Monday, April 5, 2010

Weird but Good

Contemporary New Zealand artist / jewellery designer Nga Waiata has recently released a new jewellery range entitled AWA Jewels, crafted from recycled native timber and chunky crystals.

I am a little inundated with submissions at the moment... sadly I just can never seem to find the time to blog every weird and wonderful thing that finds its way to my inbox! But I do feel bad because most often it is the slightly unusual creations which end up on the cutting room floor around here. I am not sure why! I guess when you have to choose between delightfully odd or tried and tested, it's often easiest to choose the road most travelled!

So today I thought I would shake things up a bit and share three examples of weird but wonderful design that has crossed my path recently... work to be celebrated for it's uniqueness as well as it's beauty - designs which might take a moment to get your head around, as you decide 'hmmm... do I like this?'

Nga Waiata's new AWA Jewels each come in their own handcrafted matching timber box.

Contemporary New Zealand artist Nga Waiata is both a painter and jewellery designer, and has recently released the AWA Jewels range, handcrafted from recycled native timber and chunky crystals. Super gorgeous, tactile and so unique, they've only just hit Australian shores... (stockists may soon include Safari Living - stay tuned!).

Stockist enquiries please contact Collective Workshop.

Horsehair necklaces by Kate James - available from Craft Victoria

To complement her exhibition The Work of Worry is Never Done, until April 24th at Craft Victoria, Melbourne artist Kate James has created these amazing horsehair necklaces, for sale at Craft Vic's retail store COUNTER. Available only for a limited time, these intricate pieces are painstakingly plaited and knotted using traditional rope-making techniques, and fastened with a sterling silver clasp. Super weird but super good.

Vintage Mushroom lamp from Etsy store Hinksvik. Weird but good just got even weirder.

This crazy vintage mushroom lamp is so so weird but so utterly adorable in a kind of 'what on Earth...!?' sorta way! This and many more kooky treasures can be found in the Etsy store of Canadian fossickers Hinksvik. They are a cute young couple living in a small Canadian town which must be some kind of vintage/industrial goldmine judging by the awesomeness of the vintage goodies in their Etsy store! They ship worldwide and their blog is also excellent.

9 comments:

  1. I'm totally sold on the horsehair rope necklace, that would have been tricky as hell to make I bet!

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  2. Hair jewellery was very popular during the reign of Queen Victoria (however with human hair). These pieces are amazing! I'm loving the simplicity and rawness of Nga Waiata's work. Beautiful!

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  3. bah. that schroom light is the best! love it!

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  4. thanks for putting me on your blog Lucy!
    I am way thrilled to be included in esteemed Design Files!

    could you change the contact for me though? it is ngawaiata.blogspot.com.

    mihi ana ano

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  5. These rings are SO beautiful... I want. And I don't even like to wear the things...
    Thanks Lucy!

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  6. Wow those rings are beautiful! I look forward to seeing them somewhere in real life!

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  7. As Nga Waiata mentioned above, you can see more of her at ngawaiata.blogspot.com
    If you are interested in becoming a stockist please contact me through www.collectiveworkshop.com
    The pieces really are SO beautiful!

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  8. Love the natural, raw and earthy feel of the rings - and what a curiously creative idea to have a matching box too.

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  9. Those rings are rad, and I like the multi-designer blog post! You should do more of them (might help you get those emails under control!! :)

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