chairs

the mill market ballarat

Last week we stopped in at The Mill Market on the city side of Ballarat and had a bit of a browse.  I always love these type of antique barn places that have individual stalls.

We didn’t have much time, and I didn’t buy anything, but I took a few inspiration snaps.  

First I found these chairs … only $10 each. For $80 someone could get an industrial chic look with these matching fun dining chairs. And I have a fondness for brown vinyl … I was tempted … if only we lived in a warehouse in Fitzroy …

And then I saw this yellow crockery.  It really was very lovey.  It looked more interesting in real life than in these pictures.  20 pieces for $295.  The man who owned the stall told me that the same company that made this also made the blue and white striped china that you see around (like my sugar bowl).  That’s why it caught my eye.  It looked old and good quality china-ish, but had such a unique pattern on it … And it was so cheery in yellow.

And these bird cushions were $10 each. Weird and interesting.

It’s funny what you notice.  It all depends on your mood right?

chairs, chairs, chairs – ideas
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inspiration spotted at The Emporium in the city

Every year at Art4All we have a chair auction. Parents and family are invited to make, reinvent or decorate a chair for the auction.  Usually we have around 10 or so chairs up for grabs on opening night.  Sometimes, if parents are FAMOUS artists, and they decorate a chair, people spend heaps of money on them.  Other years chairs go for more modest prices.  But still, the auction makes a couple of thousand dollars and enables anyone in the school community who has a good idea to have a go.

I have entered chairs every year that my kids have been at the school and I love thinking about what to make.  Usually I am just inspired from home magazines.  Whenever I open one I think … there’s a good idea.  One year I made a map chair when they were first in Home Beautiful.  Then I made a chair out of hessian when hessian was all the rage in Inside Out.  I have done some screen printing and some tea towel chairs.  And this year I am still looking at my pile of hard covered books to make my book chair, but feeling a little daunted.

Here is some other inspiration I have been contemplating (yes it is my chair inspiration page on pinterest).   So many great ideas out there!

And here are some of the chair options I have hanging around (literally in some cases) at home.

I am feeling the need to produce something … and the need to get cracking on this project.

 

I love green (things)

Today I present some nice green things.

1.  A green office chair.  I sit on this green office chair every day in my studio.  I bought it at the tip shop (Outlook Environment Centre at Darebin tip) for $5.  It is a great mid colour.  And I love the industrial look of the chair.  And the castors are cool too.  It’s a bit lumpy, but suits me fine.

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2. And my most favourite material in the whole world (I think) covers the chair I inherited from my great aunty.  I really and truly love it.  It is getting old and thin but I can’t bear to take it off and replace it.  I am not attached to the chair in itself … it’s all about the fabric.  I wouldn’t keep the chair without it. But while it looks somewhat respectable, I would never part with it.

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3. A green ceramic dish. I just love the colour of this dish.

4.  I think the dark green writing on this ‘dripping’ container looks pretty great with the aluminium of the container itself.

5.  I love the lumpy green ceramic cups (or are they vases?).  I am sure this type of china has a name that I don’t know about.  But I remember my nanna having it at her house.  So these remind me of her, and how she liked green.  And then I think about her wearing the most hilarious green sunnies in her 80s, and not caring one iota what we thought about them …

6.  These celadon vases look a bit pale in comparison to the other green things, but they are a wonderful bluey-green and were given to us as a wedding present by Clive’s cousins and I really love them.  I had trouble finding a home for them in my house for a long time, but then Elise gave me the green ceramic bowl/pot plant holder for our ‘second hand christmas’ one year and since then the vases and the planter have stuck together and filled various corners in my house beautifully.