Tried & Tested: Jelly Lamp from Mathmos

WE’VE LONG BEEN fans of Mathmos here at LittleBig - having something of a nostalgic fondness for the inventors of the ultra kitsch lava lamp - the student hovel design classic you either love or hate.

But Mathmos are much more than a design outfit mired in the 1960s. In fact, a company of some vision and innovation, their designs using the likes of El Ultimo Grito and ‘two create’ have been memorable British design issues of the last few years. A year or so ago we tried their little glass Ghost lamp (now discontinued) - a colour changing sipher of a night light - in one of LittleBig’s little helpers’ rooms - and it was promptly broken. So it’s with genuine joy that we welcome Mathmos’s first lamp designed specifically for children’s bedrooms: colour changing like the Ghost, but made of plastic so it’s indestructible, with a clever, but admittedly fiddly child-proof powerpoint connection, so small hands can’t disconnect it without the help of an adult. Best of all it’s designed in the shape of a jelly - that comic, nostalgic (again!) shape of universal childhood. Read the rest of this article

Posted 10 October 2010 in Decor

TEN QUESTIONS, TEN ANSWERS: Olli Ella

CHLOE BROOKMAN, 29, IS one half of Olli Ella - makers of colourful, contemporary nursing chairs. To our knowledge the first modern nursing chair designed and handmade in the UK primarily for the UK market, Brookman’s Californian upbringing has informed Olli Ella’s first two offerings - the high-backed Mo-Ma and the lower Da-Da glider chairs. And there’s more in the pipeline… She talks inspiration, sisterhood and design with LittleBig…

LittleBig: How difficult was the experience of trying to find a nursing chair you liked? (Ed: I think lots of mums in the UK have tried and failed)

CB: Finding a contemporary nursing chair in the UK was next to impossible - I really tried and just couldn’t believe that there was nothing available. Initially I looked at some of the lovely nursing chairs that they have in the States and had considered bringing one over - but with shipping and customs the cost was astronomical.

LittleBig: Why do you think the nursing chair hadn’t really been addressed in the UK prior to your designs?

CB: To be honest, I am really not sure. And this was one of the things holding us back from launching Olli Ella in the UK; perhaps there wasn’t even a market for them. I am so glad that we took the gamble because clearly this is something that the UK has long been ready for. Read the rest of this article

Posted 30 September 2010 in Furniture

MOUSTACHE MARVELS

REFINED, COMIC, REASSURING, NOSTALGIC. Such is the appeal of the moustache. And it has found favour amongst design folk of late too. There are Inga Sempe’s moustachio’d designs for French sticker brand Domestic, the French furniture brand Moustache, these fab stick on numbers, and now Berlin outfit Jäll & Tofta has joined the ranks of moustache admirers with their Mr Moustache paper and wood veneer mobile.

Originally designed for Jäll & Tofta’s Sina Gwosdzik and Jakob Dannenfeldt’s baby son, the mobile, says Sina, can be considered “either kitsch or cool” by adults. As to the appeal of the moustache for modern audiences, she says:

“Nowadays you won´t find many moustaches like these in the street, so they become symbols for different personality types.” And indeed there’s something a little Marcel Marceau / Magritte / Charlie Chaplin / Dali / Churchill about the moustaches within the new mobile design…. Who do they remind you of?

*Buy the mobile in our shop here.

**www.jaellundtofta.de

Posted 7 September 2010 in Decor

LAST DAYS OF SUMMER: bloomers, knickers and pantaloons

Photography: Monika Elena

YES, WE’RE TRYING TO HOLD ON TO THE LAST DAYS (AND RAYS) OF SUMMER.

And what better way than in bloomers, knickers and pantaloons (possibly some of the best words in the English language), and luckily a trend that will continue into next summer too.

Accessorise with bare skin, wash-off tattoos, wild berry juice and, preferably, sunshine… We’re praying for an Indian summer…

Read the rest of this article

Posted 7 September 2010 in Textiles

LITTLEBIG LOVES: Nyokki pets and friends

WHILST CHILDREN often enjoy the messier aspects of outdoor gardening, it can be difficult to get them excited about cultivation - as the process is often so slow. It’s only when those strawberries finally emerge that their interest is rekindled. And so The Balcony Gardener’s new offerings for kids are perfect for short attention spans.

The Balcony Gardener - our current favourite gardening e-shop - specialises in kits and ready made balcony gardens, and these kits for children - including the Nyokki pets, (bear, kitty or chick pots - the bear is at the right of the picture), which sprout grass ‘hair’, the i-grobot (Robot model), and Taterpots (for mint or basil, pictured middle left) - are instant gratification incarnate, and are genuinely easy for kids to do all the stages themselves: they contain peat plugs and cute little seed packets, and away they go…

The grass seeds in particular sprout within a day or two. So those mornings spent searching for signs of life aren’t for nothing. The grass then sprouts at a healthy rate so that kids can cut it with scissors just like hair. The mint and basil seeds can be grown in their cute containers until they’re ready to harvest, to be transplanted to bigger pots or the garden. All the irresistible pots are reusable as ornaments and keepsakes.

It will probably come as no surprise that these sophisticated little kits are mostly Japanese in genesis: designed as they are not just for children, but for tiny urban living spaces too. From £7.50 - £8.95.

*The Balcony Gardener: www.thebalconygardener.com

Posted 15 August 2010 in Products