Suitcase-Drawers by James Plumb, via Freshome.
Thanks to an article I discovered over on Freshome, I now can’t get enough of the work of JamesPlumb. Aren’t these drawers created out of vintage suitcases just marvellous?! You may have guessed by now but I love old suitcases – the buckles and handles just aren’t the same on the modern wheelie ones!
JamesPlumb is an artist duo – Hannah Plumb and James Russell who, as their website describes, “work with the overlooked and discarded, taking time worn antiques and cast-offs to produce one-off assemblages, luminaires and interiors.” The artists met at Winchester School of Art in 1998 and certainly ‘have an eye for the unusual and a passion for the timeless’.
Butterfly bed by JamesPlumb
I am completely drawn to the use of the aesthetically beautiful vintage items they have sourced and how they manage to create something totally new and modern from them. The butterfly bed above is a piece called ‘Un Ala Di Faraflla’ (Butterfly’s Wing) and is made from an old window from above the doors of a country house and is carefully lined with textile fragments from old seats. The artists describe repairing the fabrics as being like ‘repairing a butterfly’s wing’ – delicate from years of use.
Home from Home exhibition
In 2010, JamesPlumb created a ‘home from home’ exhibition at Spazio Rossana Orlandi with the gallerist’s own archive of furniture and materials as the starting point. The beautiful butterfly bed formed part of that exhibition and the image directly above shows ‘For as long as we both shall live’ - a concrete seat cast to carefully fit inside a sofa frame – previously broken it is now returned to use.
Cluster Chandelier - 26 Shades
I really like the artist’s Cluster Chandeliers. They are made from groups of lampshades – finished in vintage fabrics and suspended by hand dyed silk flex. Don’t they create a lovely effect when grouped together? You’d need a pretty big space to hang them, but they’d look so dramatic in a large event space.
Cluster Chandelier - 26 Shades
The couple have been nominated for Designer of the Year at the British Design Awards 2011, to be announced in the December issue of Elle Decoration. I think they are worthy contenders and will be eagerly awaiting the result. I hope to see much more work of JamesPlumb in the near future.
With thanks to Hannah and James, and Anna Phillips for providing me with the images for use in this post. Credit should be given to the photographer Tatiana Uzlova for the Butterfly Bed and Home from Home images.
