The Beat That My Heart Skipped – A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations. By Rohini Wahi.

Monochrome Mini-Series

Monday, 8:00 am, June 3rd, 2013

The new Mini-Series from from one of my favourite Brooklyn ceramic studios ,Bailey Doesn’t Bark features striking black and white illustrations of dots, stripes and inky black splodges on tiny spoons and vessels.

There are 108 tiny designs in the limited collection. I love the extra-flat wells of the spoons and the unusual and confident choice of black glaze. A pile of tiny bowls to store jewellery would look beautiful on a dresser or for that matter a fat and flat striped spoon in a bowl of sea-salt. Perfection!

Tags: Ceramics

Comments: none

Hung Up on Hardware

Interiors & DIY, Style & Trends

Thursday, 10:04 am, May 30th, 2013

I’m a sucker for hardware; brass hinges, bevelled handles, geometric door pulls, a well-designed vent cover – oooh I love them all! On the hunt for various pieces for our new kitchen I came across these lovelies that had me a quiver. Does anyone else share my passion for hardware?

Above: Equilateral Nails, Winsome Brave Shop , Brass shelf bracket, Futagami, Rose gold door knob and Brass Vent cover E. R Butler

Clay House Numbers, Heath Ceramics

Oji Masanori

Individual brass hooks, Oji Manasori

SchoolhouseElectric2

Door pulls and card holder Schoolhouse Electric

Tags: Hardware

Comments: 2

Älv Textiles

Interiors & DIY

Tuesday, 9:00 am, May 28th, 2013

Sometimes an email pops into your inbox that gives you that, ‘I’m on the cusp of discovering something big’ feeling, which is thrilling for any journalist.

The last time I felt this was when I met a young Fiona Douglas touting her sublime wares at a small trade show in London – and now her textile company Bluebell Gray is steadily reaching mega-brand status, sold by the metre at the likes of John Lewis and Liberty.

I received an email last week that gave me this very feeling from South African artist Shilo Engelbrecht, who only launched her business six months ago. Her first collection, Älv Textiles is a highly sophisticated range of table linens and its combination of rustic linens and bright impressionist pattern was what caught my eye.

Shilo digitally prints botanical paintings inspired by the Swedish countryside onto exquisite linens. The initial imagery has a raw quality that I love about new discoveries and the very exciting potential of the unusual products shine through. Already featured in Elle Decoration UK, The Telegraph and with a a feature story coming out June’s Vogue Living, I imagine it won’t be long before Shilo’s textiles are quickly snapped up.

I’m always fascinated by the drive behind small businesses so thought I’d grab Shilo for an interview before her star takes off!

Tell me about yourself – where are you from and what is your background?

I was born in Cape Town, lived & studied in Australia and now live in Cambridge in the U.K. I studied Fine Arts/ Design and I was thrilled that my graduate collection won the Mercedes Benz Start Up prize and Emerging Designer of the Year award. I moved to Europe after that and fell in love in Sweden. My partner & I moved to Cambridge so he could do his PHD and I could find a quiet studio to work. Six months ago I launched my first textile collection.

Tell us about your first collection.After living in Glasgow for a few months I was very inspired to paint. When I got back to the studio in Cambridge I painted spontaneously every day for weeks. I soon found a story and a flow begin to form in what I was painting. Hence the name of the collection ‘Älv’ ( Swedish for river, pronounced ‘Elv’ )

I took these paintings to the Centre of Advanced Textiles to digitally print them onto beautiful textural linens for use in interiors.

The results were really special. The paintings bring a lot of life and vibrancy into a room and to have them on fabric gives them versatility. It’s been wonderful to see how people use them. The fabrics can be purchased by the metre, customised to suit your interior or in ready made products available on my website. There is also a range of big hand sewn silk scarves that I’ve just added to the collection.

I love that your company is small and so new! Tell us about any exciting developments for you since launch.

I love being small too ! There a few things that stand out for me, firstly the response from the media in Australia and the U.K. That has really exceeded my expectations and the big one is still to come, out June’s Vogue Living!

Another highlight was my whole collection of textiles was snapped up by an incredible design team in London to frame on their walls.

These things have been really inspiring but I think the day to day communication and relationships I have developed with customers who love what I’m making is the most exciting thing for me.

Customers send me photos of how they use my fabrics and love relaying complements they receive which is rewarding. Recently a customer was inspired by the textiles she bought from me to create her own beautiful ceramics. These connections are important and so motivating for me.

Tags: Textiles

Comments: 2

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, by Anton DiSclafani

Books to Read and Love

Tuesday, 8:00 am, May 21st, 2013

I’m not sure whether it’s the norm to write reviews when you haven’t yet finished the book, but often I find myself most attuned to its rhythms when I am not quite done. Besides, this novel is one of those that you put off ending because you just can’t bear to leave its world. So I write this review before I deliciously turn the pages on the last chapter.

A debut novel from Anton DiSclafani, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is set in 1930 during the Great Depression of America. The root of the multi-layered novel is about a heartbreaking family scandal, set in a very specific time in American history and nestled in a very unusual environment – a prestigious riding camp for girls high in the awe-striking Blue Ridge Mountains in the Southern States of America.

Thea Atwell is an alluring young girl from a wealthy Florida family who made their money in citrus farming, sent away to Yonahlossee because of her part in a family scandal. Thea takes her place in the beautiful school populated with Southern Debutantes, day-long horse riding, dinner bells and handsome headmasters – where there is a new order to her life. Yonahlossee on the surface seems like paradise to the reader, but there is an unsettling dichotomy of uncertainty and guilt that bubbles under Thea’s surface from her past.

The privileged girls live in a bubble of sorts, distanced from what is going on in the outside world, with maids to clear up after them and balls to attend, but fractures and cracks begin to seep in as once wealthy families begin to lose everything.

The writing ambles provocatively between Thea’s home in Florida and school, the narrative powerfully unfurling the true story behind her expulsion from her family. And there is a dangerous languidness to Thea’s awareness of the scandal, revealed to us in tandem as she grows and grapples with her responsibility for the events that led her here.

There could almost be something Malory Towers- esque and wholesome about the book albeit for the very specific and real writing style - it is one of the most vivid and surprising novels I have read and despite its chick-lit title, is far from it.

Wholly immersive, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is a transporting page-turner and proves that simple ideas are the best.

Published by Headline, It is available to buy on the 6th of June.

Comments: none

Seriously Cool Hardware from Frends

Style & Trends

Thursday, 9:32 pm, May 16th, 2013

I think it’s fair to say that everyone is obsessed with warm metals at the moment – I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to them!

I like clothes but I’m not really into fashion – preferring to spend my money on a nice lamp! But when I saw this stunning collection of super cool geometric headphones from Frends, I was smitten. Based on the design and craftsmanship of vintage jewellery the headphones are made of soft leather in crisp white combined with rose gold and gold metal hardware. Beautiful!

[It's my 30th birthday in July for any friends reading - hint!]