Junk Love: Italian Holiday

This post is for three reasons: we really love brightly colored mid-century junk, we really love Italy, and Roman Holiday was on this weekend. Do we need more justification than that? No!

So here is a dream collection of items pulled from Etsy to brighten up an already dull week and soothe the urgent need to clear out my savings and hop on a plane for Mediterranean gorgeousness. Enjoy--mid-century Italian junk love!

Baldelli Elephant Bank; Here

Ceramic canisters; Here

Stilnovo-style wall lights; Here

Fratelli Fanciullacci pottery pitcher; Here

Valenti enamelware set; Here

Two-piece Modernist horse sculpture; Here

Bitossi blue cat; Here

San Marino-style ceramic & leather dish; Here

Yellow Ceramic Planter; Here

The Skinny: Stig Lindberg

Stig Lindberg

Stig Lindberg was a well-known Swedish designer, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s.  After studying painting, he accepted a position with the Gustavsberg pottery studio as a faience artist. In 1949, Lindberg was appointed art director of the company. This allowed him the freedom to experiment with a variety of media, including sculpture, stoneware, tiles, furniture, plastics, and ceramics. He worked with enamels in several ways, even spending time in the studio's bathtub department. Lindberg even did a bit of glass design for the Maleras company. He later opened his own studio in Italy.

We were introduced to Stig when we bought a couple of cute fish dishes. We had no idea who the maker was. We just knew that we liked them. Apparently, someone else does, too, because they sold less than two hours after we listed them. 

Sold!

It was a bittersweet moment, because we love sending junk to good homes, but our romance with the fish was far too short. So, we decided to live vicariously by learning about the designer and his other fabulous pieces.





In addition to housewares, Stig collaborated with Astrid Sampe on a textile collection. Several of these fabrics have been reissued, and are available in upholstery weight for furniture.

Lustgarden (Garden of Eden) fabric, flickr.com

Pottery fabric, Here

He designed a television for the Luma company. It. Is. Cool.

What rhymes with Lindberg? Not sure. But he illustrated Swedish books of rhymes for children, written by Lennart Hellsing. They are adorable!

And, here is our wish list:

Stig Lindberg enamel and wood table, deconet.com

Stig Lindberg "Medusa", deconet.com

Stig Lindberg bull tile; deconet.com

Stig Lindberg plate, Here

Stig Lindberg fat horse!, Here

Stig Lindberg Scottie dog, Etsy

Stig Lindberg vase

Stig Lindberg onion vase, Here

*Information obtained from http://www.scandinaviandesign.com/nationalmuseum/0605/

Junk Love Monday: It's Black and White

It's no secret that the Blackbird girls love color. We shudder at the thought of a room with white walls. Red, teal, aqua, navy--our house looks like a Skittles factory exploded. But we also love the graphic, stark contrast of black and white mixed in with our rainbow.

The Pizio collection.

It started at a pottery show. We went specifically to visit one of my favorite clay artists, Stacy Lambert. We got to the show five minutes before the doors opened, and somehow, Stacy was already sold out. I stood there, wavering between denial and disappointment, trying to ignore the pounding in my head (you try driving 45 minutes to buy something that no longer exists by the time you get there, and see what kind of headache you end up with), when I happened to glance at the next vendor down. The pounding in my head traveled south to my heart, and I knew it was love. The table was filled with black and white pottery--owls, crows, gnarly trees...and, thanks to Leanne Pizio, a new collection was born: sgraffito.

Leanne Pizio's pottery chicken heads

We both purchased pieces, and by the time we placed them on the piano at home, knew that we had to have more. It seems like just yesterday that our collection was such a baby (only 3 pieces!), and now it has grown into a beast. We just call it The Pizio. It has grown from the piano, up the walls, across the house, and wormed its way into any available space it can find. We have allowed it to acquire color (we love the aqua!), but the majority of it is black and white perfection.

It was only after we had been collecting the Pizio pottery for a few years that we started to notice vintage sgraffito.  For two people with very little restraint, this is bad news (in a good, good way). We have a lot of conversations that start with "If we had a bigger house...," and this is one of the reasons why. If we had a bigger house, we would not only own every single piece of Leanne Pizio sgraffito that we could get our hands on, we would own every piece of vintage sgraffito we could find.

Marianne Starck for Michael Andersen Pottery, 1950s

Marianne Starck for Michael Andersen Pottery, 1950s

Marianne Starck for Michael Andersen Pottery, 1950s

And, if we had a bigger house, and it happened to be in the Czech Republic, we would want it to look like one of these:

Exterior of Schwarzenberg Palace, Czech Republic

Czech Republic, Sgraffito Exterior; photo by Paul Harris