In 2011 we visited Hancock Shaker Museum Farm in Massachusetts, and despite it being a somewhat dreary day, we had a great time among the old-fashioned uildings and their tools and utensils. What striked me was how in the simplicity of all their handmade things was the beauty of patterns, repeats, and just a tiny bit randomness. Here are some examples (and more photos here):
The Swedish Museum of Art (Nationalmuseum) in Stockholm is now closed for a several year long renovation, but we visited it one of the last weekends when it was open and I was in Stockholm. One of the most fun exhibits was the one on functional and industrial design. It was filled with so many items I know so well from my upbringing in Sweden, and some of them have even made it over to the US. Here is a selection, with annotations:
When I grew up we had a Lamino chair at home, covered with gray woolskin, and it was wonderful. I had no idea then that it was a classic bent-wood design. The chair and its footstool is still in my mom's apartment and I sat in it just a month ago.
Swedish dishbrushes! Once I went to a summer camp with a girl whose father had the patent on the straight line on the front that you use to scrape off hard pieces from your plates if you turn the brush around. I bet he got a lot of money from all the dishbrushes that have been made in the last many decades.
This kind of very plastic and cheap-looking lamp was common in youth hostels and rented cabins. I think we had one too, orange maybe, and I have a vague memory that it nearly caught on fire once, but I could be wrong. They weren't very good lamps, but popular.
The very practical Swedish queue-system. Used at every postoffice, bank, police station, you name it. I actually like this a lot better than standing in lines.
A classic telephone, of the type that was provided by the phone company. Back then you couldn't buy your phone, it was provided and owned by the phone company. I think this one was made by Ericsson for the state-owned telephone company (which is no more, it is now privatized). These were still in use in the 2000s, but I think they are gone now, since the outlets are different now. Oh all the times I sat and dialed the numbers on the turning dial.... You couldn't hurry it, it took its time.
This line of china is one of my favorites, and we had some at home when I grew up. Blå eld means Blue Fire, and my sister collects this brand.
This is probably the most common object in the whole exhibit. IKEA's table LACK, which is still being sold. We have several here at home in the US. IKEA furnished so many homes in Sweden, it saved our budgets and book collections (thanks for Billy!). I didn't realize that the LACK design was over 40 years old by now.
I don't know the year of this collection of dairy containers, maybe late 1980s? Featured here are: regular milk (3% fat), 'middle milk' (1.5% fat), light milk (0.5% fat - too watery for me), mini milk (0% fat or nearly so), 'vispgrädde' heavy cream (40% fat), and 'gräddfil' (sour creme, but runnier, 12% fat). The containers are Tetrapak, paper with plastic on the inside. Oh, the memories.... :)
You said: I need to find replacement wheels for an office chair.Anna said: There are many options for chair available on our catalogue. In order to narrow your search select one specific category from the ones listed on the window below me.Product typesProduct namesItem colorsItem price rangesWas this answer helpful?You said: NOAnna said: Sorry. As an IKEA Online Assistant I don't know the meaning of 'no'.
Apart from being a bit inconvienent in snow and rain, I love this. Pick a book, drop down on the grass and get lost between the pages. Wonderful art and much more. This is part of an art installation in Ghent, Belgium. Nice, isn't it?
LA and I had lunch at the "New Diner in Sparta" in northern New Jersey on Saturday, a place that turned out to be not so new. The whole place had seen better times, probably around 1950 or 1960. The pink vinyl seating and the personal juke boxes, unfortunately now non-functional, could have been in the movie Grease. The food was OK, not the best, and the ice tea was horrible. I won't dwell into a long restaurant review, it wasn't worth it. But the atmosphere was cool as a historical flashback. The pink seats looked like giant lips up close.
Ice tea. Looked better than it tasted.This is how summer is supposed to be - 20 degrees Celsius, low humidity, and a little rain now and then and sun in between. I now remember how much I really, really dislike New Jersey summers, especially after the horrible downpour in the dark on the highway this morning on the road to the airport. Six hours on a flight and I am in a different country, both literally (feels like Europe!) and climatically.n Everything is green, deers are not eating all the plantings, I hear seagulls, and I have only been here 6 hours. So far I haven't seen the city, only the airport and the university campus, but I love it. The houses are cool, with cedar roofs and steep angles, lots of wood, not one McMansion seen so far. Even the money is more beautiful - oh, well, most everything is more beautiful than the US dollar bills. With the cooler summer days flowers last longer so everything is in flower everywhere, lavender, spiraea, hydrangeas, and much more. Now I know why my Dad wanted to emigrate to British Columbia as a teenager, but I am also glad he didn't, because then I wouldn't have been born in Sweden. But Canada doesn't seem to be far from Sweden. Oh, the airport, I have to talk about that too - it is CLEAN, nicely designed with stainless steel and glass, SPACIOUS, with over 30 luggage carousels (Newark has maybe 9 in each terminal, always overcrowded), the customs and immigration area is superefficient, etc, etc. Leaving the newest terminal at Newark Airport and arriving her was like going from a tired 1980s-decorated restaurant serving lukewarm canned soup with stains on the tile floor, to a cool and funky-fashionable sushi place with Swiss-designed lamps and perfect floor cleaning habits. Small details can really give big impressions. Like the chair in my room, in one of the student apartments - it is made to lean on if you like! And free internet, and birchwood furniture in clean design, and all for half the price in a regular hotel.
On Thursday I plan to go to the old parts of Vancouver and see the world's only steam powered clock. I also hope to go down the cliff to the ocean close to here and maybe see a sea otter, only issue is that the cliff is very high and the beach below is a nude beach :) But I want to see sea shells, drift wood, and the Pacific waves before I leave. More later...
Now this all looks all very familiar, don't you think? I had no idea the torch lamp and bean bag were Italian innovations. They forgot the pasta shapes and Ferrari cars...
Guess what, the chair / recliner I requested earlier exists! I found it in a park here in Stockholm, Vinterviken to be more specific.
As I wrote in a comment to LS' post:
"Why doesn't anyone sell a chair in the shape of a smooth archipelago rock, warm from the sun? That's where I relax best."
And it is even placed in a quite nice spot. Which is a good thing really, it is a little hard to move it without a forklift. It's a rock chair, not a rocking chair.
Now the question is if it is available in Rapakivi granite? I have nice memories of laying on my back on the cliffs of Åland. Soap stone from Handöl could be nice too, retains the warmth from the sun for a long time and makes it easier to fine tune the fit. Or maybe I'll just take one of each... :)
/O.K.
(Listening to while posting: Frank Zappa - Sofa)
It is a chair made from liana vines (rattan palms) all nested together and only $2000 to buy! ("som hittat!"). There are some other chair designs using the same technique here. But I don't understand how you can get all the branches nested together into that shape. And even if it looks soft, I bet it is hard to sit on.
