Alabasta designs at upcoming Maison et Objet and Top Drawer trade shows

If you are a trade buyer there will be a couple of opportunities in the coming weeks to view and order the entire range of Alabasta products:

MAISON ET OBJET Paris, Parc des Expo, 6-10th September 2013
Åry Trays, Hall 6, Stand Q25
Avenida Home, Hall 8, Stand Bbis77

TOP DRAWER  London, Olympia, 15-17th September 2013
Avenida Home, Stand A96

Åry Trays will be showing the current collection of Alabasta trays in all sizes including Folk Stripe, Love Birds and Blue Fish. Avenida Home will be showing the current range of Alabasta placemats and coasters including the brand new Forest Leaves design (see photos below) plus hopefully the launch of some very lovely jacquard woven Blue Fish kitchen textiles of which you can take a sneak peek at on my Instagram page. I'll be blogging about those when they are officially launched very soon.

Alabasta Forest Leaves placemat from Avenida Home

Alabasta Forest Leaves 10cm coaster from Avenida Home

I'm intending to visit Top Drawer on the final day but I'm missing Maison et Objet this time sadly - I love seeing what's fresh and new out there and that show covers it all.

New Alabasta design: Forest Leaves

The newest design in the Alabasta range is going to be officially launched next month at Top Drawer in London and Maison et Objet in Paris but I'm showing it now because it has just been put on the Avenida Home website for ordering. This one is another deceptively complex pattern, this time showing exotic foliage and fluttering blue butterflies and is entitled Forest Leaves. It is inspired by lush rainforests and mid century Scandinavian ceramics and comes in colours that sit well with the existing Alabasta designs. The darkest shade is a very deep green-black and it is on the same ecru background as the Love Birds design. With flashes of chartreuse, cerulean blue, ultramarine and a vivid jungle green we think it looks modern and strong with a playful element to it and we hope it will prove as popular as the other designs.

This design will be available to order in the rectangular 29.2 x 21.6cm placemat and 10cm square coaster with a matt finish and black baize non-slip base from Avenida Home:

Alabasta Forest Leaves placemat

Alabasta Forest Leaves 10cm coaster

It has already been featured in the upcoming trade show Top Drawer's promotional poster (top right image) so we have great hopes for this new design and hope you like it as much as we do:

Top Drawer retail trade show, 15-17th September 2013

Visit the Avenida Home stand at the following trade shows to see the entire Alabasta ranges for Avenida Home:

6-10 Sept 2013, Maison et Objet, Paris, Hall 8, Stand Bbis77
15-17 Sept 2013, Top Drawer, Olympia, London, Stand A96

www.avenidahome.com

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!

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! Folk Stripe round coasters, placemats and glass platter

The Alabasta range of tabletop accessories is expanding! I've just designed some new round placemats to complement the rectangular Folk Stripe mats. These ones feature concentric circles like the best selling trays, have a modern glossy finish and come in four tropical colourways. There are four 28cm mats and four 10cm round coasters all made from top quality laminated eucalyptus wood with a heatproof melamine surface. They can be purchased individually so you can choose whichever ones you like most or create a combination, which is what I would do as I like them all mixed up. They are now available to order on Isabel Saiz' newly launched Avenida Home website, as are all the other Alabasta placemats and platters. Find the coasters here and the placemats here.

Alabasta 10cm Folk Stripe coasters

Alabasta 28cm Folk Stripe placemats

In addition to these new mats the 30cm glossy glass platter now has an intensely rich red border with shades of pink, orange, teal and kelly green. It's really vibrant - the photo hardly does it justice. It's great for cakes, bread and cheese but it's also heatproof to 180℃ so ideal for hot pans. Find it here.

Alabasta Folk Stripe Glass Platter

If you're in London and would like to see these and the other Alabasta placemats in real life, they will be on display at Tent London next month where they will be officially launched by Avenida Home on Stand F17. It's at the Truman Brewery in the East End from 20-23rd September and forms part of the jam-packed London Design Festival, a 10 day celebration of London's pivotal role in global design.

Åry Trays at the Home trade show

I went along to the new Home trade show in London yesterday and it was really good to catch up with Joakim, Madeleine and Isabel who are in charge of selling at Åry Trays. The stand looked great - there are a lot of different collections in addition to the Alabasta ones for Åry, such as trompe l'oeil hand drawn spoon and feather designs by Michael Angove, supremely talented draughtsman and old friend of mine. Sales were looking good and much improved on last year's January show - more new shops have bought the Alabasta ranges which I will list as soon as I know the details. A good start to the year.

The next trade show Åry Trays will be exhibiting at is Ambiente - an overwhelmingly huge interiors show in Frankfurt in the middle of February. It's all systems go at Åry HQ!

Alabasta tray collections on the Ary Trays stand, Home trade show, January 2012

'Home' trade show, London, January 2012

A belated Happy New Year! I've just returned from two weeks in colourful and inspiring Cuba and I'm now looking forward to some Alabasta related developments in the coming months. New home products have been sampled that relate to the current collections of trays and will be shown here as soon as they are launched.

Right now, however, Åry Trays are over from Sweden and have a stand (F12) at 'Home', the brand new London homewares trade show where retailers can see and order from the whole selection of their birch wood trays, including the Alabasta Blue Fish and Folk Stripe collections. Home is a new show from the organisers of the long established gift trade show Top Drawer and is running alongside it at Earls Court. It is being described as 'the definitive new trade event for homewares and interior accessories' and runs until tomorrow, 17th January. I'm going along tomorrow in my delirious jet lagged state to check it out.

A rather belated Happy New Year. 
49cm Alabasta Blue Fish tray.