Designalogue

Well hello once again! or, welcome if this is your first time in this particular blogs hood!

Thought I would share a couple of  pictures of a recent project that I had photographed.  Its a music room for a young family & as you can see they aren’t afraid of living with colour!

Look-see at the handblown glass pendant light we had made for the project:

So there you have it! It was such a pleasure to work on this project! My clients (the loveliest people you could meet) had an idea of what they wanted for the space which was bold & colourful.  I dont think you can say its not either of those!

Thank you once again to the fabulous Martina Gemmola for beautiful photos!

See you back here soon! I have some INCREDIBLE news to share soon of a project I have been working on – its the kind of project that i could not possibly say NO to & is the kinda project that is & forever will be a career highlight & totally surreal. When I tell you more you will understand the surreal-ness!

Until next time!

You may remember (or even just scroll down a bit to see my previous post on the subject!) that I was invited to be one of 9 fellow designers & bloggers to participate in the Feast Watson Re-love project. Well, I finished. Its all done! To refresh your hazy minds – I accepted the challenge to give a piece of furniture some Re-loving using some Feast Watson products to do just that! I chose this wee stool as it was a nice & simple shape, small enough that I could manageably takle its overhaul easily enough myself &  small enough to easily transport it around to those who I managed to rope in to assist me in the transformation!

Here tis BEFORE some re-loving was applied:

Still before…

So on with the transformation….

I selected from the Feast Watson range Black Japan stain & varnish. I wanted the timber frame to have a bit of depth of colour that the Black Japan offers. Its not a heavy black, like a paint black – its a murky dark dark almost black with a tinge of walnut (yeah – i’ll stick with that as a colour description!)

Next I coyly sent an email to the lovely people at Signature Prints & explained the project to them & what I was planning. They were very happy to get on board with the project & donate some fabric for me to use! woohoo! After feeling a bit like a kid in a candy shop as I had so SO many gorgeous goodies to choose from, I selected one of my favorite from the Florence Broadhurst fabric range- Aubrey on a cotton base cloth in black & white.

Here are all of the goodies together all ready for me to get cracking!

Get cracking I did! I roped in my clever friend Nicko in to assist in the transformation. To be fair he wasn’t given too much of a choice about his participation!! Its true that I may have basically just told him of his participation -but as he is like my brother from another mother- I felt I could get away with it!! Also he has a shed, and lots of boy toy tools, and loves doing this kind of thing -that boy loves a project! He sanded & got it prepped & ready for me to stain.

The stools existing proportions reminded me a little too much of a Star Wars At-At walker (google it!) & as I was planning on altering the shape of the upholstered section, the existing legs length would’ve looked even more out of proportion. So whilst in the care of Nicko with his tool shed, he cut down the legs by a few centimetres. Much better!

Usually when I am sourcing or designing a piece of furniture for a project that I am working on I need to take into account everything else that is going on in the room so it fits into the space with continuity & balance – thats my job! But as I dont know where this piece will end up, it gave me a bit of design freedom to play with & try something a little different for this lil solo stool!  So from out of the depths of my closet came my old sewing machine. Its been a while between sewing sessions. In fact Im not even sure that this machine that Ive had for about 10 years has ever even sewn on fabric! – its been pretty much solely used on paper party invitations!! (yeah thats a thing – I love a good party invite!)   I took this sewing selfie!  - you know proof that I was doing it & all that!!

The plan was just to embroider a small section of the fabric pattern & give it a lil sumpin with the copper thread. This picture shows early progress – I’m sure you can see where Im going with this!

Right, so on with the staining… Nicko had graciously sanded the stool back & prepped it ready to stain.  So easy! Brush on & whamo – it changes right before your eyes!! Here tis after just one coat of the Feast Watson Black Japan.

Two coats was all it needed!

Lets just take a moment to look at this corner of Nicko’s man shed – work bench with neatly organised man shed kinda containers all stacked up. He is a perfectionist – just the man to have you assist on a DIY job!!

Next step was off to visit my upholsterer Wayne who also kindly donated his services to this project!

This picture is purely just to show off Waynes factory! See all the -stuff! I love visiting my suppliers factories! I love seeing where stuff gets turned into excellent stuff – its inspiring!! We decided to alter the shape of the upholstered top to a cushion top. I like the proportions better this way & think its a better fit for the design of the stool & the does more justice to the gorgeous fabric pattern.

Next up & finally: I wanted the stool to just have another little bit of special! So I visited my super clever friends Chris & Tim at Lump who also agreed to make a wee sumpin for this project out of some copper bits they had on hand. (its very handy having clever friends I tell you!) I just love the contrast of a dark stain with a copper pop. You may remember the kitchen I designed last year with a copper kicker? Looksee here .

So finally here tis. The finished result:

and here be a detail of the embroidery.

Im quite happy with the end result & I think it will look quite gorgeous in someones home!

The plan now is that my wee stool as well as the 8 other pieces that are part of the re-love project are going to be auctioned off on Ebay with the moolah raised going to a really great & very worthy cause – the Salvos Stores.  Click here for more info on the Ebay auctions & feel free to bid to give this lil fella a happy home!

Special thank yous to the following peoples for their help on this project:

Nicko of his own domain! & of course Anna for just finding it amusing that I boss her husband around!

Helen & Gemma at Signature Prints

Wayne at Edgeworks Upholstery

Chris & Tim at Lump Sculpture Studio

Its been a fun & satisfying project to be a part of – so thank you Feast Watson for inviting me to be a part of it!

I was rather chuffed to hear the news this week that I had a won a award for 2 of my projects in the inaugural Your Future Home Green Interiors Awards!

I won 2 of the categories!

One for my bamboo bathroom project:

& the second for my bamboo kitchen project

The major sponsor & one of the judges was Jen Bishop of Interiors Addict had some particularly lovely words to say about my projects:

“Camilla Molders so impressed us that she won both the kitchen and bathroom categories. These rooms in her Elwood project made great use of bamboo, a renewable and durable material. It also looks fantastic and gives the kitchen and bathroom a much warmer feel than you’d usually expect. I loved the handmade Australian tiles and the environmentally friendly paint choices too.”

Well, isnt that a bit nice!

More on Your Future Home here.

Wowsers, its 2013!  Happy new year peoples!

I had a pretty quiet NYE, I’d celebrated my birthday the day before in a very liquidy way, & as I turned 37 – not 18, I dont bounce back quite like I used to! So my NYE was spent on my sofa flicking between Graham Norton, The Rocky Horror show & a Rolling Stones doco on the TV. Truth be told – was quite happy!

2012 was a great big year for me both personally & professionally. It was the year  that I got my first magazine cover, worked on an international project , travelled to Vietnam, worked on some really exciting & challenging projects & hilariously was invited to do a screen test as a design expert for a TV show (psst I was terrible! – a robot! Bloody hilarious experience though!) met some amazing & inspiring people, took a pottery course & made my own set of dinner plates, took a basket weaving course and topping it off in December I moved to a new house & office. A big year!

Ive enjoyed a few days over this break just doing a bit of nothing. Ive slept, taken long walks, Ive sorted out the new house – decorated it, got bored with how that looked so re arranged & redecorated again! But now I ‘m nearly ready to get stuck into it all again!

Right out of the gate I have some great projects to get stuck into, as well as some to finish off . Im excited & raring to go!

By the way, Im often posting pictures of project happenings over on my facebook page – so if you wanna, go like it – to keep in the loop! go here

like this – a snippet of a very colourful project nearing completion!

And thats that! See you back here soon!

A couple of weeks ago I had the great pleasure of working with the very lovely chick & super excellent photographer Martina Gemmola. We shot a project that I have previously shared with you  here & then a little more here. And because I’m a caring sharing lass (sometimes with an over-sharing tendency -truth be told!)  Im going to share even more of it!

So checks it out!

Thank you Martina! You were such a pleasure & great fun to work with!!

Im not gonna lie, its always a squealy woohoo moment when I see my work in a glossie!

No exception for the current issue  Home Beautiful (Nov) where my project has been featured in their before & after special

Check it out!

I will be back here soon to share some of my recent happenings – loads to share! (this is a note to self more than anything else!)

This morning I was interviewed by a student for her end of year assignment. The questions were mainly all about how I work & my inspiration etc, but one question that she asked was what do I do in my spare time?

Hmm, spare time? I have a vague memory of this concept & something called a life, but it is a distant memory!!

Oh, sounds a bit sad doesn’t it… really its not!  Im pretty happy with what Ive got going on!!!

One thing I have been getting up to all this year is taking a pottery class at Cone 11. And yes, to answer the question you are  thinking (as everyone I tell about the classes automatically asks!)  - it is totally & exactly just like that scene from the movie  Ghost. Un cannily so in fact! The song & everything. The same.

Anyway…moving on.

I loves it! I love getting filthy & filthy I do get. I always come away covered head to toe in clay splatter which just adds to my personal satisfaction! (weirdly no one else in the class gets as splashy messy as me!!!) Im on to my 3rd term now & soon to go on to my 4th.  Which means there is barely a surface in my house that doesnt have a kooky misshapen bowl on it!

Oh, I didn’t yet mention that I am not brilliant at it! My bowls are usually crooked & wot not. No matter, its just so satisfying to make a little sumpin sumpin in my own 2 hands!

This is the studio – located at the Abbotsford convent, & right beside the Collingwood Childrens farm - there is just something special about wandering through the convent grounds that is inspiring!

These are my most recent pieces ready for glazing.

In previous terms I have completely lost my shit when it comes to the glazing. I forget the less is more thing that I rant & rant to my clients, & have made nice simple shapes look weird & just wrong by using multiple colours without having the skills to carry it off!

Case & point:

(not all – but certainly some!)

These are my most recent creations after glazing & firing. Um, so it is meant to be a dinner plate. But as you can see by the forks size, its more of a muffin plate – or at a stretch a toast plate!

and this is a very shallow bowl! Good for soup I suppose!

This one from my first term has turned out to be quite useful – The wonkyness got turned into a small spout which is perfect to rest my tea spoon in! – you know just like it was meant to be!

This isnt the prettiest of shapes & does illustrate the glazing mania I get in!

(Psst – in this pic you can kinda see my silver braille-celet! A recent side project (huh I DO have a life!) of mine that I designed & had it made – it has a message written in braille to me on it!!)

Here is another example of me loosing my shit in a haze of glazing fun! Although I think the splatter is kinda cute!

This gives you a good idea of the scale of my earlier peices! Tiny!  But now I have the perfect place to keep my  eraser! – as you do!!

I could go on, and on. But im sure its a topic that is far more interesting to me than to you! So I will spare you any further examples but at least now I have proof that I DO have a life!

If you want to see some good ceramics – check out my teacher the super lovely Iiona’s work on her website – here. Great stuff & top chick!

Almost a year ago I posted here about a hot pink velvet chair I really really really wanted to do for a project I was working on as it was just perfect for the project – perfect I tells you! It didn’t look like it was going to happen due to boring things in life like budgets (yawn!), but then…the clouds parted, the sun shone through & here tis!  A very lucky little little lass (as in a 4 year old little lass!) has a very pretty chair in her beautiful room!  Its as good as I knew it would be & it makes me happy!

Just to clarify, it also makes the baby mamma happy  and the little lass whose room it is also was quite excited by it…perhaps not as much as a new kitten or battery operated something would’ve – she is only 4, & 4 year olds generally dont get as antz pantz excited as someone like me does about furniture!

In the same room the bedhead was also something I was eagerly waiting on! So in the spirit of sharing, have a looksee: beautiful chocolatey linen with feature buttons in pink & white stripe for just a lil bit of sumpin sumpin! & the cushions are bit of  eye candy too!

So thats todays deliveries for your perusal! I will be back soon to share lots of other exciting things that have been happening over in my part of the world!

But  thats enough about me – whats been happening with you?!

Say WHAT?!

Thats right!

That IS my project on the COVER of the new House & Garden Bathroom lookbook! and then some more on the inside!

and in case you thought I was fibbing, thats my name just there. SEE!!

Photography by Armelle Habib who did an amazing job!

Look see here if you would like to see some more of that project – before & afters.

A lovely person over on my facebook page (ahem… go like me, um it!!) commented that she was glad she didnt have to do the layout of the tiles! It was a bit fiddly & different than a usual tile layout, so I thought I would share some of the pictures I took while working it out!

Originally the plan was to place these tiles in an organised random pattern. I admit, there was some procrastination on my part when it came to working out this organised chaos! I’m sure a computer program would’ve been simpler, but I am a bit old school and like to draw things out, so I made a life sized template on my living room floor & started to play! (cant accuse me of not being hands on!!)

Starting to get a feel for the layout… this picture shows half most of layout as random, and starting to play with graduating colour stripe layout.

I feel hard in love with the graduated stripe. It meant we had to order a few more tiles & delay the install a week while they were hand made! But I think it was well worth waiting on.

See, it HAD to be striped.

I had the easy part! Bruce the tiler had a very difficult job but did it beautifully! These tiles are hard enough to keep straight just placed on the floor. I dont want to think about hard it would’ve been adding gravity to the mix!

Anyway, its not quite mid day, but the champagne is cooling ready to celebrate my first ever magazine cover! CHEERS!

In my world, it is so exciting seeing things come to life that have been rattling around in my head for a while!

I  liken it to having babies all over town and I’m the surrogate. (Is that weird?! Did I just gross you out?!)

Moooooving on….

These are some of my recent project happenings:

This morning I finally got to see these delicious Patricia Urquiloa tiles that I was so excited to use, laid on the bathroom floor of a project I am working on.

I love them so much. SO SO much.

Also this morning in the same house we installed some gorgeous Roman blinds.

This is the best picture I took with my crappy camera, so you will just have to imagine, or take my word for it on how good they look!

psst: The sconce on the wall in real life isn’t as tiny as it appears to be in this picture!

Still a fair bit to get done on this house when time & budgets allow! (real life ruins all the best laid plans!) but its all coming along so beautifully.

Meanwhile, over on the other side of town:   This renovation project is really starting to take shape.

The en-suite bathroom is being slowly installed.

The tiles are also in a dark grey, but very different from those above!  just in case you sensed a theme!

I cant wait to see this done, I’m really excited about this design!

The paint colour has been confirmed  & after lots of tests my original choice was given the go ahead – phew!!

So now you have an insight into some of my current ‘babies’!

One life lesson I had to learn early on in my career – patience is a virtue!