Browsing Tag

Design

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Ardmore: The African Art With Heart

Art is subjective, I get that, but you can’t deny the beauty in something that’s so incredibly detailed or defined. I was introduced to a very special South African design studio called Ardmore Ceramic Art through Dubai’s newest arts hub in Al Quoz… Zebra Square Gallery.

Ardmore Ceramic Art at Zebra Square Gallery Dubai

Sitting in a room of their own, beautiful vessels adorned with all the animals of Africa sit proudly waiting for a home. Each piece is 100% unique and can take weeks to hand mould, shape and paint, and you’ll find the artist’s names written on each of their handiwork. The heritage of the brand is equally as special… Christie’s has acknowledged Ardmore artworks as “modern day collectables”.

Ardmore Ceramic Art at Zebra Square Gallery Dubai

Fèe Halsted established her brand on Ardmore Farm in the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains of Kwa-Zulu-Natal, South Africa. Fee then offered other local women the opportunity to become apprentices and train. The heroes in these pieces, the artists, both now men and women, all hail from this province too. The art pieces themselves are so heavily detailed, you’ll discover a new animal or detail on it every time you look. Halstead talks about adding animals as a way of hiding any cracks from her original rudimentary kiln and style of firing the clay, and now they are synonymous with the brand itself.

Ardmore Ceramic Art at Zebra Square Gallery Dubai
Ardmore Ceramic Art at Zebra Square Gallery Dubai

Ardmore is now making a name for itself internationally. Halsted once talked about a treasured silk Hermès scarf she owned. Heavily embellished with the prints of both animals and tropical plants, it was a piece that helped inspire her personal creativity. This relationship has now come full circle, thanks to a recent collaboration between Ardmore and French fashion house Hermès, it’s these South African delicate and detailed designs that now adorn the silk collectables.

Ardmore Ceramic Art at Zebra Square Gallery Dubai

Recommended

Holistic Home Furniture with 24:35

24:35 Dubai is a home grown start-up furniture brand specialising in one-of-a-kind, handmade, unique statement pieces for the home and we’re in LOVE! The name derives from the Qur’an, from a passage about light, which is where the design house began… candles.

The pieces are made for both one-off purveyors and collectors, with designs hand-made using vintage timbers and unique marbles. 24:35 now boasts a collective of furniture, lighting, home accessories and olfactory home fragrances in its inventory. Currently showcasing in Concept-Me in al Quoz, Hiba Sher is the curator behind this incredible design-house.

24:35

All of their pieces are inspired by nature and they are super passionate about the environment, ensuring never ever to purchase freshly cut trees. They only purchase very high quality aged timber that they refurbish themselves or trees that have fallen due to natural calamities. Not only that, for every piece of furniture made of wood, they plant 3 new indigenous trees! 24:35

They have a wonderful ethos too, providing complimentary healthcare and education for all company dependents, as well as grants for those who wish to pursue their higher education.

Here are some of their incredible pieces… i’m tempted to redecorate already!

24:35
Assorted mulberry logs, the bark was gently removed to preserve the natural form of the pieces. Inlayed with tribal etching inspired Brazilian marble. Methodically and meticulously polished with multiple treatments to recreate the the bark of the wood.

24:35
Trays and platters adorned with semi precious stones and natural crystals. Lined and framed in pure brass, every piece is one-of-a-kind, impossible to replicate.

24:35
Inspired by Sufi philosophies & arabesque ingredients, 24:35 aromatherapy candles offer a mystical holistic escape from the stress and speed of contemporary life. Harmoniously blended with therapeutic grade essential oils that release positive and healing vibrations, our bespoke fragrance bouquets work to gently comfort and revive the energies and aura of the mind, body and soul. Hand poured into raw monochrome marble and himalayan salt vessels, each distinctive olfactory combination ignites a positive emotional response to leave you relaxed, revived and rejuvenated.

Recommended

🌾Plants – The New Gift of Romance 🌾

Most girls love getting flowers… it’s romantic, they smell nice and the give a pop of colour to your interior décor. I’m not most girls… I would MUCH rather be given plants over flowers. Sounds weird I know, but their leafy green textures are much more appealing to me than flowers whose pollen stems are bound to leak all over my desk or ruin anything I’m wearing.

For those of you in Dubai who know where to shop for these, there’s a few hotspots I’d head to first and one that I would DEFINITELY recommend for outdoor landscaping. The Dubai Garden Centre is my go-to green house normally, not just because of their delicious little café – Roseleaf, but they have plenty of little indoor plants at only 10, 15 AED each that look très cute dotted around the house. There’s a new garden centre up at Al Barari that I am dying to check out, but I’m hoping to be surprised at the prices up there.

My favourite little nursery is just behind Wasl road’s Spinneys, on a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it lawn around the corner, full of gorgeous ceramic vases and plenty of tall leafy’s for the terrace. Cheap and very cheerful, we’ve recently spent an afternoon homing bougainvillea and grasses on the patio.

I’ve trolled through Pinterest (none of the below are my images) to find those gorgeous green elements for our home, which is fittingly known as ‘the beach house’.

Here’s my favourite finds… time to get inspired by all this greenery! Going Green

Going Green

Going Green

Going Green

Going Green

Going Green