Object of the Day: Japanese Kihara Komon porcelain

I stumbled across these Japanese plates a few weeks ago and can't for the life of me remember how or where. But I bookmarked them because they are so very appealing.

However, like many things worth having, they're not that easy to get hold of.

The range is called Komon, which is the Japanese for "eblem" and, from my research, the plates only appear to be available in their country of origin – Japan.

They are by the Japanese brand, Kihara which designed them for the almost 400-year-old Aritaware Porcelain Lab, and each plate depicts a different good luck symbol.

The circles design in the foreground signifies infinity, and is said to bring luck for relationships and properties, while the net design, behind it, symbolises scooping up happiness.

I seem to have a habit of falling for plates that play hard-to-get (you may have seen my mournful ode to these out-of-reach 1980s Studio Nova beauties a few weeks ago), and so apologies for burdening you with the same pain. On the plus side, you can buy these online from the Japanese shop Kiraha (have fun with Google Translate) or through these Japanese eBay shops, where the postage seems to be unnervingly reasonable and prices for a set of five start at around £55 – scroll right down the list – though there are potential customs charges to consider (you can probably work those out from this guide). Just be careful not to think you've landed an incredible bargain only to have bought and had shipped a set of chopstick holders by mistake like that woman who bought the dining table in the eBay episode of This American Life.

There is a New Zealand shop selling them too, An Astute Assembly, which is so nice it could make a person want to move to Auckland. And Monocle sell a slightly different design which, personally, I'm not so keen on but you can have a look here.

And look, there's even a range for children.

I'm so smitten.

Is anyone out there lucky enough to own some of these sweet ceramics? Or are any UK shops tempted to start importing them...?

Object of the day: self-loathing ceramics

Had enough of schmaltzy, smug personalised homewares? So has Keaton Henson, whose refreshingly honest debut range of ceramics you can see here.

Above: in case you can't read the text, it says: "This cup is on the theme of self-loathing"

Henson, however, is the kind of 26-year-old over-achiever it'd be easy to hate, imagining him to harbour some of his own smugness. The youthful musician and artist has already released three albums – the first two gained him cult status and love from Zane Lowe, the third, of classical compositions, resulted in a sold-out night at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. He's also written a book and is working on a poetry anthology, a fourth album and a full-length ballet score. Now he's producing homewares, too. I could warm to the self-loathing theme myself...

Or, at least, it'd be easy to hate Henson if his range of "self-loathing" ceramics, Crooked Darlings, was not not quite so beautiful, darkly funny and, apparently, straight from the introvert's prone-to-self-loathing heart. It also helps a lot that he looks like the imagined off-spring of a young Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.

"Every plate and mug in every shop window seems to have some kind of kooky phrase on it," says Henson by way of context for his collection, the idea for which grew from his last, deeply personal art exhibition, which introduced him to the idea of "playing with traditional domestic design and giving functional objects an emotive voice". 



"I wondered how it would be if they said things we don't tend to say out loud, or held unsettling images among the twee floral designs we're all so familiar with,” he says.

Each piece in the limited edition collection will be marked out of 50 and will be available until Christmas Eve. Prices range from £20 for the tea-towel, £35 for the cup and saucer and go up to £60.

Buy from Crooked Darlings and find out more about Keaton Henson at his website.

Simple pleasures

I wrote, a few weeks ago, about how I'd decided to start collecting the dubiously 70s brown range of Hornsey Pottery. 

Having inherited one piece – the biscuit jar among this bundle of treasures – I came around to the idea slowly, but was totally sold after visiting a park cafe filled with the stuff. It just made the place seem so homely and nice, and it went well with the many Ercol chairs in the place, too – which totally de-kitsched the potential effect.

So here is my first find, from a multi-storey junk paradise in southeast London for just £1. I won't drink tea out of anything else at the moment. Isn't it funny how such a small thing can bring such simple joy.

What simple thing in your house brings you comparable daily pleasure?

Post by Kate

Object of the day: hexagon brass bottle openers

On one hand, £27.50 is a lot to pay for a bottle opener.

On the other hand, when it looks like this...

...it doubles as a miniature sculptural work of art. This isn't a bottle opener, it's a beautiful object to add class to coffee tables, pzazz to show-off shelves and a general air of design-savvy smugness to its owner. AND it opens bottles.

Seems almost a bargain now, don't you think? I found this hexagonal hottie at the very tempting shop, Holly's House. I'd previously browsed this online and actual emporium (the bricks and mortar version is on the New King's Road in southwest London), founded by interior designer Holly Wick. I loved its style though lamented the prices of most of the things I put on my mental shopping list (like this stunning seagull wallpaper).

Then I stumbled across it in the flesh at Clerkenwell Design Week, last Wednesday and spotted this affordable brass beauty. The openers (whatever) are solid brass and pleasingly heavy. A great gift (possibly for oneself).

Find it at Holly's House

More on CDW to come soon by the way...

Post by Kate

Object of the day... Louise Wilkinson plates

These plates are just two from a small collection by designer, Louise Wilkinson. 

I'd like them all, but these – marginally – are my two favourites.

Nice aren't they? In dinner plate size they cost £19.50 each. Below are a couple of the sweet side plates, priced at £14.50.

Louise launched her range at Liberty in 2012 and will be exhibiting at Tent London later this year. See more and buy at Louisewilkinson.co.uk.

Object of the day: Hundreds & Thousands tray by Jonna Saarinen

These colourful laminated birchwood trays by Finnish designer, Jonna Saarinen, are like useful little pieces of art.

I have previously mentioned my tray shelves. They are waiting to be filled. One or two of these mini ones could boost the fledgling collection...

Aren't they cheery?

After spying these trays, I checked out Jonna's website to see what other nice stuff she'd designed. But first I discovered the story behind the designs – which also feature on trivets and tea-towels, below. I love this story.

Jonna, who completed her MA at the Royal College in 2010, grew up by the sea, near the Turku archipelago in southwest Finland.

The "long hot summers"of her childhood were spent "running around barefoot in the forest" with her late grandmother, who wore "amazing" woolly socks and aprons. Along with these memories, the region's vibrant colour palette, full of wild berries, flowers, rock moss and evergreen forests has fed into these designs.

Jonna explains: "The Hundreds & Thousands collection celebrates mis-matching styles, over printing, everything seaside, saying 'hurrah!' to way too many patterns." Like her grandmother would agree, she thinks, "you can never have too much of a good thing."

Hundreds & Thousand Breakfast Tray by Jonna Saarinen, £22 from Objets de Desir.

Post by Kate