Thank you Lux Life Magazine Leading Designers Awards for our Award for Excellence in: Homeware & Accessory Design for our 'My Country' Aboriginal interiors collection.
"The 2018 Leading Designers Awards have been designed to recognise the companies, teams and individuals who are excelling in this ever-growing industry – those who set the highest standards by pushing creative boundaries within the industry of architecture and interior design." Lux Life Magazine
We'd also like to thank the hugely talented artists whose paintings we choose and transform into interiors products.
We're off to Surface Design at the Business Design Centre in Islington today. We have three new wallpapers under development so will be meeting with various collaborators at the show to discuss these and other exciting plans we have. It's always good to see developments in the surfacing world and where our new products might find their place market. Wish list is to work with Kit Kemp of Firmdale Hotels who, among others has worked with A Rum Fellow who we admire greatly.
Below you can see a sneak preview of our 'My Country - Yellow' available soon.
Joycie Pitjara Morton painting, selected on a trip to Australia a year ago, translated into a stunning wallpaper. Joycie will receive money for the sale of each roll her designs appear on.
Bay Gallery Home adds wallets and coin purses to its expanding gift and homeware range. This leather vegetable dyed collection features Aboriginal Dreamtime stories from the Central Desert, Western Australian and coastal areas of the Northern Territory. They are made in West Bengal using the ancient Shanti craft reinvigorated by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore during the Mahatma Ghandi era. Designs are applied using batik printing or hand painted. They are the product of a cross cultural exchange supporting Aboriginal artists and Kolkata - West Bengal artisans.
Each design comes with an explanation of its unique Dreamtime story. The wallets are secured by a zip which goes around the whole body - incredibly useful for keeping your cards and money safe while travelling.
More designs, sizes and colours available from February.
Papunya Tula is the legendary site where the contemporary Aboriginal art movement bloomed becoming famous for its Western Desert dot art.
Amongst the different displaced Western Desert people's brought to Papunya Tula (Tula meaning small hill where a Honey ant dreaming sits) were Tommy Watson, Clifford Possum and Ningura Napurrula, each of whom went on to become wildly successful international artists.
The original company now operates from Alice Springs but we paid a visit to the existing art centre and found some of the sacred iconography depicted in the early works honoured while developing new interpretations of their ancient Dreamtime stories.
We had to keep a respectful distance while photographing the artists. Close up the paintings were breathtaking. Below is the landscape around the art centre.
The MacDonnell Ranges run 664km across the Northern Territory, Australia through the Aboriginal countries and communities we represent. The Ranges are integral to their life and Dreamtime stories.
The Aboriginals (the Arrernte mob) believe three giant caterpillars: Yeperenye, Ntyarlke and Utnerrengatye created the stunning ranges after emerging from of an escarpment in Mparntwe or Alice Springs. Rock art exists at Emily Gap near Alice Springs which tells the story of the caterpillars emergence and bitter fight with the Irlperenye or giant stink bug which killed the caterpillars off.
Caterpillar remains made rock formations and gaps in the ranges. Surviving Yeperenye caterpillars made the rivers and the trees and in some Aboriginal Dreamtime stories the Caterpillar dreaming resides underneath the eucalyptus trees.
The McDonnell Ranges and the flora living on them is often depicted in the Aboriginal artwork and wallpapers we sell. The Country where they sit is the embodiment of the Aboriginal people who have been custodians of the land for at least 40,000 years.
The MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs
My Grandmother's Country by Denise Ngwarraye Bonney 107x51cm available online or in the gallery.
