Swedish Design

Great post on Decor8 about Swedish Design which then led me to Emma's blog from Stockholm - also full of great inspirational homes and images. I am going retro furniture hunting today. I haven't pottered around the Bondi furniture store lately. They often have some good stuff if you really poke around. Check out this hus & hem photo stream. My favourite is the blue one 2nd down - not so much the colour, though I like that it is bold, but more the way the room is styled.

Karen M. Andersen: Studio Tour - part 1

OK well I am reasonably new to this blogging thing so I am sniffing around looking for interesting bits and bites. One thing led to another and I ended up here on Karen Anderson's blog checking out her studio. It feels a little like cyber spying and I guess it is. Its a very cool looking little studio might I add. I love the personality and home made bits and bobs. Quite retro yet modern style with the aqua and red colour palette. Very cool. A few snaps that I particularly liked are below. Nice one karen. (not sure if you know that I am out here but hey, that's newbie bloggers for you!

Karen M. Andersen: Studio Tour - part 1

Check your Interior Style Personality @ ISCD

ISCD - my old interior design school - has released a dinky little interior style personality tool. Its quite fun just for a laugh. Apparently I am New York Loft (I think I got a different result once before, so clearly I am fickle). It says I am a trendsetter!!! I like a high ceiling (true), and an open plan (depends) and my style is distinctive and ever evolving (hmm - have to think about both of those). I believe the built environment is more spectacular than the natural one (FALSE).

Makes for a good magazine cover though. Check it out!! Or visit the ISCD blog.

Fluffy Life Size Sheep Sculpture

While I am on the topic of sculpture, I have to add a link to this post on apartment therapy about the Lalanne sheep. Crazy. Who would put a life size sheep in their home? I can maybe understand as a foot stool, but I'm not so sure. Personally I wouldn't recommend it, but maybe if you lived in country nsw??

Sculpture By the Sea Inspiration

I battled the crowds and made it to Sculpture by the Sea this weekend, my personal favourite being Morpheus, a kinetic sculpture by the very clever kiwi artist Phil Price:

It inspired me to write my first blog post on sculpture in the home. All too often we buy paintings to liven up a room, but there is nothing like a little bit of 3D to add new dimension to a space. The main problem is that sculptures typically don't come cheap. So where is the best place to buy them?

Looking at the price tags on the weekend, the cheapest sculpture you would want to buy for your home started around the $1500 mark, but these were pretty small so depending on your room they would not make a huge statement. I think it you are going to spend good money on artworks you want it to make an impact. The winning sculpture by May Barry was certainly eye popping in term of size and would look amazing in the right location, probably a commercial building, along with a commercial price tag of around  $130,000.

So I started thinking, what happens to all these sculptures that don't sell? Sculpture by the Sea is not the only exhibition or art prize. There are a whole bevvy of community run sculpture awards and exhibitions, just check the Sculpture Society's website for more details.

There are also amateur sculpture classes held in many community colledges around Australia which run annual exhibition of students work. Visit the Tom Bass Sculpture School in Erskinville Sydney which incidentally is running its 36th student exhibition on the 13th December 2009.

But the best place I know to buy affordable sculptures and ornaments for the home is in Bali. On a recent trip I was over-whelmed at the quality of home products available. Sure, there are the typical street sellers of sandstone, limestone and clay sculptures (which to be honest for $100 or so make a fabulous garden ornament)

or there is the more sophisticated Upnormal stainless steel sculptures in Seminyak. Wow, are these sculptures unusual. They don't come cheap, but they certainly make an impact.

So my tip? When you next plan a holiday to Bali, make sure you pick up a few sculptures. As long as you ship more than 1 cubic metre, its pretty affordable and you will end up with something that looks fabulous. But if you can't make it to Bali, check out the various local artists around town and support the community.