Giles Miller has been called the King of Cardboard and I simply can't resist featuring royalty when the chance arises! This fantastic Pool Rocker by Giles comes to Chair Chick by way of Modenus, a design-savvy site created by Veronika Miller (who happens to be no relation to the designer) and a talented gang of visionaries who bring the best of design to your finger clicks. "We first came across Giles Miller when we joined a crowd peering through the window of his shop strategically located between the East London Sunday markets in Brick Lane and Columbia Road," says Veronika. "Giles does cardboard. He does amazing things with cardboard. We've featured his cardboard grandfather clock, his cardboard handbag and the cardboard glasses for his Lego table, which admittedly is not made of cardboard. But what we really admire about Giles is the way he has taken the least glamorous of all materials and made it his own. And, when you see what he is now doing in making extraordinary wall panels from cardboard, he has also made it glamorous."
There's a beautiful mural by Giles in Stella McCartney's flagship store in Paris' famed Palais Royal galleries, and he was commissioned to create pieces for the Lighthouse Gallery in Glasgow. But, as Veronika is quick to point out, this is a chair blog, so what of his paper perches? "His Pool Rocking chair is everything you expect cardboard not to be. It is big, surprisingly comfortable and robust," she explains. "Okay, it is not the most elegant piece of furniture but it is fun. And most of all it is testament to Giles Miller's mastery of a material others overlooked." We'll definitely second that emotion: take it away Smokey!
I came across Helen Amy Murray’s products in a remarkable stand, Crafted UK, at Decorex while I was in London last week (Wow; was it just ten days ago? My how traveling and jet-lag morph timelines!) I featured her wallcovering on my International Design Examiner page and I thought her chair was perfect for a nod because it has a textural beauty that makes it a nice addition to a contemporary room while the style of the chair means it would also jazz up a traditional or transitional interior. I greatly admire design elements that “cross over” in this way.
Murray is a participant in "Crafted," a mentoring program passionate about connecting the skills of those who have built successful businesses with those who have the potential to do so, thus her inclusion in the show. Every individual involved in this project has a fundamental belief in craftsmanship and an appreciation for objects beautifully made and it was obvious in the quality of the products in the booth. Crafted finds each participant the right mentor, offers a series of business workshops, connects them to a group of expert advisors, and creates dynamic platforms to help them promote and grow their businesses. Crafted has been developed by Arts & Business and Walpole, and is supported by the American Express Foundation. Congrats to all of you who are involved in this effort, as it will likely spawn many of our future great talents in the arena of design!
Since I'm jet-lagged and punchy, just having returned from Europe last night, I thought I'd leave you with a bit of London brash and dash with a bit of The Boss thrown in: happy end of the week everyone!
Saxon Henry has been a journalist for fifteen years, and has written for an array of publications, including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Robb Report. In her niche as a design/architecture journalist, she is a former contributing editor to Interiors Magazine and MIAMI Magazine, and a former regular contributor to Luxe, Modernism and Manhattan. As a design-related travel writer, she is a former regular contributor to Delta Sky, Latitudes, Cayman Airways and Aishti. Henry’s book Four Florida Moderns was published by W.W. Norton & Company in early 2010. She publishes a number of blogs, including Roaming By Design and The Road To Promise, and her new Social Media consultancy firm, Adroyt, founded with Richard Holschuh, is now in full swing. After years of writing for a variety of publications, Henry considers capturing a client's most authentic and marketable voice a skill she has honed with great effort, making the process of identifying that voice seem effortless, though nothing could be further from the truth!
