Beautiful Junk

I bought this beautiful thing for 20 dollars at vintage fair
in Massachusetts last month. Its a 6QT butter churn from circa 1920.

I had to buy it, its such a beautiful contraption, it reminds me of a Duchamp ready-made or construction, the parts seem entirely incongruous yet they make a beautful whole . I just love everything about it, how it looks the combination of materials and most of all the way it works.



I think there's something quite magical about the way the paddles turn inside the jar, the way they seem somehow disconnected from the motion of the handle.

I could tell that the folks at bag-check in Boston airport loved it too.

PS. Sorry i cant figure how to turn video around!

Ive got a crush on you.

As promised more images of my salt and pepper grinders Vic and Bob.

They are a total joy to use, the beautiful turned oak handles (with thanks to Niall Redmond) nestle in the palm of the hand without the usual obstruction of a screw on cap in centre. This has long been a bug-bear of mine and was one of the starting points for this new product. The handle simlpy pops off the powder coated tube to allow for easing filling and the crush grind ceramic mech can be adjusted to a give fine or coarse grind.

Lubbly jubbly.

More RHA

This is the window display ive put together featuring a selection of my own products, TIE lights, HALO clock, I BEAM candlesticks, and GLACIER Cabinet.And a blue LEAF rug resplendent in the window.

New! New! New!

Phew.

Im tired now.

Lots of filing of large lumps of steel.

I-beam candlestick prototypes complete.

In situ at the RHA

Our pop-up shop is all set up and ready to go, so come and see us.

Alongside the nofixedabode.ie product range Im showing a selection of my own products large and small all available to order.



Very happy with my new salt and pepper grinders. They've been a long time coming but definitley worth the wait. Better images to come soon.

Like buses, you wait for ages for one....

I thought I might have been dead there for a while...... but it seems I was just hiberanting. So after a nice rest heres some new stuff ill be showing at the RHA next month. Ive been thinking for a while about trying to use standard sections of metal for a range of products that I could manufacture myself in small batches and these are the first fruits of that idea.
Vic and Bob are salt and pepper grinders in mild steel tube with turned wood handles. I-beam candle sticks are.... well .... bits of I-beam with candles on. Prices to be confirmed.

Popping up at the RHA

From 20th May to the 8th of June I'll be running a pop-up shop
at the RHA Gallery on Ely place.

I'm hoping to have a number of new pieces of work to show,
including some pieces from my new Glacier cabinet range,
aswell as a selection of products from the nofixedabode.ie range.

The window display might look a little bit like this...hopefully




More detail to follow soon..........

My mate Marmite

The first online magazine created specifically for the Ipad - designed by my old mate Brian O Connor creative director at Die Welt newspaper in Berlin. Boy done good. http://www.theiconist.de/en/

'Glacier' range for Gillmorespace

A sneak preview of Glacier, my new range for

Gillmorespace

which will be launched at

Decorex

in London this month. Gillmorespace is my longest standing client, I've been working with Charles Gillmore for 10 years now, ever since he started the buisness in fact. Over the 10 years I've designed 4 or 5 ranges, some sucessful others not so, but I've always had a really good working relationship with Charles and gained a wealth of experience throughout the process.

The idea for Glacier was to try to almost do as little as possible with the available surfaces but still create a very identifiable character and aesthetic. The range began as a series of paper models, playing with cuts and folds to create a series of simple modulated surfaces creating varying tones of light and shadow as the surfaces move forward and back.

By creating a handle detail where these modulating surfaces meet, this then became both the functional and decorative signature for the range.

There will be a basic range of about 8 pieces initially for living and bedroom, in coloured lacquer finishes and a range of base options available.

Photos of the actual products to follow soon.............

Leaf rugs

Ive just done these new rugs for nofixedabode.ie, they are the first result of a little pet project I've been working on for a while based around Irish modernist architectural heritage. They are based on mosaic panels on the roof level of the Busaras building in Dublin designed by Patrick Scott in the early 1950's while he was working a junior architect in the offices of Michael Scott.

After photographing the panels I went to visit the 89 year old artist to discuss the possibility of using the design and I have to say he was genuinely one of nicest individuals I've had the pleasure of meeting and he very generously agreed for me to use them as the basis for these new products. So far we have produced 2 samlpes in red and blue produced for us in collaboration with Rugart.ie. We're also workin on a range of printed and knitted cushions to compliment the rugs hopefully to follow soon..

Stuff love

Im always pulling random bits and pieces that take my fancy out of skips. Not all of it useful, but here's my favourite example of one man's junk becoming another man's treasure.

I also love a good bodged together solution to any given problem, so when i needed a small hand cart to move boxes in and out of our stand at Interiors and Art Fair at the RDS this was the solution. The harmonious union of a childs tricycle (minus front wheel and with handlebars re -located) and a bunk bed ladder...et voila handcart.

I think this may in fact be my favourite thing that Ive ever made, bar none.
It's just a lovely thing, it does the job admirably and has a 'ready-made' charm which I just love.


Proper Job, as Peter Kent would say .

The story so far.....

I was doing some publicity shots of my new Leaf rugs for nofixedabode.ie
what with moving stuff around all over my house, it ended up looking like a little retrospective of my design career so far.

In foreground - orange Causeway bench for Made.ie, Red Leaf rug for nofixedabode.ie, Albrecht stool, for Thorsten Van Elten (now sans producer), Companion table for Marcs International / Habitat, Causeway table for Made.ie,
Background left, TIE lamp and right Halo clock for Innermost, hiding in back room is a prototype side chair from about 1995.

Also here a couple of pieces by lesser know designers, Eames, Van der Rohe, Castiglioni, those old fellas...

Serendipity - A happy co-incidence.

Urban Outfitters have assured me that any similarity between the 2 products is pure coincidence. Traditional Irish Welcome still the original and the best though. Get it here :

TIE now available on nofixedabode.ie

The award winning TIE pendant is now available on www.nofixedabode.ie.

Barcelona on nofixedabode.ie

We're now selling my Barcelona cabinet range in Ireland
via our webshop @ www.nofixedabode.ie.
Another golden oldie, Barcelona was designed in
about 2001. There have been various iterations of the design
since then but still looks good.

IF awards

Photographs of excellent work being done on IF Design Awards Jury
in Hanover in November, http://www.ifdesign.de/awards_product_index_e
It was a really enjoyable few days and working with Herr Meurer
( Siedle and Sohne)and Herr Nussler ( Siemens) on the
Computers Judging panel was both an education and a joy.

New images of TIE

I just grabbed these new images of finalised production version of TIE off the Archtonic website - http://www.architonic.com/pmpro/peter-mac-cann/8103373/2/2/1

Very pleased with them.

Constant companion

I just realised while looking through some old images, that Companion is 10 years old this month. Thats gotta be worth celebrating surely? Here are some shots of early protoypes.
They looked a little bit like scary little dogs at first . (sorry Fred)


But with a little bit of help from Heath Robinson and a half memory of the frame of a childhood toy they eventually found their final form.





Happy Birthday. Here's to 10 more years.

Locked up

I just spent 3 fairly intense weeks beavering away on designs for some upholstered furniture for a competiton run by Ercol www.ercol.com I think I left the house about 3 times in that period ..but pretty happy with what I ended up with and sent it off (on my birthday) ......so now we wait.

Even though it tested my sanity somewhat it was nice to spend a few weeks immersed in a project, even if it comes to nought, good to get back to basics every now and again with a 4b pencil in hand, lots of tracing paper and some good friends in support (Albrecht and Causeway).

Fingers crossed.

Big in Japan

I recieved an email from my friend Marina Bautier yesterday , www.lamaisondemarina.com,
and she mentioned that my Companion tables, which were re-editioned in Japan last year by Duende www.duende.jp, after being out of production for a few years, are now also being sold in Japan by Idee for whom she has designed a couple of pieces. www.lamaisondemarina.com/Idee2.jpg.

I think it both strange and marvelous that the Companion tables have found a new and appreciative home in Japan. It was oft suggested that they had a certain 'Japanese-y' quality when they were created in the workshops at BCUC in late 1999 so I really like the circularity of it all.

I'd also really like a trip to Japan.