Magical Fairy Tale Lamps by Liz Scrine

Andre and I were doing some light shopping in the Manchester Craft Centre on Saturday (where I purchased some very pleasing blue and white ceramic pots by Lee Page Hanson to add to my collection - pictures coming up later) - when we spotted these fabulous lights by local artist Liz Scrine:

Aren't they amazing? And the best part is that they're tiny - about 20cm high, and 12cm deep. So peeping into them is like peeping into a magical doll-house, or a secretive fairy-tale world:

They reminded us of the incredible interior of Gaudí's Casa Batllo in Barcelona:

Source: Flickr and Barcelona Great Tours

Liz makes the lamps to order - you can purchase them through her website, or through one of her stockists, including the Manchester Craft Centre and Radiance Lighting.

She also makes lovely ceramic tiles:

I've definitely got my eye on one of those lamps. I need to figure out the perfect place to put it in our casa, and I think I'm going to indulge....

What's on your wish list at the moment?

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Gorgeous New Allium Wall Lamps

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that among my favourite Christmas presents this year were the two Hannah Nunn Allium wall lamps that Andre gave me.

I've been coveting these wall lamps ever since I purchased an Allium table lamp from Hannah when I visted the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair (you can see it lit up and looking all pretty on my mirrored chest of drawers here), and subsequently bought a Blossom lamp to give to a family member as a Christmas present (which you can see in this gift round-up).

So naturally upon our return to the Nest (after spending Christmas with my parents in Yorkshire) I wanted to get the lamps on the wall as soon as possible. Fortunately for me, Andre is a patient man, so he put down his suitcase, and picked up a screwdriver.

Here's how our original wall lamps looked:

Yeah, not so pretty. OK, they're a nice, simple design - but my personal design philosophy is to, over time, fill our house with beautiful things that catch the eye on every glance. So the old lamps had to go.

First of all, we removed the old lamp shade. I’m using the royal we here, you understand - although I’m certainly not afraid to pick up a saw, I took a more supervisory (read lazy) role on this occasion. And then we removed the old silver light fitting:

Enrique was very interested in proceedings - whereas Penny felt it more important to recline on at least four cushions and work on her full figure:

We measured, drilled holes, re-wired, and finally screwed the lamp to the wall with one of those special bendy screwdrivers:

Here are a couple of tips. First of all, the lamps only came with holes at the top. When we screwed the first one to the wall, we found that the bottom of the lamp lifted away from the wall (probably because all our walls are wonky). We tried loosening the top screws to even things out, but then the lamp was too loose. So I very carefully cut a couple of extra holes towards the bottom of the lamp, so that we could screw the bottom of the lamp to the wall as well as the top:

I didn't notice I'd positioned the lamp with some random guy's face peeping through the gap until after I downloaded the photos. It made me giggle. Well hello there!

Second tip - you can just about see the pencil cross in the other picture above, which I had used as a mark to show where one of the holes should be drilled (in order for the lamp on the left wall to align to the lamp on the right wall, which we did first).

After measuring and marking I realised I’d put the cross immediately above the wire box – and if we’d drilled into the wall, we would probably have hit the wires in the wall. Ouch.

The wires for most wall lamps run from the ceiling to the lamp, so make sure you don’t drill immediately above a light fitting (or below, just in case they come from the floor). Or use one of those beeping things which detect hidden wires.

So we had to move el secondo lampo about ten cm to the left – and although this meant it didn’t line up with the first lamp, it still looked fine. When you’re working in a wonky older house, it’s sometimes more important to go by what looks good to the eye, rather than what the spirit level and tape measure tell you.

Here’s how everything turned out:

Yeah. The lamps are gorgeous. I’m really happy. So now in the living room we have two Allium wall lamps, one stunning white ceramic chandelier, one calla lily-inspired Ikea lamp (which you can see here and here) and one vintage wooden floor-standing lamp that was handmade by my Grandad. You could say I am fairly obsessed with lighting. You would be correct. Anyone else out there with a similar addiction?

Back tomorrow with more lovely Nestage – stay tuned :-)

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Lovely Finds From The Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

Today I’d like to share a couple of my purchases from the Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, which I visited over the weekend in Manchester city centre. The Craft Fair showcased the work of over 140 of the most innovative and influential designers from the UK and beyond – in the words of the event programme, “this event is about finding something you love and buying it direct from the person who made it”.

The majority of the stalls seemed to be selling jewellery. Now, I’m not a jewellery girl at all. I wear a watch that my Grandma gave me on my 18th birthday, the lovely silver bangle that Andre gave to me a few years ago, and my engagement and wedding rings. And that’s all – I never wear any other jewellery.

(As a short aside - my bangle and rings were all made on commission by the Divinity Studio in the wonderful Manchester Craft Centre. If you haven’t been to the Manchester Craft Centre, go there immediately, if not sooner. If you leave right now, you should make it there just before closing. It’s such a lovely shopping experience – in fact, I think I’ll probably do a separate post on it in the near future.

However, there were still plenty of stalls selling interior textiles, fashion accessories, ceramics, glass, silver, wood, furniture and paper items to keep me very happy. The first things I saw that I really, really loved were these amazing vases by Olivia Lowe:

Stunning, no? Stunningly expensive too. We moved on, regretfully.

But were swiftly perked up by the sight of Hannah Nunn’s gorgeous lights, which were glowing softly around the corner:

Hannah was inspired to design these lovely lamps when one day she took one of the paper cut greetings card that were her first foray into design, held it up to the light, and admired the beautiful silhouettes that it created:

After many months of sketching, cutting and sticking, she created her first lamp. Originally she cut the lamps by hand, but now uses specialist laser cutting technology:

After walking round the entire Craft Fair about six times, we found ourselves drawn back to Hannah’s stall, and settled on a gorgeous allium design (one of my favourite flowers – in fact I have just ordered a whole load of allium bulbs to plant in the garden this autumn – more details coming in a future post this week!).

We brought it home (stopping mid-way at Wagamama’s to fortify ourselves after all that craft with some ramen soup) and after moving around the house, settled it in place on the mirrored chest of drawers in the bedroom, where it seems very happy:

What is particularly special about this lamp is that it’s equally lovely when the light isn’t turned on – it looks as if it is made out of porcelain:

You can check Hannah’s website here, her Etsy shop here, and her blog here.

The next designer I fell upon in delight is Virginia Graham:

Virginia makes eclectic quirky vintage-style ceramics – her eclectic pieces combine nostalgia, playfulness, and humour, and are decorated using slip painting enamel transfer printing, and metallic lustre.

How fabulous are these teapots and cups?

However, I didn’t buy a teapot because as much as I loved them, I already have a Wedgewood tea-set that belonged to my Grandma, and a Heals tea-set that was a wedding present from my Grandpa – and I only like to buy things for the Nest that I know I will use, rather than leave on a shelf, or in a cupboard. So instead, I looked at her range of vases:

And this is what I bought:

I can’t wait to head down to my favourite flower shop this weekend, Living Flowers, and buy a single perfect rose to put in my new vase:

You can read more about Virginia’s work by checking out her website.

I really love buying unique pieces like this lamp, and this vase. It’s not something I do every day, which I think just makes it extra special when I do. I also feel inspired by my parents, who have a tradition of giving one another gorgeous vases, or lovely bowls, or beautiful pictures, on special occasions such as birthdays.

I know that you can buy mass-produced items for a lot less that look pretty similar, and most of the time I do – the majority of my accessories are from Heals, or Habitat, or even Tesco. But I do love the fact that Andre and I are gradually filling our Nest with one-off, unique pieces that have a story behind them, that we can remember where and when we bought them, and why we chose them.

Having said that, I also love all our Tesco vases – at the time, they were an armful of cheap ‘filler’ vases that we bought when we first moved in to decorate the shelves in the living room. Now, they have become the vases that we bought together when we first moved into our little Nest – their history makes them special.

So what do you think - did you visit the Craft Fair? What did you think of it? Did you buy anything special? Do you prefer buying a few one-off pieces gradually over time – or creating an instant effect that way we did with our Tesco vases? Do you like collecting lots of the same thing, or do you prefer to have just one or two versions of each item?

I’ll be back tomorrow with some more adventures from the Nest – catch you later!