Maison et Object January 2013

January 2013 started off with a bang here at Lorna Syson! With a snowy drive down to Paris.... and a couple of detours en-route (Thanks sat nav) we were ready to start the first trade show of the new year!
I shared a van with Emma Britton and it was packed to the ceiling, it was touch and go with some items on whether we could get them over to Paris. We set of early in the morning and it was beautiful watching the sun rise as we drove down to Dover.

From the moment we arrived in Paris until we left it was snowing! I wasn't lucky enough to see Paris in the snow because I was staying with friends close to the exposition centre but Igor Josif writer of Happy Interior Blog has a great post with fantastic images!

This year the stand was very small but on the bright side was very quick and easy to put up! Even though it was small this year I still met fantastic shops and connections. I'm pleased to say we have our second shop in Germany, our third in France and a great new shop in Bath, UK! 

I was in Hall 8, Stand Bbis99 showing with BEDG and I had fantastic British brands around me including, Vitamin, Julie Mouamo, Elli Popp, Flux, Emma Britton, Stamp Rugs, All Lovely Stuff, Wallace Sewell and Eleanor Pritchard. One great thing about trade shows is seeing familiar faces who I've met throughout the years.  I was so pleased when Will, Mr Bright Bazaar came for a quick visit and chat. 

And to top it all of when I arrived home I was tweeted by the fantastic Barbara Chandler showing me on her flicker. Check out the link below. She has been doing these design portraits for a while and has over 300 portraits of designers.

The Rain Room at the Barbican

It's always great to have an excuse to pop to the Barbican and I've been meaning to head to the Rain Room for months! We were really lucky with the queue, only an hour compared to the four hours which I had been warned about.

It's true if you move too quickly you do get wet... as one of our group found out but if you get chance before the 3rd of March I would definitely head over!

The I Stand up by Charles Churchman

So have you been hearing about these crowd funding websites for a while as well? I've been really intrigued and was wondering could this be something for me? A way for me to offer something a little different? I'm still not sure but when one of my fellow Designers Charles Churchman took the brave leap onto Kickstarter I was very impressed.

Check out his fab new I stand up idea, is super professional video won me over. He has been working for over 6 months on ideas and prototypes to make sure this is perfect. I've signed up for one of his new I stand ups when they are manufactured and I recommend you do too......



Charles is a fab designer check out some of the other work he's been up to on his website and collaborations including this Churchman day bed... if only I had the space!!