What Women Make

August: London Design Festival 2010 Preparation Update

Help! I am trapped by my WordPress template! I have been afraid to just simply blog because I have a magazine style site where I forgo my writerly urges to post the result of my endless female creativity talent search. Women who I find through my endless trolling for the best of the best in all manners of creative entrepreneurship, innovation, problem solving, and fresh cultural expression. But I want to be able to do both. I want to be a regular blogger too. I’m seeking a web developer to help me get there. Consider this a RFP.

I am researching the various ways to go to market, communicate, and stay simple. I love the possibilities available through QR codes, any way to bring a story to life and integrate story with the things we make. Also, not that this is my domain but I think how can these women with these ingenious ideas and amazing designs produce in small quantities so the fog of supply chain doesn’t wary them from getting down to business.

Got Future of Manufacturing On The Brain

From Makerbot to Ponoko to all the myriad of personal manufacturing possibilities championed by Thingiverse, the dream is there but the access to tools have not caught up. And when they do, what will that even look like? Dreaming and communicating ideas ad infinitum is one thing but materializing ad infinitum is quite another. But back to brass tacks..

It’s August now so everything moves slower but the fact is I can’t. I have a 9 amazing designers to show off before the big day when Designers Block opens on September 22nd, I have an event to prepare for at the Sense Loft on the 23rd of September and then the rest of the London Design Festival with Tiffany, Edyta, Ai, Chisato, Natsuki, Shuyu, Tiffany and Lynn (and now possibly 1-2 more, we’ll see) up through the 26th. Then two days later I fly to New York to get ready for my wedding in October. I’m also tending to my secret other project that takes up a bundle of editing time. (No its not a book about women or design or anything like that, it truly is ‘other’.)

Anyway, that’s me in a nutshell right now. I just had a nightmarish trip to Andalucia, a slight diversion a bit like a horror movie short if you will, but I’m back in hot as hell Barcelona sitting in my Borne apartment with Peter while he edits photographs and I write. I’ll end this now and I’ll be back with more in the next few days.

Please stay with us as we unfold the What Women Make exhibit at DesignersBlock during the London Design Festival. I’m very excited. I couldn’t have asked for more talented people to showcase.

-Chauncey

Saturday • July 31, 2010 • by Chauncey Zalkin

Category: Ai Kurahashi, Blog, Chauncey Zalkin, Chisato Ishikawa, Designers, Edyta Cieloch, Lynn Jackson, Natsuki Shigeta, On Za Line, Shuyu Lu, Tiffany Burnette

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Woodsy Goods: Women who Rock at Rustic

Nina Judin Books

I’m a writer who considers each journal I buy very carefully. It can make or break the next month of writing, so I can appreciate Nina Judin’s work. She knows how to weave and glue a heartfelt handmade journal to perfection. She’s on Etsy.

Laura Spector

Wood gone wild. So incredibly beautiful.

Ronel Jordaan

Are you ready for this? These are made of Merino Wool. She taught herself. She makes everything by hand. She provides jobs to female artisans in Gauteng, South Africa. This is one of the best design items I’ve seen in months and months. Truly original, desirable, and useful. Hard to find all three or even two in one item!

Åsa Westlund

Swedish Clog designer Åsa makes these beauties. These from her 2008 collection are my favorite.

Sandi Calistro Wood Macbook Skin for Karvt

Well, I’m not sure if this is exactly rustic but there are plain ones in a variety of wood veneers and ones designed by other artists. Check the site for details.

Jeanne Bayol’s Restored Gypsy Caravans (In French, un roulotte)

I found Jeanne Bayol through first falling in love with Les Roulottes de la Serve in Beaujolais, France and then researching more about these dreamy caravans. Essentially, this embodies all of my escapist dreams come true. I’d like her to decorate my future. Where are you Jeanne?

Lara Donatoni

This Brazilian artist and designer (as I watch Brazil play North Korea in the world cup, 2/0 is the present score…) takes discarded wood and gives it new life. On Treehugger.

Kate Burger

Paper lanterns and Mason jars, as pretty as they are, are everywhere you look from big box stores to Martha Stewart weddings — but these camphor vine wrapped lanterns made by a woman in Southern California are different and they have a warm honey glow. Perfect for the porch of that caravan. Also on Etsy.