Thoughts about design and consumerism
Just two thoughts - we don't need all these things in our houses, but they sure look good if they are well-designed and fabricated with thought and of good materials. When we were in Princeton yesterday, I saw a really cool pillow by Kstudio with a little long-legged bird, just fabric sown with bright colored thread on a sewing machine. I couldn't find that particular pillow on-line, but here are some other examples. Inspiring! 
While looking around on the web, I happened to run into a Swedish design, home, and crafts blog called Husmusen (the house mouse), that also links to some great stuff. The blog isn't active anymore- it continued as the blog Cult Design. I think there is so much more nice design in Sweden, but maybe that is because I don't see the good American design among all the bad cheap, plastic, Chinese-made stuff here in the US. You have you seek it out more actively here.
3 comments:
We have talked about things made in Sweden here on the blog, but not so much about things made in America. What do you have that is american and good stuff?
I know there is a lot of old nice things, like glass insulators.
What is the american design about? Is it influenced by old traditions from southern USA or the old european style (french heavy furniture, popular in the 1900th century)? Some furniture looks very rustique and heavy when I do a search for american style furniture at Google image.
I also found a site called China American Style furniture, but didn´t bother to look into it.
If China stopped selling things to the states, what would be left. A whole lot of plastic would be gone for sure...
Swedish desigh today is about simplicity and userfriendly, often witha certain amount of odd shapes involved.
"American" are so many things, so many types, influences, and heritages mixed together or kept separate. I like the Shaker furniture, and the Mission style furniture and Frank Lloyd Wright, for example. Milk glass I think is American, and Bennington pottery definitely is. There is a lot of nice things here, but you have to seek it out more.
By the way, China exports a lot to Sweden too. Just look at any toy or electronics, it will say Made in China on most of them.
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