasses and Cotton Lantern Lampshade.
]]>This body we are born into has a wide range of complex and ever-changing needs that we must attend to and attempt to satisfy if we want to survive. At the same time, there are many constraints placed upon us by the external world in terms of how we can satisfy those needs. Some, like the constraints imposed by external reality are non-negotiable. No matter how much we attempt to push back against certain realities such as loss, death, accidents, ageing, or illness we will only discover that we are powerless in their wake. But other constraints, such as the many limitations imposed by the cultures and systems we are a part of, are open to critical evaluation. In many cases when the satisfaction of our internal needs is possible yet sanctioned by others around us (for example our families, societies, or cultural norms) it can be useful to examine whether it is worth honouring our internal needs, even at the cost of exclusion or sanction, or whether we would be better served to give up the internal need in favour of fitting in or belonging. In reality the choice is often much more nuanced than this and we are usually best served by finessing, compromising or modifying in order to achieve a balance between the internal and external forces acting upon us.
As we mature, we can learn to develop ever more refined means of negotiating the balance between satisfying our individual needs and desires and learning how to compromise or alter these needs so that they become more amenable to the world around us. Throughout our life this delicate, pendular dance often swings too far in one direction or another. When we push too hard for our individual needs to be met, we risk alienating others and being excluded from the wider systems and cultures we are a part of. Human beings are deeply relational creatures that have a deep need to be connected to something beyond ourselves in order to thrive. In fact, the fullness of our sense of self only emerges and develops when we are also in relationship with others and the wider world around us. Without this feeling of connectedness, we can easily lose the sense of meaning in our lives that is so important for us to be able to thrive.
At the same time, if we conform too rigidly or give up too much of ourselves to the world around us, we risk losing that crucial connection to our own inner knowing, the only true north of our lives. Without a meaningful connection to the self, we are left unable to attune to our own wants and needs, leaving us vulnerable to the mixed messages arriving from the external world as well as feeling a constant need for validation from others.
Building on the work of Dewey (1934), in their book titled “The Meaning of Things” psychologists, researchers, and authors Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton note that “this dialectic defines the human predicament”: On the one hand we face the challenge of discovering “the limits of being, by expressing the purposes and potentials inherent in the individual organism [we] inhabit. This involves the ability to control the environment, others, and oneself by cultivating purposive habits of life through which one inhabits the world (Dewey, 1934, p.104)”. They suggest that only through learning how to shape and impact the external world around us do we learn the capabilities and limits of the organism we are in. At the same time, they highlight that whether consciously or unconsciously, we all have a sense of how “fragile and insignificant we are”. We know that the only way for this organism to thrive is to establish meaningful links between the self and the outside world; something beyond ourselves “other persons, groups or the greater patterns of the cosmos”.
Throughout our lives we balance the tension of adapting and conforming in order to connect with others, with the independence required to feel connected to ourselves and our own inner-knowing. By sacrificing our needs and desires in favour of what the world asks of us, by continuously revising our beliefs and values in order to fit in, we risk losing our relationship to ourselves and our own deep inner knowing. At the same time, if we focus exclusively on the satisfaction of our own needs, we risk forgoing that deeply rewarding feeling of connection that comes from being integrated within the wider world around us. The challenge as we progress through life is to cultivate and express the depths of our unique being while at the same time integrating that expression into the world around us in ever more dynamic, meaningful, and interconnected ways.
In his book titled “IntraConnected: Me + We as the integration of Self, Identity, and Belonging” psychiatrist, professor, and author, Dan Siegel explains that our very health and wellbeing are based on the successful negotiation of this dialectic. For him, true and deep integration involves simultaneously honouring our differences while at the same time cultivating our linkages to one another and the world around us. For Siegel, a feeling of wholeness and integration is created through the balancing of uniqueness, specialisation, and differentiation on the one hand with the connection, interwovenness, and linkage that allow us to integrate our unique elements of self into the wider world around us.
Many thinkers argue that the successful negotiation of this tightrope of differentiation and integration is the very characterisation of a healthy complex system whether that is an individual or a culture. When a person or a culture is too individuated, they cannot function coherently, unable to unite to work in unison as a whole in order to achieve something greater than the individual parts can achieve on their own. With every individual part working solely in its own interest and without consolidation with the other parts around it, the larger system falls apart. At the same time, without meaningful differentiation between the individual parts within a system, with every individual carrying out exactly the same function in the same way, there is none of the specialisation necessary for the creation of the complex systems that can achieve far greater things than any individual can.
I have tried to set the scene for how the tension between tending to and cultivating our individuality and integrating this individuality in meaningful ways into something beyond ourselves is one of the fundamental tensions of being human. Successfully negotiating this tension in ever more complex ways is key to living a life where we can thrive and not just survive. In our next blog post I want to share how our homes and the spaces we create can serve in this process helping us to cultivate both our sense of self and our connection to the wider world around us.
Images above show our Hand Forged Copper Bundt Cake Mould II, Shuro Palm Broom and Hand Broom, Shuro Palm Trivets, Handmade Fluted Utensil Holder, Hand Carved Spatulas and Cooking Spoons, Copper Tea and Coffee Canisters, Hand Carved Black Walnut Cutting Board, Tawashi Brushes, Handmade Fluted Fruit Bowl, Natural Dish Brushes, Hand Forged Copper Bundt Cake Mould I, Handspun Cotton Cushion Covers in Ecru, Handwoven Cotton Cushion in Plain Stripes, Vintage Framed Water Colour Painting, Pallares Solsona Kitchen Knife, Pallares Solsona Professional Kitchen Scissors, Brass Coffee Pour Over Stand, Copper Kettle, Vintage Butter Knives, Vintage Salt Spoon, Vintage Rail Fork, Classic French Table Glasses, Handmade Fluted Side and Dinner Plates, Kapok Safari Daybed Mattress used as a bench cushion, Handspun Eri Silk Throw, Handmade Linen Napkins, Brass Water Mister, Hand Craved Coffee Scoop, Stone Washed Cake and Pie Server, and various vintage items which will be available in our upcoming Vintage and Collected Collection.
Then there are those object that somehow capture a timeless quality, weathering passing trends and shifting eras while exuding an appeal that only deepens with the passage of time. These objects are most often well made, deeply functional, and sturdy enough to withstand the passage of time.
Quality and craftsmanship are often distinguishing features between these two types of objects. But truly key elements of creating enduring objects are the amount of care, attention, and time devoted to their creation process by the maker. Some objects are endowed with a quality that is difficult to name that is a kind of deep soulfulness. When objects are made with care and attention from a place of devotion to something beyond late capitalist market forces they become timelessly appealing.
As a way of illustrating how a creation process rooted in care, attention, and our values leads to timeless, soulful designs, I highlighted Shaker communities as an example of this way of making. In part one of this two-part blog post I introduced the Shakers and the beautiful, lasting objects and spaces they brought into being from a place of their deepest values. But to truly appreciate why Shaker creations have captivated people for centuries, we can take a deeper look at the ways in which every aspect of their design and creation process was informed by, and rooted in, their values, their spirituality, and their unique way of life.
An Aesthetic Rooted in Values
The Shakers’ entire aesthetic sensibility was rooted in their values. Every design choice they made for the objects they created served the higher purposes of integrity, utility, and strength. Nothing in their work was done out of vanity and every choice was intentionally made to be the best possible solution that would serve these values.
While the shakers were profoundly non-materialistic, they were also deeply sensitive to their surroundings and strove for grace and harmony in all they created. Labour was a deeply spiritual practice for them, and they viewed every aspect of their creation process as a continuous act of devotion to God. And while their designs were born out of values such as utility and purity, above any individual value was the master driver of the creation process itself as a means of honouring God.
The creation of objects from this deeply spiritual place of devotion, deep care and attention, resulted in a distinct aesthetic defined by tranquillity and order. The stark contrast to the creation process for the majority of objects which are created today, under the master values of profit and speed, provides one frame of reference for the enduring appeal of Shaker creations.
Design Purity Creates Timelessness
The shakers put great care and attention into their designs. They evaluated and re-evaluated their creations with an eye toward continuous refinement. While the Shakers never aimed for beauty for its own sake, the continuous refinement of their creations ultimately resulted in elegant, harmonious pieces that have allowed their designs to endure until today.
The characteristic style of shaker design, unadorned and stripped of frills, focused on strength, integrity, utility, and longevity. Rather than masking their furniture with lacquer or veneer, Shaker design purity exposed the integrity of the raw material they were working with. Their finishes consisted of milk-based paints and faint washes that allowed the wood grain to show through.
Design features that served no purpose or wasted precious materials were considered frivolous and therefore did not feature in Shaker creations. Yet for all their restraint, the objects they crafted had exceptional elegance and were profoundly aesthetically pleasing. They exuded the same deep harmony and order that the Shakers aspired to in all aspects of their lifestyle.
This elegant purity combined with functionality not only continued to inspire individual designers and entire design movements in the years that followed (for example much of the functional simplicity of modern Danish design has its roots in Shaker traditions) but has also cemented the enduring appeal of Shaker furniture.
The quiet simplicity, and deep harmony of Shaker designs allows them to blend in rather than compete with other styles, ensuring that these pieces have continued to find admirers over the centuries and find their way into homes to the present day.
Utility, Craftmanship and Beauty
The simplicity, restraint and functionality of Shaker design has seen it endure maintaining its influence on the wider design community for over 200 years. One of the ultimate achievements of Shaker design was combining exceptional utility with their unique form of aesthetic simplicity that resulted in objects of enduring grace and beauty.
The adage “all beauty that has no foundation in use, soon grows distasteful and needs continuous replacement with something new” credited to Shaker craftsmen, exemplifies their attitude towards the link between functionality and aesthetics. For Shakers utility was one of the main tenants of good design; the aesthetic appeal of any object was inextricably linked to it being deeply functional.
While many have interpreted this adage as indicating that the Shakers believed that beauty would emerge through the perfect execution of utility, a less dualistic take that I believe is more closely rooted in their values is that for Shakers, utility and beauty were inextricably intertwined. It is not that beauty emerges out of utility but rather that when an object or a space perfectly carries out its intended function, there is a deep beauty within this process.
In “The Phenomenon of Life”, architect and theorist Christopher Alexander wrote that “because of our still-prevailing 20th century viewpoint, students are convinced that “beauty” comes about as a result of the concern with practical efficiency. In other words, if you make it practical and efficient, then it will follow that it becomes beautiful. Form follows function!” (p. 423). But using Shaker design as a particularly potent illustration of his point, Alexander argued, that in fact, utility and beauty both emerge as a result of a skilled craftsperson’s focus on the wholeness of what they were creating. This notion is a shift away from binaries that place one value above another in a hierarchy, toward a more holistic way of thinking that focuses on the entirety of the design process.
When discussing one of the classic Shaker designs, the Shaker box, Alexander questions “did this start as a practical idea which then just happened to be beautiful? I do not think so…it started with an instinct for what is beautiful” through the maker concentrating on the wholeness rather than any individual feature (p. 422).
What Alexander is highlighting is the interconnected nature of Shaker design. By using their values as a guide for all that they crafted, focusing on the whole, and with it every element of the creation process, the Shakers did not allow any single value (such as profit) to drive their creation process. The Shakers were free to focus on perfectly executing all of the aspects of their creation process because their labour was first and foremost an act of devotion.
Spirituality and Soul
While many people today still appreciate the quality of Shaker craftsmanship and its aesthetic value, fewer people are familiar with the spirituality out of which it emerged and how deeply intertwined this spirituality is with the Shaker creation process.
The Shakers intentionally lived apart from mainstream society and while they regularly conducted business with the outside world, selling their meticulously crafted objects to admirers from near and far, they expressly attempted to keep their reliance on, and interaction with, the rest of the world to a minimum. This separateness and relative isolation allowed them to cultivate their values and practice a deep commitment to their spirituality, living simply without vanity or greed.
Living separately from mainstream society offered Shaker communities the breathing space needed for their own values and beliefs to flourish and be expressed in everything that they did. Shaker societies strove to glorify God with every act of daily life and they strove to attain perfection in these acts as a sign of their devotion. This was expressed first and foremost through their labour, whether that was growing herbs, sweeping, or crafting their famous ladder-back chairs. The Shakers considered all labour to be an act of worship and treated every act as if it was an expression of their devotion and a contribution to creating the heaven on earth they longed for. Above all else, their graceful creations were the manifestation of their religious experience and their belief system.
The objects they created were not subservient to capitalist market forces, with its greed for increasing profit and production speed. Nor was their production and creation process driven by ego or the desire for status, fame, or prestige. Instead, the Shakers created from a place of service to something beyond themselves. Freed from the tyranny of market pressure and the self-serving drives of the ego, Shaker craftsmen poured their soul into perfecting the qualities of mindful labour, meticulous design, and skilful execution as an expression of their devotion to something beyond themselves.
In ‘The Timeless way of Building’, Christopher Alexander wrote that “we have a habit of thinking that the deepest insights, the most mystical, and spiritual insights, are somehow less ordinary than most things – that they are extraordinary…In fact, the opposite is true: the most mystical, most religious, most wonderful – these are not less ordinary than most things – they are more ordinary than most things. It is because they are so ordinary, indeed, that they strike to the core” (p.219).
Alexander’s point is deeply relevant to the creations and designs of the Shakers. Freed from the tyranny of market forces, their value-led design and production processes allowed them to create from a deeply spiritual place. Their objects became enduringly beautiful by merging simplicity with functionality to create something seemingly ordinary yet gracefully striking and deeply practical. Their designs have endured precisely because of the “ordinariness that strikes right to the core” (Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building).
The beliefs and values that drive Ellei Home are also based on the beauty of simplicity, the value in craftsmanship, and the preference for a soulful, enduring aesthetic over passing trends. These ideals align well with the Shaker sensibility which is why I was drawn to design elements that have their heritage in Shaker design long before I knew the details of the the values that led to their creation.
For me, Shaker creations demonstrate that what has the power to endure is all that is created with love, care, and intention. So much of what is made today is driven entirely by profit. This focus strips an object of its soul. The reason that Shaker designs were so lastingly impactful is that they were created from a place of intention to honour a set of values that were larger than the individual makers, connecting them, and those of us who still admire these designs today, to something far greater than just ourselves.
Images above show our Belgian Linen Bedding in Pure White, Handwoven Merino Wool Blanket in Natural, Belgian Linen Fitted Sheets in Pure White, Handspun Cotton Cushion Covers in Ecru, Handwoven Cotton Cushion Covers in Traditional Stripes, Hand Forged Copper Stacking Cups, Shuro Palm Hand Broom, Vintage Framed Watercolour Painting.
]]>Architect, theorist, and author Christopher Alexander wrote about this quality in many of his books. He called the quality “life-giving” or “the quality without a name”. In his book ‘The Timeless way of Building’, he wrote that objects or spaces are most likely to have this quality when they are “made with care and with attention to the small things” (p. 134). He notes that “the love, and care, and patience needed to [bring about the life-giving quality] can only exist when each detailed part is cared for, and shaped, by someone who has the time and patience and knowledge to understand the forces acting on it.” (P. 164).
One truly remarkable example of the idea that things of lasting beauty are borne out of the time, care, and the attention poured into them, are the objects and spaces created by Shaker communities. I have admired the simplicity, functionality, and timelessness of classic Shaker designs for many years but it was only when I took the time to gain a better understanding of the values and ideals that the Shakers lived by that I began to understand why their designs were so extraordinary. In this blog post I want to share a brief introduction to the Shakers before moving onto sharing some thoughts in our next blog post on why their designs and creations have this lasting, enduring quality and beauty to them.
The Shakers
The Shakers were a religious sect of self-sufficient, egalitarian agrarians who originated from the ‘Shaking Quakers’, known for the exuberant form of ecstatic dancing that was an essential part of their worship services. Originally founded in England in the late 1740’s a few of the early Shaker members, led by Mother Ann Lee, sailed across the Atlantic ocean and settled in America in the late 1770's. Uncommonly egalitarian for their time, the Shakers practiced communal living, equality of the sexes, pacifism and a simple form of self-sufficient agrarian living apart from mainstream society.
The Shakers’ everyday lives were entirely centred around their beliefs and values. They strove to enact these values in all that they did. They were practical and inventive and even though they deeply valued the work of their hands, they were not luddites. Shaker’s embraced new technology as timesaving devices and are credited with several technological innovations including the circular saw. At the same time, Shaker craftspeople were masters of their trade who perfected a style of design that was simple, durable, and functional yet so elegant in its simplicity that the distinctive style they created has been revered for centuries.
Particularly relevant to their designs and craftsmanship was their deep belief in the value of good work not merely as a means of survival or production but as a means of worship. Mother Ann Lee was credited with saying “do your work as though you had a thousand years to live and as if you were to die tomorrow” beautifully portraying the value that the Shakers placed on mindful, spiritual labour over mere production. The Shakers strove for perfection in all that they created as a way to glorify God. The thought, care, and attention with which they executed their craft resulted in exceptional design and production and has made their creations appealing to people all over the world.
Because of the enduring quality of their work, their distinctive designs are still prized and imitated today. From the Shaker ladder-back chair, to the classic Shaker kitchen, to their iconic peg rails which are all still being reproduced today, the distinctive Shaker aesthetic has inspired many designers and design styles including elements of modern Danish design that has found its way into most modern homes through brands such as Ikea. Their innovations and designs have been both directly copied and used as inspiration and a jumping-off point for many modern designs.
The Shaker aesthetic is timeless, simple, clean, and functional. But the reason that these qualities came to define the Shaker style is that they emerged out of something far deeper than a mere focus on trying to evoke them. The soul of shaker design comes from the fact that everything they created was an embodiment of their deepest values. I believe that when an object or a space or anything for that matter is created from a place of our deepest values it is much more likely to be endowed with that “life-giving quality” that architect Christopher Alexander describes in his books.
The objects and spaces that the Shakers created were deeply interwoven with their values, belief-system, and their way of life. To appreciate why Shaker creations have captivated people for centuries, we need to develop a sense for the ways in which every aspect of their design and creation process was informed by, and rooted in, their values and beliefs.
In our next blog post we will take a look at some of the key values that informed the Shaker design process as well as how designing and creating from this deeper, more soulful place resulted in the enduring qualities of their designs.
Images above show our Hand Forged Copper Cups, Handmade Fluted Side Plates, Stone Washed Baguette Flatware Set, Classic French Table Glasses, Pallares Solsona Kitchen Knife, Brass Water Mister, Handmade Linen Napkin Sets in Off-White and Various unique pieces from our Vintage and Collected Collection including our Vintage French Ironstone Terre De Fer Plates, Vintage Set of Three Bud Vases (all other items now sold out).
]]>Our homes are at their most soulful and satisfying when they can successfully reflect back to us something core about our sense of self. Through the design process of our homes many of us are trying to replicate, reject, or rework spaces from our history in an attempt to define ourselves and create a satisfying container for our physical and emotional worlds.
Setting aside the idealised images of what the perfect home ought to look like, we can instead begin to utilize reflective practices that tap into our own, deeply personal, sense of home. Whether we are aware of it or not, our personal sense of home is constructed through the amalgamation of memories of physical spaces, images, and emotional experiences we have encountered in all the places that have to do with home throughout the course of our life. Each one of us engages in the creation of our own unique cartography of home. The design of our spaces will be most satisfying when it can tap into some of the many and varied elements that make up this unique and personal map of what home looks and feels like for us in its ideal.
The world of design is fickle and creating our homes solely on the basis of current trends can leave us dissatisfied as soon as the tides shift ushering the current trend out and bring the next one in. Taking the time to uncover some of the unconscious images and memories that have shaped our unique sense of home in order to use these to guide our design decisions can shield us from the discontent of following a trends-based approach to design. When our spaces are created to reflect something deeply personal to us, we are more likely to stay satisfied with our creations through the changing whims of the design world.
What follows is a series of questions intended to prompt reflection on your own unique cartography of home. Once completed these self-exploration exercise can serve as a tool for decisions making. As with all that we encourage, they should be gentle nudges towards getting to know ourselves a little better and drawing what may be under the surface into conscious awareness. They are not intended to serve as rigid or restrictive codes to follow or standards to hold ourselves accountable to. They are here to serve and inspire us not to draw our attention to what we don’t have or the gap between where we are and where we would like be.
You can return to these questions again and again, especially during transitional moments of your home life such as changes in you living situation, renovating or moving into a new home. The aim of these reflections is to offer a tool for aligning our decision-making to something deeply rooted within our own sense of self. The more we uncover, the more personal guidance we have to use alongside any external sources of inspiration. This can be particularly useful when we feel stuck, lost, or unable to make a design decision. We hope the explorations are thought provoking and insightful and that they will help you to become more intimately acquainted with your own unique sense of home.
You can note down your answers on a piece of paper or in a journal so that you can return to them and add to them again and again.
Part I: Unearthing the Past
Remembering Places Past
Emotional Landscape
A Sense of Magic
Are there any places that you found magical as a child or young person?
The Movies in our Minds
Our minds are full of conscious and unconscious images that we have collected along our own unique path to adulthood. Some of these images come from movies and shows or books and magazines we encountered when we were growing up. Rewatching some of this media can reveal surprising extents to which images we encounter when we are young can influence our design preferences as adults.
Pick a movie or tv show from your childhood or youth that contained a place that made an impression on you. If it is famous enough, you can Google some of the images but ideally go back an rewatch parts or all of the movie so that you can examine this space and the objects within it. Has this movie or tv show informed your sense of home and the design elements that you are drawn to today? If so how?
Part II: Reflections on the Present
In a world of design where trends come and go at an ever-increasing pace building and nurturing a connection to a very personal design aesthetic can feel like the best shield against discontent. When the designs of our homes are informed by a deep connection to our personal preferences and sense of self we are more likely to create spaces that feeling enduringly satisfying and deeply nourishing.
Images above show many of the items from our upcoming Vintage and Collected Collection including vases, candle holder, plates and oil painting and our Hand Forged Copper Stacking Cup, Stone Washed Flatware Set, Heavy Washed Belgian Linen Napkins and Brass Water Mister.
]]>Our homes are often our most intimate and private spaces. In addition to serving our needs for safety, shelter, and belonging and facilitating the activities of our daily lives, when the selection of objects in our home is unique to us, our homes can reflect and reinforce who we are and who we wish to become.
When considering the design of their homes, people often look to architects and interior designers, magazines and design books. Much of what we use as inspiration for the creation and decoration of our homes comes from external sources. And yet, the incredibly intimate nature of our private spaces means that while external sources can serve as helpful reference points, the creation of a home that truly supports our unique character and life can only ever be done by one authority. No one can answer the questions that will make our homes reflect and nurture our lives and our sense of self like we can.
Creating spaces that reflect and reinforce our sense of self can feel like a daunting task, but it need not be. One way to begin this process is to start by excavating our own history of place. We can explore our unique feelings of home by becoming familiar with our past sense of place and drawing inspiration from the places that have shaped our physical and emotional landscapes throughout our lives.
Our personal preferences for spaces are woven out of a unique combination of physical and emotional impressions collected throughout our lives. By physical and emotional landscape, I am referring to both the physical spaces that have left a deep and lasting impression on us as well as the tapestry of emotional impressions that have contributed to creating our sense of comfort, belonging, safety and feeling nurtured.
Imprints of physical spaces that have made their way into our minds come from both places we have lived and spent time in - our homes, the homes of friends or relatives, or public spaces - as well as spaces encountered in movies and images throughout the formative years of our childhood and adolescence. The shaping of our sense of home by external sources such as the media may have played a particularly influential role if the physical spaces we spent time in did not meet our emotional, spiritual or aesthetic needs, making it more likely that we would take inspiration for our dreamscapes from places other than our immediate physical environment.
It can be an interesting experience to go back through old movies we frequently watched as a child or young adult in order to explore how the places and objects in those movies have woven their way into our sense of home. Looking back, we will often discover decorative styles, furniture, and objects that have influenced our present-day tastes even though we may not consciously be aware of them having done so.
In addition to the impressions left on our mind by the physical spaces we encountered throughout our lives, our sense of home is also constructed out of various feelings we associate with home. The emotions that relate to our sense of home are formed out of all those moments that contributed to making us feel safe, loved, nurtured and comfortable. These are so specific to each individual person that it is hard to offer anything that comes even close to a universal example. Cuddling on the sofa with a loving carer while reading a book or sharing a sliced apple, for example, might evoke feelings of safety, feeling seen and attended to. Particularly salient emotional moments such as these are informative in shaping our feeling of home and what we might be trying to recreate in our own house. Regardless of the individual details, what I am referring to are the intimate moments of comfort and love where we felt truly seen and connected. Moments such as these will have shaped our emotive sense of home as well as influencing which rooms we feel are important or what interactions and activities we want our spaces to facilitate.
The collection of both the physical impressions of home – sights, sounds, smells and sensations, whether from real life or from what we saw in books and movies, as well as the emotional impressions of home – all contribute to creating the unique blueprint for what home looks and feels like for us in its ideal.
This blueprint is always operating in the background and shaping our choices and preferences whether we are aware of it or not. The reasons that becoming acquainted with this blueprint on a more conscious level can be helpful when engaging with the process of design is that the preferences noted within this blueprint are enduring and deeply rooted in our unique sense of self.
The feeling of tapping into our unique history of home and being able to bring elements of this past into our present and future in a mindful and conscious way can be a deeply gratifying experience. This exercise is the direct counter to fast-fashion-driven decision making, which is in its nature fleeting, transitory, and focused on external sources. By tapping into both the conscious and unconscious images, memories, and feelings that have shaped our sense of home, we can begin to create spaces that feel enduringly gratifying and deeply rooted in who we are, making our design decisions personal and deeply grounded within our sense of self
Decisions made based on enduring impressions of what home means to us rather than transitory trends offer us the best chance at deep, lasting satisfaction, and a more authentic connection to the self over the dissatisfaction inherent in passing trends.
We humans are meaning-seeking creatures. We have a deep need for the stories of our lives to feel integrated and meaningful to us. Symbolism is a big part of the way we make and convey meaning. Whether this is done on a conscious or unconscious level, our homes and the objects we fill them with are imbued with symbolic meaning. They evoke, express, and convey associations and beliefs about what is of value in life. The reflection of this symbolic meaning will always be most satisfying for us when the symbols we surround ourselves with affirm our most valued sense of self.
Over the next two blog posts we will be sharing a process to help you to begin to draw out your unique history of home. The questions we will be sharing can serve as prompts for beginning to bring your unique sense of home into conscious awareness.
We hope this exercise can serve as a useful and grounding resource for all those transitional moments such as moving into a new home, renovating, or redecorating as well as serving as a reference point for smaller decisions such as whether an object will enhance your overall sense of home. We will be sharing this process in our next blog post and if you would like to be notified when our blog posts are released you can sign up to our mailing list.
Images above show several items from our upcoming Vintage and Collected Collection including our vintage bread boards, vintage utensil holders, vintage cutlery, vintage shallow wooden bowls, vintage oil painting and vintage watercolour painting, vintage creamware plates and many more, Handmade Fluted Side and Dinner Plates, Handmade Fluted Soup Bowls, Handmade Fluted Fruit Bowl, Classic French Table Glasses, Hand Forged Copper Cups, Hand Forged Copper Bundt Cake Mould, Various Natural Cleaning Brushes, Copper Kettle (aged with time and use), Hand Forged Copper Stacking Cups, Handmade Linen Kitchen Towel in Taupe Grey, and Heritage Brass Water Mister.
]]>Images above show various items from our upcoming Vintage and Collected Collection (available early next year), Hand Dyed Velvet Cushion Covers in Vault Blue, Handmade Fluted Side and Dinner Plates, Stone Washed Flatware Set, Hand Craved Black Walnut Cutting Board, Classic French Table Glasses, Heritage Brass Water Mister, Shuro Palm Trivet, Pallares Solsona Kitchen Knife, Handmade Linen Napkins In Off-White and Tasseled Handwoven Merino Wool Blanket.
Sign up here to get access to our Vintage and Collected Collection once it is launched.
]]>And yet, no matter how much thought and care we put into the process of selecting the objects we choose to offer, there is always an inherent ethical dilemma in the sale of new products.
The new resources and energy required to create new products, even when these are biodegradable and produced more thoughtfully, still requires the extraction of raw materials and result in the creation of more ‘things’ that will eventually need to be recycled or disposed of.
My approach in my personal life as well as the way I run my business is based on two principles I value: conscientiousness and moderation. I am always mindful of becoming dogmatic even for the most ethical causes because dogmatism can lead to the judgement of decisions that do not align with our own values which inevitably leads to the judgement of people whose actions do not align with our values.
I believe we can strive for improvement, making small consistent changes, while also acknowledging the many realities and constraints that act upon all of our decision making. In light of this belief, while there are undeniable and even unavoidable points of value inherent in the sale of new products, there is always a part of me that is searching for additional, complimentary approaches that might begin to address some of the concerns inherent in the sale of newly-produced goods.
Vintage and collected items that have previously been in use bypass some, though not all, of the ethical issues associated with the sale of new items. Vintage pieces offer individual buyers 'new' products without the use of new materials while at the same time reducing waste through the recirculation of goods.
In addition to the environmental benefits of vintage items there is another plus side to purchasing vintage pieces for your home. In a culture dominated by mass-production, mass-consumption and fast-fashion, the ubiquity of trends has seen the increased homogenisation of our lived environments. Individual homes are losing their unique soulfulness to trends that see so many of the same elements repeating across spaces all over the world. Collected pieces and vintage items can infuse a home with warmth and character through their used, lived-in patina as well as their smaller mass-market availability.
We have been considering adding a collection of vintage and collected items to our shop for several years now with both of the points raised above at the forfront of our minds. For the last few months, we have been working on a small collection of hand-selected vintage pieces collected from our travels, and vintage markets across the UK.
Our curation is based on the aesthetic principles of timelessness and simplicity. We select quality items that we hope will stand the test of time and become the vintage pieces of the future. Our existing collection of products pairs beautifully with our vintage items and the items have been carefully selected so that they can be mixed and matched. Simple forms, natural materials, neutral colours and a timeless aesthetic unite all of our products including new items as well as our vintage pieces creating a relaxed and effortless look and feel that we hope will look as good in years to come as it does today.
We will be starting with an initial, small collection of pieces we love and if there is appetite for these items we will aim to release more collections in future.
The initial collection will be released early next year through an exclusive link that will only be available to the people on our mailing list before later being made available to everyone through our web shop.
We are excited to share this small collection with you and hope to see it grow over the years. To get exclusive access to our Vintage and Collected collection upon its release early next year sign up to our mailing list.
Images above show our Brass Water Mister, Coffee Pour Over Stand, Handmade Fluted Stoneware Side Plate and Soup Bowls, Shuro Palm Handbroom, Stonewashed Flatware Set, Classic French Table Glasses and unique products from our new Vintage and Collected collection that include a framed seascape image, tray, candle stick, cutlery, vases and ceramic fruit bowl.
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These seasons of change are not only natural and unavoidable but necessary. Although Western culture tends to present life in the form of linear progression, it is in fact, like most things in nature, a cyclical ebb and flow, a process of contraction and expansion.
Contractions are those uncomfortable, often painful, yet extremely productive inward movements that facilitate the change necessary for growth. They are inextricably intertwined with expansion and cannot be separate from one another; contraction is in fact a part of expansion.
The last years have brought with them an enormous amount of contracting. Between the social, economic, and political challenges we have all endured, many of us have also had to deal with personal tragedies, postponed hopes and dreams, and the deep sense of dis-ease that comes with prolonged uncertainty.
During times of contraction that challenge our ability to cope, when the ebbing forces that act upon our lives feel heavy and unpredictable, healing can often be found by turning our focus and energy toward supporting ourselves. Contractions call upon us to turn our attention inwards.
While I do not believe that taking ownership of the many burdens that lead people into contraction should be placed solely on the shoulders of individuals, I do believe that so often, our relationship to ourselves is the relationship most within our control to shape. Pushing for social change is essential for progress and needs to be at the centre of our efforts. However, in a world that we have little control over, our inner world is something we do have the ability to practice coming into ever deeper connection with. A strong allegiance with our mind, body and spirit can go far toward helping us through the toughest times, precisely when little else is within our control. And this work is necessary for helping to create wider changes in our world.
Practices of connecting to ourselves are many and varied and what ends up feeling helpful, healing and empowering is deeply individual. From the more familiar practices such as meditation and exercise to more personal or esoteric work like journaling, mysticism or body work of any kind (such as dance, massage, or practices of grounding) what matters is building up a toolkit that feels relevant and meaningful to us personally. This involves a lot of trial and error and most of all dedication.
The aim of these practices is not to transform what is challenging into something pleasant (thought this can indeed happen too) but to move extreme feelings that overwhelm us back within our window of tolerance. Feeling difficult feelings and going through difficult experiences can be both manageable and productive when we have tools at our disposal that help us not to become consumed by challenges. Effective tools can guide us into a place of feeling comfortable enough within the challenges we face so that we can mindfully make decisions on how to move forward from a place that aligns with our values rather than from a place of pure emotional reactivity.
Exploring the many ways to nurture a sense of safety and greater ease within our own bodies and minds gives us tools that can allow the tightness of contraction to loosen slightly. This loosening creates a sense of spaciousness from which we can act, feel, and make decisions more mindfully.
Take a moment to reflect on a time when you felt connected to yourself and grounded even as you faced difficulties and challenges. This felt, embodied sense of being anchored in safety and connected to ourselves, able to think clearly and make effective decisions in spite of challenges, is the aim of practices that connect us to ourselves.
An anchored sense of safety and connection with ourselves provides us with the life energy necessary to move through our time on earth with relative pleasure and meaning even when faced with challenges. It allows us to approach the activities of daily life from a place of openness and curiosity. A feeling of being anchored rather than overwhelmed enhances our connection with ourselves, others, and the wider world around us. It is the bedrock of well-being and can guide us through even the most challenging times. Not by transforming difficulties into something pleasant but by offering us a deeply felt and embodied sense of resilience that can transform the way we view our challenges.
Resilience comes from knowing that we have the tools to help ourselves to weather the inevitable contractions that await us all in life. Repeatedly fostering embodied experiences of comfort and safety can help to move us out of a state of overwhelm and into a place of connection. It is the difference between being flooded by our emotions and feeling difficult emotions within the realm of what feels tolerable to us. Embodied resilience allows us to weather contractions from a place of rooted connection to ourselves and our values and with a feeling of flexibility that offers us a choice in how we want to proceed. And this shift can make all the difference.
When we find ways of bringing our minds and bodies back into a sense of safety and connection, we give ourselves the power to look at life through a different lens and the power to shape our stories of both present and future in new and exciting ways. When the world around us feels chaotic and unpredictable, investing in a deeply grounded bond with ourselves can be a good place to start.
Feeling safe, comfortable, and connected to a stabilising force within ourselves, we can begin to approach our challenging experiences with more openness and interest. With this internal shift our paths become filled with possibilities where previously there were only closed doors.
The natural world is a physical place beautifully suited to fostering this deep connection to ourselves. For those of us who are lucky enough to have homes that are safe and comforting places of solace, our home can aid in this practice too. Our private living spaces can provide the environment needed to create moments of reflection and connection to ourselves. They can help us to explore and weave together a unique and rich tapestry of practices and actions that foster resilience and connection to ourselves and others. Discovering which practices feel relevant and right for us is a life’s work. But with dedication, as our relationship to ourselves begins to deepen, the inevitable contractions that are a part of life begin to feel less aversive and instead draw us in through the knowledge that they are the precursors that signal expansion.
Images above show our Handwoven Organic Cotton Towels in Ecru and Handwoven Striped Organic Cotton Towels in Ecru, Brass Water Mister, and several items from our upcoming Vintage and Collected collection (we will share more about this new collection in our next blog post).
]]>Our need for authenticity is a longing deep inside all of us to express and be valued for who we are without the need to hide or contort our true nature into something that conforms to society's rigid standards of acceptability. At the same time, our deep desire to be accepted and valued by others, in a society that enforces a very narrow view of what is desirable and valued, can leave us with seemingly little choice but to conform to the expectations put on us.
Creating our sense of self based on what current societal norms demand of us rather than deep and authentic internal pulls, can leave us with little felt sense for who we are and what choices would lead us toward or away from a sense of wholeness. This lack of connection with our own deep desires leaves us vulnerable to judging our self-worth according to society's standards and comparing ourselves to those around us based on pre-prescribed standards and measures.
This need to compare ourselves to others becomes fundamentally ingrained into how we generate feelings of self-worth. Even as we recognise that the positive feelings of self-worth attained by each new tick on the list of how our lives ought to be, is transitory and immediately subsumed by the next step on the ladder, the lack of connection to our own true desires leaves us with seemingly little choice but to follow what others are doing. We begin to value our achievements in comparison to others, and our desires become completely contingent on what those around us are striving for.
While conformity moves us away from a connection with our authentic selves, it does provide a choir of voices that will help to reinforce that we are on the ‘right’ path every time we feel a tinge of doubt. Building a more authentic relationship to ourselves, driven by our own wants and needs, can be deeply uncomfortable when our choices fall out with the narrow band of society's idea of what is acceptable or desirable.
As most of us are not taught to sit with discomfort or uncertainty, the need for validation from others that we are on the ‘right’ path, either overtly or through emulating their choices, can be an irresistible pull.
As we open up to seeing life not as a linear progression but rather a colouring in of the canvas that forms our unique lived experience, the futility of comparison becomes increasingly obvious. Comparison and looking to others for the answers of how we ought to spend our unique existence makes no sense because there is no end-goal to be attained. Ultimately, at the end of life, every single one of us will finish in the same place. Recognising this truth allows us to begin to celebrate the multitude of different roads we can take to get there allowing ourselves to cultivate and nurture our individuality rather than stifling its existence through comparison and rigid enforcement of societal norms.
What’s more, cultivating individuality does not need to come at the expense of cultivating deep bonds to the people and world around us. Our differences can enrich our lives serving as points of curiosity and inspiration rather than as points of contention. They can be reflections of the rich possibilities our individual choices open up for future generations rather than invalidations of others’ choices. We can be free to cultivate and express our unique preferences without losing concern for the impact our choices have on others.
This integrated individuality, one where we cultivate a deep sense of ourselves while honouring the rights of others to freely do so as well, is an aspirational future. Our uniqueness and differences are not threats but opportunities. And in this light, there is nothing to be gained from comparing where we are and what we have to those around us. Authenticity is nurtured through the practice of listening to our own internal feelings, needs, and intuitions and is all but drowned out by chronic deferment to the world’s expectations of us.
To live in a time where the opportunities to make free, authentic choice are increasing in more ways than ever before is one of the great privileges of our time. While the pressures of social conformity are real and powerful, they are not the same as real sanctions endured by the many previous generations that came before us. This privilege is ours to preserve by making the greatest possible use of.
In a recent interview, I was asked to state what my prediction for the next big trend in interior décor would be – my reply was individuality. As our possibilities expand and the range of what is acceptable and tolerated grows, so too will our desire to create spaces that reflect this diversity. My feeling is that trends will become increasingly irrelevant as people continue to focus on making their homes their own. As our individuality becomes not only accepted but welcomed and celebrated, our homes will continue to grow in diversity reflecting our unique preferences and the uniqueness of the lives that we lead. The idea of some external source setting the next big trend and telling the rest of us how our homes should look and feel seems increasingly absurd to me. Our spaces should serve our own needs and be reflections of our own preferences and diverse ways of living.
As more of us begin to free ourselves from the stifling bonds of conformity and begin to embrace our individuality and unique choices as a cherished and enriching part of our lives we will begin to see fewer and fewer ‘trends’ emerging. We all get inspiration from what we see around us, but the pressure to conform will start to dissolve as what is acceptable continues to expand. In this light, I look forward to watching our home spaces become increasingly individuated too. Homes will continue to evolve as reflections of the lives that have been lived within them and the ways in which those lives have shaped the preferences and tastes of the people who reside in them. This will be a beautiful enrichment for us all.
Images above show our Hand Dyed Velvet Cushion Covers in Vault Blue and Leaded Glass, hand Forged Copper Cups and Stacking Cups (also used as a vase), Classic French Table Glasses, Hand Forged Copper Cake Mould and Bundt Cake Mould, Hand Forged Copper Kitchen Rail, Pallares Solsona Professional Kitchen Scissors, Copper Kettle, Handmade Linen Kitchen Towel in Taupe Grey, Shuro Palm Hand Broom, Handmade Fluted Utensil Holder (more stock arriving soon), Stone Washed baguette Flatware Sets, Copper Tea and Coffee Canisters, Hand Carved Black Walnut Cutting Board, Pallares Solsona Kitchen Knife, Handmade Fluted Dinner Plates, Side Plates, and Soup Bowls, Hand Carved Condiments Spoon and Brass Coffee Pour Over Stand.
]]>Public spaces can encourage social interaction, instil wonder and awe, and even connect us to something beyond ourselves. From parks and public squares to places of worship and memorials, public spaces have the unique ability to facilitate and support the communal elements of our lives, connecting us to one another, our history and ancestry, and even the shared elements of our spirituality in a way that private spaces seldom can.
While our homes are uniquely suited for exploring, fostering, and nurturing the self, public spaces are a shrine to our collective living and in this way play an indispensable role in not only our individual well-being but in the civic and communal foundations of our lives.
Several months ago, while visiting Manhattan, New York, I was moved by the incredible public spaces I had the privilege of exploring. They left a lasting impression, evoking feelings of solace, inspiration and wonder and left me reflecting on the many psychological benefits that public spaces are particularly well suited to offer. The lasting impression left by the experience of walking through and exploring two of these buildings - the New York Public Library Main Branch and Grand Central Terminal –has since blossomed into the inspiration for our latest collection of Hand Dyed Velvet Cushion Covers.
These extraordinary buildings were created at a time when New York was in the process of establishing itself as the new cultural and commercial capital. Many of the public buildings created around the turn of the twentieth century were created with the aim of instilling a sense of civic pride and with this aim were designed to an exceptionally high standard. Thought and care went into designing even the smallest details in these buildings. The impact of this thoughtfulness can still be felt and is still awe-inspiring today.
Both the New York Public Library Main Branch and Grand Central Terminal were designed to be impressive landmarks for New Yorkers and visitors alike. With the intent to impress, the material selected for the construction of the library’s main branch was marble. At the time of its opening, it was the largest marble building ever built in the United States. From the marble exterior with exquisite arches and detailing to the elegant marble staircases and grand interior, the aim of creating an awe-inspiring landmark was most certainly achieved.
Climbing up the grand marble staircase of this impressive building, marvelling at the rich details that adorn every corner, I discovered that the most impressive space within the library – the Rose Reading Room - was reserved for the public for the use of research and quiet study.
Tourists and visitors were allowed in only twice per day for a brief tour so as not to disturb the members of the public who were using this space for scholarly endeavours. I promptly booked one of these tours so that I could catch a glimpse of this impressive space. Upon entering the Rose Reading Room, I was struck by the quiet yet powerful energy within the space that seemed to be emerge out of the symbiosis of the space and its users. The grandeur of the Rose Reading Room provided the most inspiring place for self-development and growth and in return the people using the room provided the space with a kind of quiet yet vibrant aliveness that could not be achieved without their presence.
I admired the decision to reserve this grandest of rooms for the public good and in turn noticed just how much public good was done by offering such an incredible space up for regular public use.
The second public space I want to highlight, Grand Central Terminal, is just as vast and just as majestic. Carefully thought through designs and delightful details can be discovered at every level of this landmark terminal. Just as with the New York Public Library’s Main Branch, it is the level of thought and care poured into creating this public structure that make it such a rich addition to civic life. A lovely example of this thoughtfulness is the innovative design scheme of pedestrian ramps that largely eliminated the need for staircases. The ramps were tested again and again, with old and young people, luggage, and prams to ensure the commute of large volume of people with diverse needs would be as efficient and effortless as possible.
During the time I spent in these public spaces, I witnessed friends, colleagues and strangers using them, as meeting points and places of casual, free communion. What struck me about these public spaces is how they took the experience of grandeur, usually confined to the realms of the wealthy, and opened it up to everyone. Such extraordinary spaces have the ability to inspire a feeling of awe and instil a sense of importance and worthiness in every visitor open to such an experience.
I took a tour of Grand Central Terminal during which our delightful tour guide explained that the aim of the vastness and beauty of the design was to make every commuter and visitor feel like a king. As people stepped off the platform and stepped into the Main Concourse of this incredible public building, each New Yorker (or visitor) had the opportunity to viscerally sense that they mattered. And as I walked through the intricately designed and carefully thought through public spaces of New York, that is exactly what I felt.
Our latest collection of Hand Dyed Velvet Cushion Covers was inspired by the experience of touring these two landmark public spaces. The overall mood of the collection captures the feeling of the spaces and in particular the colours of the decorative details discovered throughout. The overall mood of muted blues and greens speckled with gold and pale pink captures the feeling of timelessness, class, and grandeur and encapsulates the decorative elements of marble and stone, carefully selected historic paint schemes and gold detailing.
The name of each colour reflects an interesting or beautiful element encountered in one of these two public spaces:
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Comfortable and comforting interiors are at the heart of what I see as ‘good design’ for private spaces because our homes serve as places of retreat from the world. Like the grounding power that an embrace can elicit, the sense of safety and relaxing into our own bodies that comes from feeling comfortable are powerful ways of recharging and preparing ourselves to reengage with the world.
And yet for all my evangelising of comfort, I am also a deep proponent of its opposite. Feeling uncomfortable is so essential to living a full and meaningful life that the practice of willingly walking into discomfort is as essential to our ongoing wellbeing as cultivating moments of comfort is.
Learning to live fully means grappling with the excruciating reality of paradox that is so intertwined with what it means to be human that disentangling them requires draining amounts of mental acrobatics and denial. It is impossible to contemplate our Being in any meaningful way without encountering paradox at the very first crossroad of the mystery of our existence.
Carl Jung wrote at length about paradox noting again and again throughout his writing that paradox provides a far more accurate picture of the reality of life than reason or logic ever could. He expressed it beautifully in Psychology and Alchemy by saying that “only the paradox comes anywhere near to comprehending the fulness of life”, “without the experience of opposites there is no experience of wholeness”. Jung recognised enormous potential for spiritual growth in learning to hold and become more comfortable with the tension of opposites that is inherent in grappling with paradox. A comfort with paradox can expand our consciousness and enriches our lives.
Bearing sorrow, pain, and loss without denying these difficult experiences is courageous work but it is also deeply uncomfortable. Facing our most feared emotions, the ones that evolution has instilled an urge in us to avoid, is so profoundly uncomfortable that most of us will do all we can to deny or avoid feeling them. It takes tremendous courage to lean into these feelings and to face them willingly. To take that uncomfortable step toward allowing ourselves to feel what is painful so that we can face it, get to know its sharp and raw edges, and integrate the entirety of our experiences takes bravery and heart and demands an ability to sit with discomfort. But only when we integrate and accept the full reality of our experiences, including the rich and deeply human story of suffering and loss inherent in all of our lives, can we begin to live from a place of wholeness.
The process of moving between comfort and discomfort, of walking into discomfort willingly and then taking the time to retreat by doing something deeply comforting, helps us to face and integrate reality in a healing way.
Moments of comfort created through the small rituals we put in place in daily life help to balance out the pain of growth by creating a sense of safety and allowing us to arrive back in our bodies and connect with our sense of self. This re-connecting with the self within moments of safety, calm, and comfort generates a kind of robustness that allows us to deal with the onslaught of emotion that is often associated with facing our pain and our losses. Knowing that we have moments of safety and comfort to fall back on allows us to lean into these challenging feelings without being entirely overwhelmed by them. And it is this ability to move toward and then retreat from discomfort that is so essential for integration and growth to be able to occur without overwhelming us.
Our homes can be an important tool in the process of integration. We can control our home environment, as well as what we choose to do within it, in a way that is seldom possible in more public spaces, making it uniquely conducive to fostering feelings of safety and a connection to our personal story and sense of self. Our homes can be shaped into being physical manifestations and reinforcers of our values and sense of self on the one hand, and shrines that honour our losses on the other.
Our homes can help us heal from the discomfort inherent in facing our pains and losses rather than avoiding them. As we push ourselves toward growth and wholehearted living by willingly crossing over the thresholds of safety into discomfort, our homes can serve as a physical counterweight, keeping us rooted within a strong foundation of a connection to our bodies and to our sense of self. The comfort of our homes can help us to bear the discomfort of doing the hard work of living fully.
Images above show our Belgian Linen Bedding Set in Natural White, Tan Striped Belgian Linen Cushion Covers, Belgian Linen Fitted Sheets in Pure White, Heavy Washed Belgian Linen Tablecloth in Ecru, Copper Kettle, Handmade Heavy Linen Napkin Set in Warm White, Brass Coffee Pour Over Stand, Handmade Fluted Side and Dinner Plates, Handmade Fluted Soup Bowls, Shuro Palm Trivet (large), Classic French Table Glasses, Pallares Solsona Kitchen Knife (medium), Hand Carved Coffee Scoop, Copper Tea And Coffee Canisters and Hand Carved Condiments Spoon and Cotton Lantern Lampshade.
]]>Being influenced by forces we are not fully aware of is less problematic when it comes to thoughts, values, and ideas that are beneficial for our own and other’s thriving. However, our culture’s narratives and values do not always serve us and the unfortunate truth is that unless we become aware that we are in fact surrounded by this water we can mistake these value systems for facts and truths making it incredibly difficult to adapt and change them.
Nevertheless, in spite of how challenging things have been and still continue to be, the last two years have also brought with them cultural shifts that are moving in the direction of more openness, flexibility, and tolerance, and that are helping to support our collective well-being. These silent forces, both the ones that are beneficial and the ones that are problematic, are shaping what we ascribe value to in our world and how we translate this value into our daily lives.
Our homes, for example, are infused with our cultural values both in the ways they are designed as well as the objects we bring into them. Whether they are filled with seasonal trends from the fast-fashion world or thoughtfully collected pieces, the choices we make not only tell the story of our values to others but more importantly the story we reinforce to ourselves. Seemingly small and insignificant choices can, over the long run, add up to have a far greater impact on our understanding of ourselves than might be apparent on first thought.
In light of the hopeful cultural changes discussed in our previous blog post I wanted to consider how some of these shifts could be impacting our homes. In what ways are these directions influencing the changes our homes are going through and will continue to go through over the coming years and in what ways are they impacting our purchasing decisions? I want to consider a few thoughts on this subject below:
A growing recognition of home spaces as vital to our healing and regeneration – having a space we are fortunate enough to feel safe in where we are free to explore and express the many changing facets of Self is a privilege. For those of us fortunate enough to be in this position the events of the last two years have led to an increased awareness of the important roles that our home spaces play in our lives. As we attempt to recharge from the challenges we have faced, our homes can provide shelter, comfort, solace and energy. I believe that it is this recognition that is shifting our focus for our homes toward the many aspects of life that provide nourishment to our minds and bodies and is infusing our understanding of home as a conduit for these important experiences.
The specifics of what these experiences are will vary from one person to the next as well as across different life stages. But I believe that our understanding of the way our physical spaces can facilitate the thoughts, emotions, and experiences we desire will only grow and deepen over the coming years.
Through the lens of home as a valuable incubator for our emotional and mental well-being we will continue to evolve our goals and desires for our home spaces as places of nourishment for body and soul, for example:
More generally, I believe the focus on comfort as one of the primary values for our home is likely to continue growing over the coming years. From the recognition of the ways that natural materials and plants can put us at ease to a preference for rounded rather than sharp edges to a continued interest in the ways that textiles, layering, and aged materials infuse spaces with a sense of relaxation, comfort will continue to dominate as one of the primary desires we have for our private spaces.
A growing desire for our home spaces to help with the facilitation of self-expression and self-definition – our homes are the vessels for the objects that tell and reinforce the stories of who we are and who we wish to be. The increasing desire for objects and décor that are not ubiquitous but instead feel personal and meaningful will continue to grow over the coming years. As will our desire for our homes to be an additional vessel for self-expression. For most of us who are not professional architects or designers our private homes are the only spaces we will ever have the chance to design. Having the opportunity to express ourselves in physical space and being able to walk through spaces we have thoughtfully put together is a wonderfully satisfying feeling. The desire to make our home environments feel like a satisfying reflection of our life and values will continue to grow.
The increased need for spaces and objects that help us remember, grieve, and reconnect – In our previous post I touched on the enormous amount of grief that we have all had to endure over the last two years as well as the idea that our interest in spirituality tends to increase during pandemics. The losses we have had to endure, some of us of loved ones, others of less tangible things such as plans for the future or losses of dreams, have left their mark on all of us.
I believe these two factors, an increased interest in elements that loosely fall under the term ‘spiritual’ and our need to process and integrate the losses we have faced, have already begun to show up in our spaces.
I have noticed little shrines and memorials appearing in the homes of friends, family, and acquaintances whether it is something as simple as images of someone or something they have lost or a small token that honours their memory. I have also noticed an increase in the use of spiritual tools such as meditation shrines, tarot cards, crystals and other means of cultivating a connection to something greater than ourselves in more than one home.
In light of the very challenging times we have all been through I think these symbols of our desire to connect to and make sense of the mysteries beyond ourselves can serve as a great healing force. Ways of growing our spiritual connection to nature, ourselves, loves lost or something that connects us all will be a feature that many of us will continue to want to honour and integrate into our home spaces for years to come. Whether it is carving out small corners where we can take the time to connect to these feelings or adding objects or decorative items that remind us of what we have lost or what we revere, this spiritual element to the way our homes are changing as a result of the pandemic will also add up to tell a much richer more personal story about the people who reside there.
As we continue to carve out sacred and spiritual spaces and fill them with meaningful objects that connect us to the mysteries of love and loss, we can think about how we can facilitate the necessary work of grieving and reconnecting to what feels meaningful and healing in our homes.
A desire for more honesty and transparency will see us demanding more from the businesses we buy from – we will want to feel the authenticity behind the brands we engage with and to see meaningful ways in which their values align with ours. Rather than token symbols that claim virtues through badges I think we will become much more interested in the ways the people who lead businesses think and view the world. Companies promoting their values can often feel like more of a marketing or sales tactic than an authentic display of what they believe in. I will be curious to see the ways in which businesses will rise to the challenge of meeting this need in customers to know more about the businesses they support.
The question remains of how our homes will aid us in our search for meaning – Wherever people have the luxury of choice, I believe our aim will increasingly be to make things feel meaningful. Moving beyond the functional, we have begun to demand more of our homes than simply to meet basic daily needs or even just be aesthetically appealing. As we gain a deeper insight into how our spaces have the power to shape and influence our daily experiences we will continue to think of the ways that our homes can make our lives feel more meaningful, more whole. As the answer to this question is deeply personal I believe the growing interest in the emotional aspects of what home stands for will continue to captivate those of us with an interest in creating spaces.
All of the points listed so far merge into this final point in one way or another. From creating memorial spaces and shrines that allow us to connect to love’s losses or to something beyond ourselves to dedicating spaces to moments of rest and self-care to mindfully considering what we love most about socialising at home and thinking of ways to facilitate these experiences, these elements all speak of a desire for home to nourish our humanity and not just our needs for survival.
The ability to think of our homes as more than just a shelter is a deep privilege. But for those of us with the opportunity to do so, our visions of home are rapidly expanding beyond the aesthetic to capture and nourish our sense of self, sense of community and sense of our place in this world and beyond.
Images above shows our Hand Forged Copper Cake Mould, Pallares Solsona Professional Kitchen Scissors, Copper Kettle, Copper Tea and Coffee Canisters, Hand Forged Copper Kitchen Hanging Rail, Brass Coffee Pour Over Stand, Hand Forged Copper Stacking Cup (used as a vase), Handmade Linen Kitchen Towels, Hand Craved Curly Maple Cutting Board, Natural Knob Dish Brush, Classic French Table Glasses, Handmade Fluted Berry Bowl, Dinner Plate and Soup Bowl, Stone Washed Cake and Pie Server, Pallares Solsona Kitchen Knife, Handmade Fluted Utensil Holder, Stone Washed Baguette Flatware Set, Shuro Palm Trivets, Hand Forged Copper Cups, Hand Forged Copper Bundt Cake Mould, Hand Carved Wooden Cooking Spoons and Spatulas, Tan Striped Belgian Linen Cushion Cover, Brass Water Mister, Shuro Palm Broom and Shuro Palm Hand Broom, Safari Daybed, Kapok Safari Daybed Mattress in Soft Charcoal, Handwoven Cotton Cushion Covers in Soft Charcoal, Handmade Crushed Linen Blanket in Natural, A Frame for Life Book by Ilse Crawford.
For over two years we have endured enormous amounts of upheaval and change. From a global pandemic to Brexit to war and so much more in between, we have collectively witnessed multiple seismic shifts in a relatively short space of time which have impacted all of us as individuals and our culture at large. As the changes unfolded one after the other without any time to catch our breath, it has been difficult to predict what would emerge out of all of this turmoil.
Prior to the outbreak of the pandemic I felt comfortable with the perceived sense of direction I felt I had for the path our culture was on. At least within the niche space that I spend my time in. However, the last two years have left me unable to see anything beyond what was happening right in front of me. At times it’s been difficult to even gain a clear grasp of that.
When the pandemic broke out everything changed and continued to shift and change so quickly that it became impossible to make any sense of. I know that I was not alone in feeling bewildered by the events that were unfolding and the impact they would have on our lives. The last two years have felt like a time to watch, listen and process rather than to speak.
I have tried to sit patiently in this uncomfortable space of uncertainty for over a year now. As the worst of the pandemic seems to be behind us and many of us have had a fair amount of time to lick our wounds, I feel the faintest sense beginning to emerge for the changes in the cultural narrative that are resulting from these tumultuous and fraught years.
There are many aspects to the direction our culture is headed in that are deeply concerning. At the same time I see so many encouraging changes that fill me with hope. We have all lived with so much fear and fretting that an intentional shift of our focus toward the positives does not seem naive at this stage but rather necessary. In the text that follows I wanted to intentionally focus on the positives I see emerging out of this difficult time and some of the beautiful and profound ways I believe our culture is transforming for the better.
As always there is so much work still to be done but that should not stop us from taking the time to notice all of the shifts and movements in our culture that seem to be headed in the right direction:
A deeper awareness – The last two years have seen many of us turn inwards to explore and face some of the more hidden aspects of ourselves and our lives. A true and compassionate awareness of the self always comes hand in hand with a deeper awareness and respect for the other. There is a general sense of increasing awareness around social issues, around recognition and respect for our own and other’s feelings, around the many differences between us and around how the diversity of our lived experiences shapes our individual view points and perspectives. Part of this rise in awareness has been fuelled by widespread access to modern media which is generally free of gatekeeping. Social media in particular but another strong force has been the spread of podcasting and other forms of long-form, easy-access information that can provide such a rich and deep insight into the thoughts and lives of people we would otherwise never have had access to.
Historically, a large burst in the increase of awareness and empathy for others was fostered by the spread of novels. In his book the Better Angels of our Nature, Steven Pinker writes that “Lynn Hunt points out that the heyday of the Humanitarian Revolution, the late 18th century, was also the heyday of the epistolary novel. In this genre the story unfolds in a character's own words, exposing the character's thoughts and feelings in real time rather than describing them from the distancing perspective of a disembodied narrator.” Social media and podcasts offer something very similar bringing the person creating the content close to the person consuming it as never before. However, in addition, new media comes without any form of gatekeepers that decide who gets to spread their ideas and who does not. This less gated form of information spreading offers unique access to the thoughts and ideas of a wider array of people we would have otherwise never had access to.
For many of us the pandemic increased media consumption of all kinds and the combination of introspection and deeper awareness with a growing appreciation for the wide diversity in view points and lived experiences in the world around us is leading to a general rise in awareness and sensibility in many more people than ever before.
An increased tolerance for ambiguity – As our awareness for the complexities and idiosyncrasies of other people and the wider world around us grows, we start to build up the muscle for sitting in what for many of us can feel like the very uncomfortable space of the grey zone. One of the great challenges posed to our collective living is the reductive form of black and white thinking that we are all prone to. We deeply crave clarity and certainty and while this is an inherent part of the way our minds work it is unfortunately not the way that reality works. The pandemic has made this reality clearer than ever and in spite of the discomfort of sitting in this space of uncertainty, many of us have practised learning to tolerate both uncertainty and ambiguity as well as the tension they create in our minds. It is not so much that the desire for clarity is the problem as an insistence on clarity and certainty even in situations that are complex and multifaceted.
More and more people are learning to not only tolerate ambiguity but to embrace it. Learning how to hold multiple, seemingly opposing ideas, feelings, and points of view at the same time such as joy and pain is something many of us have received an unwelcome masterclass in throughout the course of the pandemic and the aftermath we are still living in. While this place of ambiguity can feel like an uncomfortable space to reside in, the more we lean into it, the more liberating it can feel and the more it opens us up to all the nuances in our own and other peoples' experiences and points of view.
A deeper understanding of grief – A paradoxical element of our culture is that we have collectively learned to fear and deny the only true universal in all of our lives: that we are here to love and to lose. Grief is a profound experience every single one of us will encounter, most likely multiple times throughout the course of our lives. And yet modern Western culture has done an extraordinarily good job of denying this reality. We keep death out of sight and deny our loses and this nonsensical and cruel practice leaves the grieving having to deal with isolation on top of the enormous weight of their loss. The pandemic brought on a tidal wave of grief that made it much harder for us to engage in this collective practice of denial. Instead of avoiding the pain inherent in facing our losses, many people took the time during the pandemic to face and to get to know their grief. I have enormous gratitude for this collective act of bravery and know how much better off we will all be if we can maintain it when the temptation returns to look away.
A rise in honesty and transparency – Attempting to put on a facade of perfection at a time like the one we have faced over the last two years not only seems impossible but nonsensical. The enormity of all of our collective losses made it easier to talk about the challenges we were facing, whether at home, with our mental health or in our jobs and businesses as they began to feel less like personal failings and more like the result of the challenging times we were living through. Repeatedly being exposed to the struggles that so many people were facing began to normalise this form of transparency and allowed many more people to begin to open up. As we became more comfortable with sharing our struggles alongside our triumphs the weight of pretence became something that increasing numbers of people were less willing to carry.
Increased interest in spirituality – In his book titled Apollo’s Arrow, Sociologist and Physician Nicholas Christakis explained that historical data suggest that people tend to become more religious during times of plague. While religion and spirituality are not the same, this revealing insight nevertheless points to something interesting that occurs during prolonged times of crisis. My sense is that when confronted with such incomprehensible events, the realisation that the sources we normally turn to for answers can no longer provide meaningful explanations to the most important and challenging questions that arise, leaves us turning toward alternative and traditional wisdoms that offer a more flexible framework that guides us toward self-exploration rather than definitive answers. While our knowledge and understanding on all manner of subjects has increased immensely over the last few thousand years of civilisation, our understanding of ourselves is still in its infancy. Sciences like psychology and sociology are still so young and many of the questions that matter most to us were not even studied by these disciplines until very recently. Questions of love and loss are only just beginning to be explored in a meaningful way and the hole this gap in our culture’s knowledge leaves can still only be soothed with art and spirituality that still provide the greatest solace in our times of need.
Search for meaning – This prolonged time of introspection has also led many people to re-evaluate the ways in which they are trying to bring meaning into their lives.
From questioning the order of our priorities to making adjustments to how we focus on them in our daily lives, many more people are embracing the long and difficult challenge of working to understand what gives their life meaning and how they can work within the limitations of their own unique reality to invite as much of it in as possible.
The need for this work has also been born out of an increasing rejection of some of the priorities our culture has set for us. The increase in awareness that many people have cultivated during the pandemic, combined with the pause that lockdown created, gave people an opportunity to questions some of the goals we were pursuing. Many more of us began to wonder whether these pursuits truly aligned with what we wanted for ourselves or whether we were simply going along with them because our culture placed such a strong value on them.
It finally feels like the bubble of the rat race for more is well and truly bursting. From environmental reasons to reasons of wanting to respect our own sense of wellbeing, the desire for more for its own sake that drove previous generations feels like it is losing its chokehold. Instead, more and more people are no longer willing to grasp for more by sacrificing what is meaningful.
While some of the points raised above were entirely brought on the by the pandemic, most were trajectories we were already on that the events of the last two years have accelerated or raised in salience. Digesting these ideas has also lead me to wonder about how these trajectories are likely to impact our relationships and requirements of our home spaces? In our next blog post we will stop to consider how these shifts may impact our relationship to our homes and what we may want out of them in future.
Images above show our Sisal Lantern Lampshade, Belgian Linen Bedding Set in Natural White, Handspun Cotton Cushion Covers in Ecru, Hand Dyed Velvet Cushion Covers in Bondegard and Easel, Copper Kettle, Natural Shuro Palm Trivet, Classic French Table Glasses, Handmade Fluted Side Plate, Stone Washed Dessert Flatware Set, Handspun Eri Silk Throw and Heritage Brass Water Mister.
]]>Over the years we have had many questions about where our beautiful blonde net lampshades could be found. Designed by AY Illuminate and handcrafted by skilled artisans these lampshades have always been an integral part of the spaces we have created.
There is a space between the ceiling and where most of our decorative items are placed where many rooms can feel a little bare. This is especially true for spaces with tall ceilings such as the ones found in many period properties. Our lantern lampshades are extraordinarily simple: a handmade bamboo frame wrapped in a cover made from natural sisal netting or recycled cotton cloth. Together these two simple elements create a striking result: a natural decorative lampshade that fills what can feel like a large empty space with a soft and ethereal focal point for the eye to rest on.
Reminiscent of the paper lanterns that are used in ceremonies across the world, these lampshades create a soft diffused light that glows through the cotton cloth or casts dancing shadows through the sisal netting.
While their unique design creates a natural and comforting atmosphere, we have selected these lampshades not only for their aesthetic appeal but also for the story of material and traditional craftsmanship that go into creating every lampshade.
Each lampshade is crafted by hand using two natural materials – a bamboo frame and a handwoven cover made from sisal rope or recycled cotton cloth. Each of these components is crafted by skilled traditional artisans in the region where the natural material are grown. The bamboo frame is grown, carved and bent into shape in China, the cotton is woven on traditional handlooms in Bangladesh using recycled yarn created from remnants form the cotton textile industry, and the sisal net is handwoven in Swaziland using a naturally regenerating weed from the Lavumisa region.
The natural materials and rounded edges of these lampshade contribute to creating their distinct organic feel, at once simple and striking. Their voluminous form and ethereal design beautifully fill what can be an awkward empty space, instantly becoming the focal point of a room whether that is the bedroom, hallway, living room or dining room.
Both the Sisal Lantern Lampshade and Cotton Lantern Lampshade are available in a large and a small size and you can read more about how they are made in the product description. If you have any questions do not hesitate to get in touch at hello@elleihome.com.
Images show our Cotton Lantern Lampshade and Sisal Lantern Lampshades.
]]>For most of human history, the majority of people on this planet had to contend with never having quite enough. Resources were scarce and difficult to acquire, and most people had to make do with very little. In many parts of the world people still live this way today. However, over the last several decades in the West, many of us have come to struggle with the opposite problem. Instead of never having quite enough we are overwhelmed by choices, options and things.
When reading A History of Interior Design by John Pile and Judith Gura, I was struck by their note that during the seventeenth-century massive storage cabinets came into use because built-in storage had not been a part of the architecture of the houses that had been built up until then. The authors noted that “such pieces became important as wealth made possible the acquisition of much clothing and objects of every sort”.
Today, whether a home has built-in storage is one of the most frequently asked questions during home viewings as most Westerns have come to possess a large number of belongings. This shift over the last few hundred years from homes having no storage to homes never having quite enough storage has been a transition that impacts us and our planet in a number of different ways.
I know that those of you reading this blog are more than aware of the impact that over-consumption has on our environment. But beyond the urgent need to address this habit for the sake of our planet, the problem of too much choice and too many things also has an impact on our daily lives.
We have more choices than any humans have ever had before us. While this can be viewed as, and indeed is, a blessing in some sense, in other ways the options available to us are so numerous that making decisions has become time-consuming and overwhelming. From spending time searching through the many choices for just the right item at the right price to reading reviews to making decisions between the many almost identical products is something most of us have had to contend with on more than one occasion. Too much choice can also leave us feeling dissatisfied once we do ultimately make a decision, knowing that many similar options were also within reach and questioning whether we did make the best decision.
Another common feeling that results from having too many options is a feeling of frustration and ultimately apathy rather than inspiration. It is not uncommon for people to decide to take on a project like decorating a spare room in their home only to be faced with so many options that the project quickly starts to feel draining. This can lead to the effort and time feeling like too great an investment in our busy lives and the project getting put on the backburner or abandoned.
As humans we have evolved to keep seeking, collecting, and acquiring. Our evolved brains and bodies were created for a world that never quite provided enough. A drive to continuously seek out more would have been a particularly useful survival mechanisms at a time when our reality constrained our desires. But in modern times, when plenty has tipped over into too much, we find ourselves struggling with an entirely different issue we are not evolutionarily equipped to cope with: how do we develop the new skill of being selective during a time of increasing options and an overabundance of choices?
New York based graphic designer Jessica Walsh has often shared that she believes that one of the greatest ways to foster creativity is imposing constraints. She has not only become one of the most influential graphic designers of the last two decades through her innovative illustration, design and art direction work but is also a successful business owner and educator with numerous creative side projects like her 2014 project 40 Days of Dating and 12 Kinds of Kindness.
When asked for tips by aspiring designers and business owners on how to find creative inspiration or get over creative block, Walsh has emphasised again and again that constraints are one of the best ways to foster a creative, original and personal approach. She writes that “when the possibilities are too open, you end up drowning in options and feeling lost about what to do. Constraints are an excellent way to form a unique creative style. It’s a technique often used in writing, for example, Dr. Seuss would only write his books with 30-120 words, which gave them a strange and unique vocabulary style people grew to love. Many of the best illustrators, filmmakers, artists, musicians also work within their own unique constraints”.
So while an insatiable drive for more has historically been what has helped us to survive, what will help to get us through this next phase will be a shift towards a more conscious and mindful process of careful selection in a time of plenty. By creating self-imposed constraints, we can begin to shed some of the overwhelm from living in a time of too many choices.
When it comes to creating our interior spaces, this technique works beautifully not only to prevent overwhelm to but create more coherent and aesthetically pleasing spaces. The limits we impose on ourselves will serve to draw out our creativity and make the results more unique to us.
We are all constrained by certain obvious limits such as budget which will rule out many options from the very beginning. But somewhat counterintuitively, adding additional self-imposed constraints can feel freeing and empowering in a way that budgetary constraints often don’t.
From limiting the colour pallet we are prepared to consider to limiting the range or type of materials we will focus on to limiting which shops or types of shop we buy from, there are many different ways that we can set ourselves constraints within which to make design decisions. For me a rewarding aspect of this approach is that it allows us to embrace all of the limiting factors that inevitably spring up during the process of designing our homes, being able to recognise them not as frustrations but as an opportunity for creative problem solving which can ultimately lead to a more original and individual solution.
This style of thinking is a shift from our evolutionarily evolved intuition that more choice is better, toward a truly creative way of engaging with our decision-making. The more we can learn to restrain our minds the more creative and original we push ourselves to become.
At a time of too much, where the abundance available to us is harming not only our planet but also our own mental wellbeing the new skills of selection, restraint and self-imposed limitations will serve not only us and our creative projects but also the wider world around us.
Images show our Handwoven Cotton Cushion Covers in Plain Stripes and Traditional Stripes, Hand Forged Copper Stacking Cups, Handmade Linen Napkin Sets in Off-White, Stone Washed Baguette Flatware, Classic French Table Glasses, Shura Palm Broom and Shuro Palm Hand Broom, Copper Kettle, Hand Forged Copper Bunt Cake Mould and Hand Forged Copper Cake Mould (coming very soon), Shuro Palm Trivets, Copper Tea and Coffee Canisters, Handmade Fluted Side and Dinner Plates, Handmade Fluted Utensil Holder, Natural Dish Brushes, Tawashi Brush, Brass Coffee Pour Over Stand and Handwoven Waffle Linen Kitchen Towel in Organic Cotton.
]]>In those moments where we are able to create this pause, we allow the magic contained within it to break open, dusting its mystical benefits onto the way we relate to ourselves, others and the world around us.
Intentionally pausing opens up a space before our reaction or response. This space creates a moment for that first reactive wave of emotion to move through us rather than capture and consume us.
Within this space there is room for calmer, clearer thinking and feeling through the distance created between the antecedents and our behaviour. The magic that is opened up and released through that pause is the ushering in of a new moment – one in which we are free to choose our response rather than being beholden to an impulsive reaction.
If there is anything that can help us along on this difficult journey of facing up to the many problems our world is currently confronted with, it is going to be our collective capacity to sit with the reality of our challenges and to manage, rather than be taken over by, the intense emotions that are the natural response to facing things as they really are.
Unfortunately, the culture of speed that has reigned with a chokehold over the past few decades allowed little room for such pauses despite them being essential for the wellbeing of individuals and the wider world.
What happens when we start to reclaim this space? When we intentionally begin creating a pause that allow us to stop and notice? How might our reactions be different when we linger before responding? How do our feelings evolve when we give ourselves small and large breaks that serve as a space from which to reflect on and integrate what we feel?
In the aftermath of the pandemic, the spell of speed seems to finally be breaking. So many more of us now recognising the immense benefits contained within the willingness to allow ourselves that pause in a multitude of different situations.
Over the last two years, we have paused to reflect on how we feel deep within ourselves away from the distraction. We have paused to listen to and get to know our bodies more closely, to really feel what they are signalling to us. We have paused in conversation with one another. And we have paused to revaluate and make those big decisions so many of us have been making in our lives.
While mindfulness is the essential component to creating these pauses, our homes too can be small facilitators for fostering this space within our lives. A place to retreat away from the sway and influence of others in order to allow for consideration before responding. A place to hide away in order to be able to deeply connect to our own feelings. A place to rest and recharge so that we can generate the strength to bring our most thoughtful selves into our pause.
The weight of the challenges we collectively face can feel like such a heavy load to carry. There are no simple solutions or quick fixes and that can be hard to sit with. Being confronted with that reality, and being willing to take it in, can feel overwhelming. When we ask ourselves what we as individuals could ever really do to make a meaningful difference, one answer lies in mindfully taking more pauses. The magic contained within them is not a luxury but an essential tool for approaching challenges from a place of thoughtful consideration rather than reactivity and fear.
Images above show our Handwoven Organic Cotton Towels in Ecru and Handwoven Striped Organic Cotton Towels in Ecru, Heritage Brass Water Mister and Hand Forged Copper Stacking Cups.
]]>As so much of what held our cultural narratives together fell apart and so many elements of the way we lived our daily lives fell apart, it was as if through the chaos and shifting tides we were granted permission to appear slightly less put-together and to try less hard to present some polished version that did not show the flaws that are a necessary part of the creation process.
As our world entered its forced slowing, it felt as if we too slowly started to grant ourselves permission not to rush through to some imaginary end-state or state of completion but instead to linger in the process and take a little more time than we used to. In many ways the question of what we were all rushing toward became more pressing and the answer more elusive than before. What in fact was that desired end-state we needed to get to and what was the need to get there so quickly?
Loosening the grip of the need to present as complete as well as allowing ourselves more time has begun to foster a different way of relating to most of what matters in our lives – our work, our free time, our homes, our relationships to others and to ourselves.
Rather than attempting to present a perfect, complete end-state, we seem to have become more accepting of, and interested in, the slow evolving process of unfolding with all of its messy transformations. Rather than only admiring what was 'complete', both in ourselves and in others, many of us have become curious about the process. And with this gentler curiosity in ourselves, we also became curious about the imperfect process of everyone else around us. It’s as if showing our working process with all of the mistakes, errors and wrong turns inherent in getting something right became not only acceptable but desirable.
When it comes to the creation of home, this slow, imperfect, evolving process has been something I have admired as an approach for some time (you can read more here and here). Swapping the rush to the big reveal, with every last detail perfectly in place, for a slower approach allows for a more thoughtful unfolding of the spaces in our homes to occur. This unfolding can occur alongside and in support of our lives rather than attempting to have everything in place before life in our home has even begun.
In his book ‘The process of creating life’ , architect and theorist Christopher Alexander discusses a way of creating, full of freedom and a joy of spirit, which takes place through the simple, stepwise process of adaptation that unfolds one step at a time. Each element is introduced or transformed bit by bit and always in accordance with everything that is already there. Alexander emphasises that the “rough, rambling quality of so much that is good in the environment, comes from the light-hearted, yet profound adaptation which such a simple stepwise process encourages, and which a more formal or controlled design process cannot achieve.”
I take these ideas to heart when considering the process of creation and design. One thoughtful step at a time, always assessing how each new step can enhance all that came before it and the life that will be lived within this space. There is no fixed vision of an end result, no big reveal, just one addition or change at a time. And with time, something begins to unfold that is fitting for its place and purpose.
I feel very grateful to be working in a time where the unfinished and incomplete is welcomed. Where the slow thoughtful evolution is starting to gain as much recognition and value as the rush to the big reveal.
I believe this is how homes (or work spaces or studio space for that matter) become infused with life – we spend our time in them, becoming familiar with both their structure and our own needs within them, and we add to them little by little. As our needs change so too can our spaces, flexing and shifting to accommodate the changing nature of the way we live and evolve. This process is never quite complete. If we allow ourselves to engage with our spaces slowly, thoughtfully and on an ongoing basis, they will reward us continuously by always presenting an opportunity to add or adjust something that can better meet our evolving needs.
The time of presenting perfection seems to be behind us and it is beautiful to increasingly see a new cultural space emerging where we are free to engage with and share the realities of an unfolding process rather than just the polished end result.
Images above show our Heavy Washed Belgian Linen Blanket Throw in Ecru, Belgian Linen Bedding in Natural White, Belgian Linen Fitted Sheets in Natural White, Handspun Eri Silk Throw and Hand Dyed Velvet Cushion Covers in Alleen, Easel and Bondegard.
]]>I remember listening to a story about a soldier returning home from the front lines during World War I. He was returning home for a brief visit before being redeployed. He reported on the impact that visiting a museum of art had had on him. As he walked around the museum surrounded by the masterpieces, he felt tears well-up in his eyes. Never had he experienced the beauty of art in the way he was experiencing it then in contrast to the horrors of war he had just witnessed. Never before had art and beauty moved him so deeply and offered such a feeling of redemption. It was not just beautiful it was healing in a way he had not experienced before.
In times before the modern era, beautiful, awe-inspiring spaces were regularly created for the general public, offering a place of solace and inspiration. From the breath-taking beauty of places of worship to grand public buildings such as libraries, universities or train stations, historically, beautiful public spaces were created with a reverence for the way that our surroundings impact our daily lives.
But following the simultaneous rise of modernism and individualism in Western societies, this focus on the beauty of communal spaces waned. At the same time, modernism severed the ties to traditional ways of creating that had come before and the new minimalist aesthetic removed most traces of a storied past from both objects and interiors. Replacing natural living materials used in traditional handicrafts with uniform and un-aging ones such as glass and plastic, the modernist aesthetic aspired to create a sort of vacuum into which each individual could project their own desired identity. Spaces moved away from inspiring minds and guiding hearts to offering a blank canvas for people to invent themselves within.
Taken to its extreme, the creation of a blank space for individuality to arise from can also result in a loss of a clear sense of self. Making reference to the writing of the wonderful political philosopher Hannah Arendt, in his work ‘The Disappearance of Rituals’, philosopher Byung-Chul Han speaks of the stabilising force that the objects in our lives can have. According to Han and Arendt, the objects in our lives stabilise our own, ever-changing identity and sense of self through their sameness. It is the durability of the objects, and in turn their enduring role in our daily lives over years of accompanying us, that stabilise our sense of self.
It can be extraordinarily difficult to create a stable sense of self when everything around us is in constant flux. Untethered from the grounding effect that the constancy in our physical world offers, dizzied by the seasonally updated carousel of trends, and surrounded by things devoid of signs of age and unaltered by the passage of time, we can feel uprooted, adrift and lacking in a clear sense of self.
What the emptiness of modernism did was to create a sort of blank slate, that cleared the way for a multitude of aesthetic principals and styles to become popularised in a kind of eclectic free for all. While enriching our lives in some way, unfortunately in other ways, this acceptance of variety coupled with the growth of capitalism and our intrinsic desire for the new, led to many traditional craftsmanship-base production processes being replaced by mass-production. Trends and a throw-away culture replaced quality and longevity and with it, much of the sense of stability we gained from our physical environments.
So many of us have a deep yearning to spend time in beautiful spaces. In today’s world much of that focus has moved into our private spheres with our homes being the primary spaces where we are free to express our needs and preferences and with them define and stabilise our sense of self.
In her book titled ‘William Morris and Morris and Co’ written about the work of the British designer, artist, writer and activist associated with the Arts and crafts movement, Lucia van der Post asserts that Morris had a deep intuitive understanding of the importance of home for our daily lives. She notes that “it is [his] instinct for warmth, homeliness and fellowship, and how these [traits] can be fostered by decoration, that was his real gift”… “Today we require that our furniture and decoration, far from aspiring to the condition of blankness speak to us openly of our hopes and desires, our dreams and our memories”.
The question that has arisen for our time is how we can make purchasing decisions that will both infuse our spaces with a warm soulfulness while also beginning to move us away from the hyper-capitalist values that have dominated purchasing over the last few decades?
When I think about these questions, quality and longevity are front of mind. Following several decades of throw-away consumption, many of us feel an intrinsic need to build a more stable relationship to the objects around us more in line with the relationship that Han and Arendt spoke of. By purchasing well-made items that can stay in use for years to come, we create an opportunity for the physical objects in our daily lives to reflect back to us a more stable sense of ourselves.
From fingerprint marks that create a patina that can only be achieved over years of use, to a well-worn fabric that is softer to sleep in after years of use than it was when we first acquired it, these sensual experiences can only be created over time and only if the products that we buy can withstand daily use over years or even decades.
In the book ‘The Beauty of Everyday Things’ Soetsu Yanagi writes “we no longer look upon objects as we used to, which is undoubtably due to their poor quality. In the past, everyday objects were treated with care, with something verging on respect. While this attitude may in part have been a result of the scarcity of goods in past times, I believe it principally resulted from the honest quality of their workmanship and the fact that the more an object was used, the more its beauty became apparent. As our constant companions in life, such objects gave birth to a feeling of intimacy and even affection…the careless way things are made has robbed us of any feeling of respect or affection.”
Yanagi, Han and Arendt are all highlighting the same basic point when they talk about the constancy of the objects in our lives, namely that their presences and integration into our daily tasks offers a stabilising force that is lost through the seasonal replacement of things for new trends. And they also highlight the important role that quality, craftsmanship and beauty play in fostering the formation of this relationship. If objects are not built to last, being able to withstand daily use, it becomes impossible to keep them in our lives. If they are too cheap to repair and too easy to replace, we simply cannot keep them for long enough for their stabilising effect to take root.
I would like to take the time here though to highlight that these ideas are aspirational ideals not rules to be beholden to. We all want to live in beautiful surroundings, but we are also all constrained by the very real restrictions of time, money, and attention or capacity. While drawing our attention to these ideas can be a helpful way of guiding our thinking and decision-making processes, when applied too rigidly these values can easily begin to feel restrictive, punitive and impossible to reconcile with the reality of our daily lives.
If any of the discussion above feels relevant and meaningful, I would encourage that the values of quality, craftsmanship, beauty and longevity be treated as beautiful ideals that can guide our decisions rather than rules that restrict them.
In this same gentle spirit we are inspired and guided by the values of quality and craftsmanship in our own product curation for the shop. We pay close attention to the materials, craftsmanship and production that make objects aesthetically appealing and able to withstand the test of time, mellowing and softening with time and use rather than becoming unusable.
Our copper products are a beautiful example of these values. Whether it is our Copper Tea and Coffee Canisters and our Copper Kettle which are handcrafted in Japan or our Copper Cups and Copper Cake Mould and Copper Bunt Cake Mould, crafted in the Northern Italian mountains by three generations of copper-craftsmen working side by side, all have been created to exceptionally high standards allowing them to stay in use for decades to come. What’s more, with such care and attention to detail, each object will execute the function it was created for perfectly, making their daily use a joy.
For example, our copper kettle has the tiniest curve on its spout allowing it to pour perfectly without dripping. Similarly, the selection of copper over silicone for our beautiful cake moulds means that your cakes will cook perfectly and evenly (even if you are not an expert baker) through the superior heat-distribution that copper offers over other materials. At the same time, the moulds are so pretty that they are perfect for displaying on open shelving or hanging on the wall using the loop provided. Finally, the unique patina that forms on all of these copper products through years of use, cannot be recreated through anything other than time. It is the careful attention to all of these details in the selection and creation of these simple kitchen tools that makes using them a joy for years to come. Their regular use over time will infuse them with a worn soulfulness and their constant presence in our lives ultimately begins to offer that unique stabilising effect that Han and Arendt speak of in their reflections.
Images above show our Hand Forged Copper Bunt Cake Mould, Copper Kettle, Copper Tea and Coffee Canisters, Handmade Linen Kitchen Towel and Napkin Sets in Off-White, Handmade Fluted Soup Bowl, Dinner and Side Plates, Stone Washed Dessert Flatware Set and Cake and Pie Server, Classic French Table Glasses, Hand Carved Wooden Coffee Scoop, Shuro Palm Trivets, Brass Coffee Pour Over Stand, Heavy Washed Belgian Linen Tablecloth and Shuro Palm Hand Broom.
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