Grand old ladies of Scandinavian design III

Enamel designer Grete Prytz Kittelsen (Norway, 1917-)
Granddaughter of the great Norwegian designer Jacob Tostrup, born in Oslo and was educated in Paris as well as the Art Institute in Chicago. Renowned and awarded for her many works with stainless steel and silver. Today probably best known for the Lotus series for Cathrineholm. Ironically, Grete Prytz did not design the Lotus pattern herself, but rather fought the factory against using it. But the local housewives liked it, so it stayed... Grete and her ex-husband Arne Korsmo were a major factor in the rise in popularity of Scandinavian Modern design in the 1940s and onward.

There is currently an exhibition running at Kunstindustrimuseet in Oslo, and a book release. Grete Prytz Kittelsen lives in Oslo in a wonderful modernist house designed by Arne Korsmo (see my earlier post, Planetveien 12).

Grand old ladies of Scandinavian design II

Architect/Interior designer Susanne Tucker (Sweden 1911-)
Strictly not a Scandinavian - Susanne Tucker was born in Austria, married an American and came to Sweden via the US in the early 50's. She worked for Knoll and Alvar Aalto in New York and in Scandinavia she was involved in designing interiors for the American embassies. She is also known for designing interiors on planes for SAS and Singapore Airlines and lots of exhibitions (MoMA, National Museum of Stockholm and the Swedish pavillion at the Milan Triannual in 1957 (see bottom picture.) She also designed some furniture, and used bent plywood before Charles Eames (see small black and white photo of chair prototype).

She lives in a one room flat in Stockholm, and the interiors are quite admirable. Of course.

Grand old ladies of Scandinavian design I

Textile designer Astrid Sampe (Sweden, 1909 - 2002)
The founder and leader of NK's Tekstilkammare (The Textile Chamber)in Stockholm from 1937-1971. A pioneer in what's been labelled as Swedish Modern and in embracing new technology and materials in her designs. She was the first to make computer programmed patterns for printing on textiles. She also networked a great deal with other artists and got amongst others, Stig Lindberg and Alvar Aalto to design textile prints for Ljungbergs Tekstiltrykk 'Signerad Tekstil' (signed textile), 1954. (Some of these prints have been re-released by DesignHouse Stockholm.)

I love this portrait photo. She looks like such a character. The pattern next to her is called Santa Cruz and has been re-released by Almedahls in a black and white version. The tea towel Perssons Kryddskåp is one of my favorites, and it can be bought at Designtorget. The same print is also available on trivets and paper napkins, and I think it also comes in a red/green variety.

What a day

It started with really heavy rain this morning. The rain continued through most of the miserable day. In the afternoon we discovered that there was no hot water in the pipes - the boiler is probably bust. But hey - the dog had had a bath, at least. And we're in the luxury position of owning a spare hot water tank... (Long story.) It 'just' needs installing. So Mette, if you read this - I might be coming over for more than just a lunch this week! I'll bring my own soap and towels ;-) The next thing that happend was that I saw the wonderful Marimekko Fatboy had a tear, and hundreds of tiny pellets burst out of it. How on earth did that happen? I managed to patch it temporarily, but not sure I dare sit on it again for fear of bursting it properly. Then. On to install the latest computer accessory in the home-office: a multifunction laser printer/scanner/copier that arrived today. Hooray - at last I can scan pictures for my blog. And print originals for my Gocco. When testing the printer I kept getting paper jams, and I'm not sure what the problem is. It's a right mess, and I'm not happy about it. Pretty much sums up the day.

But tomorrow I plan to finally post about some great old ladies in design.

New vintage fabric

My latest piece of vintage fabric bought on ebay - a Vera pillowcase. I think it will be part of a different type of pillow in its next life. Must start sewing again soon!

Visual update II

I got my line! Guess it's handy to live with mr Wiz :-) Thank you, Frankie!

Fall colours in spring

I'm still really enjoying all the grays, black and marine blue of the winter season clothing. My favorite accent colour of the moment is orange (and a rusty orange). All the floral patterns for spring and summer seems very chaotic right now. I'm sure I'll see it differently once the sunny warm weather comes around, but I expect gray will still be a staple colour.

Visual update

Those of you who pop in to read my blog every now and again might have noticed that (besides playing dress-up today) I've made a few visual changes to my blog. I get a bit frustrated with these templates - I would like to have a thin line dividing the two columns. Guess I'll try customizing if possible. If you happen to be a wiz at this kind of thing, I'd gladly hear from you!

Orange tights

Some more successful use of orange tights... From costume.no.
Love the dress, love the shoes - all of it, really.

Inspiration can come from anything

Being stuck at home with an infant for a week (winter holiday) and watching kiddies programs can have weird effects on the brain; I've started finding fashion inspiration in Postman Pat... (the early episodes, ca 1981). I realized that I actually own items resembling those of Ms Hubbard. Even down to her lovely orange tights! What will be next, I wonder?

Not sure I'd actually wear this combo, though.
(At least I'd iron first...)

Stig Lindberg

I'm a big fan of Stig Lindberg's. He created SO much wonderful design. Here are 3 items I've been fortunate enough to find at ebay of late. The two plates are hand painted fayance (don't know if that's the correct English spelling?), the yellow bowl is from a Gustavsberg series named Gefyr.

Vintage upholstery fabric

I can't wait to start cutting up and sewing new products with these fab vintage upholstery fabrics that I scored on ebay recently. I'll post the result here as soon as they're ready...

Thrifted and ebay'ed

The top plate has one of my absolute favorite designs - 'Eden' by Marianne Westman for Rörstrand, Sweden. The apple is so beautiful, and so are the leaves. It doesn't get much better than this, if you ask me! And it's taken me a long time to bargain a piece. But at last - it's mine!

The second picture is a Stavangerflint design called 'Bonnie' by Inger Waage. (The plate is probably a dinner plate and too big to go with the cup and saucer, but hey...)

More leaves on porce

I didn't bake anything yesterday

One of my favorite film clips. From Stepford Wives.

Patterns

Thanks to Skinny laMinx for giving the link to this great web shop! Volksfaden is a German company specializing in contemporary patterned fabrics. I love the clever way they have displayed the various patterns into vintage black and white photographs. Brilliant!

Cool music video from Planetveien

A talented young man named Kaveh Tehrani left a comment to my post 'Planetveien 12' (about the Grete Prytz Kittelsen/Arne Korsmo house). He shot THIS music video for Norwegian singer Magnus Hængsle in one of the other modernist houses next door in Planetveien. Cool, eh? Nice song too. It's called Question. Thanks Kaveh!

More vintage fabric

Another ebay find. It was listed as a tea towel, but it's quite long, so I might use it as a table runner/cloth. Again, love the pattern, the colours and the linen.

Dog prints

I love patterns and prints I also love dogs. Therefore I particularly love these dog prints. The vintage silk scarf is by Vera and the hooded kid's sweater by H&M. I was thinking of making a cushion of the scarf.

By the way, the dog isn't too keen on little kids, but she tolerates quite a bit from this one. Look at that tail go :-) (I still haven't figured out how to photograph moving objects).

Keeping it together

Trying to keep things together in oh so many ways... Here are a few of them. Randomly displayed vintage plates on the wall, die-hard plants in a ... what do you call it? - a flee market find, anyway, and lastly all my trays neatly hung together by a vintage woven band, found on Tradera - Sweden's ebay.

More vintage pottery

These little vintage gems (to me at least) were bargains at a Norwegian auction site. The lidded pot is by FiggjoFlint, the design is called Cadiz. The white and blue cup is by Porsgrund and the little plate is by Egersund. (All Norwegian potteries.)