Alabasta stockist focus: Dovetail Living

One Alabasta stockist where you can purchase a selection of the Folk Stripe collection is Dovetail Living, a webshop that specialises in carefully selected interior accessories from both world renowned and up and coming designers. We are delighted that they have chosen Alabasta as one of their designers - they now stock the best selling red 38cm tray, 10cm coasters and glass platter in the Folk Stripe range as well as the Love Birds tablemats. These sit alongside such design classics as the Secto Design range of lighting - another example of innovative use of steam bent Scandinavian birch wood. I also really like the Variopinte range of enamel dishes which have simple stripes of colour so they coordinate well with the concentric circles of the Folk Stripe range. Owner Samantha Mureau is an ex TopShop buyer and has done a lot of trend forecasting for the industry so has a keen eye for new products and trends. According to Samantha, now that summer is around the corner it's all about French style market shopping and mixing up your platters and your plates for effortless casual dining...

30cm Folk Stripe heatproof glass platter - ideal for cheese, breads or even as a hotplate for saucepans

Dovetail Living - see their Blog post here

Alabasta Love Birds placemat in House and Garden magazine April 2013

The Alabasta Love Birds placemat can be found within the Decorators Notebook section of prestigious interiors magazine House and Garden this month, nestled amongst some fresh blue hand dyed linen and some deluxe paper carpets. Compiled by Sudhir Pithwa, this page showcases elegant linear imagery combined with tactile natural textures:

29x22cm Alabasta Love Birds placemat available from Avenida Home

Thank you, House and Garden!

New Alabasta tray: 11cm Love Birds mini tray

The Love Birds collection has just had another addition in the form of an 11cm 'mini tray'. Instead of repeating the format with two whole birds which would have scaled the pattern down a bit too much we decided to just have the heads of the birds on this one. They are still enjoying each others company and the little heart is on there too to clarify the subtle sentiment. These mini trays work well as coasters or small plates and because they are dishwashable are ideal for food use.
If you are a retailer they are now ready to purchase in boxes of four from The Åry Trays website in addition to the other four sizes of the Alabasta Love Birds trays. Flat 10cm coasters depicting individual male and female birds with black velour non slip backing are also available from Avenida Home here.

11cm Love Birds mini tray sold and distributed by Åry Trays

10cm square Love Birds coasters sold and distributed by Avenida Home

Alabasta Love Birds tray in Homes and Antiques magazine, March 2013

The new 38cm Love Birds tray with the peeking bird and heart has just been launched and I'm really pleased to see it featured in this month's Homes and Antiques magazine on one of their shopping pages. An ideal present for Valentines Day next week:

Thanks, Homes and Antiques!

Alabasta trays at the Maison et Objet trade fair, Paris

Åry Trays are still on the road and selling their vast collection of birch wood trays to the world. This weekend they have been showing at the enormous Maison et Objet trade show for the first time and again Alabasta has proved to be one of the company's best selling designers. I visited yesterday and caught up with their Swedish sales team Joakim Sohlberg and Madeleine Hyding, who were busy taking many international orders for shops in countries such as Italy and Belgium. For this show they decided to use birch ply as their stand build in keeping with the product and also helping the whiter trays stand out:

Åry Trays, Hall 6 at Maison et Objet, January 2013

Alabasta trays at Maison et Objet, January 2013

Alabasta trays at the Home 2013 trade show, London

Åry Trays are currently in London and wholesaling their entire collection of trays at the Home show at Earls Court, including the four Alabasta collections. It's a massive show in only its second year but it already feels very established. It accompanies the long running Top Drawer giftware show which is situated next door at Olympia, and when I went yesterday the atmosphere was buzzing. We had some very good orders from some existing and new customers and the reception to the new Love Bird and Folk Stripe Woven designs was really encouraging.

The Åry Trays stand at the Home 2013 trade show

Alabasta trays at Home 2013

Next stop Paris, at the even bigger Maison et Objet show next weekend (Hall 6, stand Q26).
As ever, news of where Alabasta products are selling will be added to the stockists list. If you are a stockist that hasn't been mentioned please do get in touch and I will add you too!

New year and a new 38cm Love Birds tray

Happy New Year! I hope 2013 is a healthy and prosperous year for all. I personally started it unhealthily with a stomach bug so it can only improve as far as I'm concerned. One way to start off the January detox albeit a bit premature..

Once again Åry Trays are coming over to the UK to show at the Home trade show this month, and they will be exhibiting their entire collection of birch wood trays including the Alabasta Love Birds, Folk Stripe, Folk Stripe Woven and Blue Fish collections. To complement the existing Love Birds trays we have one brand new 38cm Love Bird tray launching at the show. On this one the male bird is poking his head cheekily onto the tray and beadily eyeing up the lady bird who appears to be rather enjoying the attention:

38cm Alabasta Love Birds tray

It's now on the Åry Trays website ready to order so if you are a retailer you can order from there or see them in real life at Home, the London home wares and interior accessories trade show at Earls Court from 13th - 15th January. A week later they will be at Maison et Objet in Paris (Hall 6 stand Q26) then Ambiente in Frankfurt, also trade only. Busy times!

Out of season photography

Interiors magazines work months in advance so despite the fact we haven't even got to Christmas yet my mind has been temporarily concentrating on Easter 2013. I've just spent much of the weekend photographing the Alabasta trays and placemats for potential press coverage and was amazed to find some fragrant out of season narcissi at the flower stall in town to use. I also cunningly tracked down hot cross buns and some chicken eggs in subtle variations of pale blue, though my M&S Halloween chocolate eggs with the foil-turned-inside-out-for-Easter didn't look great so we had to eat them. Shame.

Here are a few of the shots:

Love Birds 27x20cm tray and tablemat

Love Birds 43x33cm tray

Love Birds 49cm tray

If you're a journalist and would like to use these images or any of the numerous others (including simpler cut outs) for any editorials feel free to contact Isabel Saiz at Avenida Isabel.

New Alabasta Love Birds and Folk Stripe Woven trays are now in stock at Hus and Hem

The brand new Alabasta Love Birds and Folk Stripe Woven trays are now finally available to buy online and in store from Hus and Hem, the Scandinavian home shop in Ledbury. They are stocking both collections in all the different sizes - 49cm round, 43x33cm and 27x20cm rectangular as well as the best selling original Folk Stripe round ones. Owner Louise Little told me yesterday that they couldn't choose between them so they bought them all! It's a very welcoming shop full of interesting gifts and home products - when I went I loved the Danish dipped candles in a whole spectrum of colours (but then I am partial to a bit of colour).

Here are the round Folk Stripe trays in situ at Hus and Hem in the summer:

Hus and Hem in Ledbury

Folk Stripe Woven trays

Love Birds trays

All the trays can be found here.

Alabasta designs for Avenida Home at Tent London 2012

The official launch of the Avenida range of tabletop accessories has happened in the last few days at Tent London and it seems to have gone very well. Tent is part of London Design Festival, an exciting city-wide series of Design events and launches and it takes place in the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in London's East End. Last year my Alabasta trays were there as part of the Åry Trays stand (see this post) and this year their UK agent Isabel Saiz was there launching her own collection of mats, coasters and glass platters with her new separate venture Avenida Home. I was there on the first day and there was a very good response so I will be posting any developments from the show as soon I hear about it.

Here a few quick shots of the stand - lots of eye catching colours and patterns set off against a dark and moody background:

Isabel Saiz (on the left) on her way to chat to some friendly Dutch journalists on the first morning

The Alabasta and Michael Angove corner at the Avenida Home stand at Tent London

Avenida Home's Alabasta presentation at Tent 2012

All the Avenida products are available to buy online from Avenida Home.

New Alabasta tray designs: introducing Folk Stripe Woven and Love Birds

Alabasta Folk Stripe Woven tray collection made and distributed by Ary Trays in Sweden

Åry Trays have just launched on their website three new designs in the best selling Folk Stripe range of Alabasta birch ply trays called Folk Stripe Woven - they are now available for retailers to order for their Autumn stock so should be in the shops soon. I've designed these to complement the concentric circles of the original Folk Stripe trays but the design is taken in a slightly different direction. These ones feature interwoven multicoloured ribbons of pattern on a subtly patterned background which creates a kind of modern tartan effect. I think that the pale celadon green and teal backgrounds go really well with the vibrant colours of the stripes and work just as well for winter or summer use:

27x20cm tray

43x33cm tray

49cm tray

Also, the Love Birds design recently launched on the Avenida placemats is now available as a tray in three sizes. It depicts a pair of beady eyed exotic birds with flamboyant tails and is a mix of indigo and black on a subtle cream background. I think it would make an original wedding present, especially in the big 49cm round size:

49cm tray

43x33cm tray

27x20cm tray

As with all the other Åry trays they are hand made from steam pressed birch wood with a robust melamine coating and are dishwasher proof (though I'd like to see you get the generous 49cm one in!) If you are a retailer interested in stocking these brand new designs please contact Isabel Saiz at Avenida Isabel Ltd. As soon as I know where these are being sold I will post the details on this blog.

New Products and Designs: Placemats, Coasters and Glass Platters

I'm really pleased to say that we now have some very lovely placemats to add to the Alabasta range of home accessories, this time in conjunction with Avenida Home. Avenida Home is a new home accessories company set up by Isabel Saiz who is also the UK sales and marketing agent for Åry Trays, but this is her separate venture. It's been worth the wait because they truly are deluxe and the perfect product to show off all the intricate patterns that make up my designs. They are 4.8mm thick and made from eucalyptus wood with a laminated heat resistant melamine surface and a black velour backing. They have been handcrafted in Britain which shows there is still some manufacturing in existence here after all.

The mats are available to buy individually online in various sizes from Avenida Home where you can see the entire range that Isabel has developed. They range in price from £5 for a 10cm square coaster, £12 for A4 size mats and £18 for a larger 38.2 x 29.2cm table mat. Glass platters are £32. They will be launched properly at Tent London in September, and they will also form part of an exhibition at Contemporary Applied Arts this September (more about this nearer the time).

FILIGREE COLLECTION: Love Birds

First I'd like to introduce a brand new design called Love Birds which shows a pair of intricately patterned exotic birds with flamboyant tails and beady eyes. The birds are a combination of black and indigo blue and on a cream background. There are two mat sizes as well as a pair of 10cm square coasters, each with one of the birds on. Because this sits well with the Alabasta Blue Fish tray designs we have decided to put both Fish and Bird collections under the umbrella name of 'Filigree'. The Love Birds mats and coasters can now also be bought in store from Liberty in London. The Blue Fish mat is having a slight redesign so I'll show this when it's done...

Love Birds 38.2 x 29.2cm large tablemat

DAMASK
There is also a new design in the mats only called Damask, which complements the style of the other collections but is more tonal and larger scale in design. This comes as a square 24cm mat and 10cm coaster in three modern colourways - red/coral, bright green/aqua and a fashionable iris blue mauve:

Damask 24cm square mat and 10cm coasters

FOLK STRIPE
There are also mats in the multicoloured Folk Stripe pattern and the stripes are straight on these as opposed to curved on the current range of trays. Two sizes are available, 29.2 x 21.6cm with an ivory background and larger 38.2 x 29.2cm tablemat with coloured background, plus a 10cm square coaster:

Folk Stripe mats

GLASS PLATTERS AND WORKTOP SAVERS
Last but not least are toughened glass platters designed for protecting worktops, using as chopping boards and generally making your dinner table look special. These are heat resistant to 180℃ so can take hot pans. The pattern is fired onto the underside of the glass in a process similar to enamelling so they are really resilient and the colours look very rich. There is a smooth glossy 30cm round Folk Stripe platter:

30cm Folk Stripe Glass Platter

...and finally a colourful large rectangular worktop saver with a slight ridged texture on the surface:

40x30cm Folk Stripe worktop saver

To summarise, these brand new tabletop accessories are currently available to order online at Avenida Home only at the moment and delivery will be within 4 weeks, or you can find the Love Birds mats in store at Liberty. I will list any new stockists as soon as I know where they are selling. 

Alabasta trays are available from the stockists on the sidebar to the right of this page. 

All photos copyright Asta Barrington.