Bringing the world home

Edition No.10 | Spring

Mondocherry shop shelves with cushions, baskets and decorative objects from around the world

There are many ways the wider world finds its way into our homes. Sometimes it is a souvenir brought back from a trip, and at other times it is an object made somewhere we have never been, using skills and traditions passed from one generation to the next. Some are valuable, many are not, but they all have a story attached to them; where they came from, who made them, or simply the memory of discovering them.

It is also how we have curated our shop. On one shelf there might be hand-felted flowers from Nepal, block-printed textiles from India, and a woven basket from Africa, all sitting alongside artwork made by us here in Melbourne.

Dining room decorated with hanging floral jars

Try this at home

Take inspiration from something you have brought home from a trip or holiday. Identify what first caught your eye, then think about how you could incorporate its colours, shape, pattern or materials into your home.

Or, next time you are thinking about redecorating a room, look back through your travel photos for inspiration. Perhaps you love the exuberant pattern and colour of Indian architecture, or the calm simplicity of whitewashed Greek houses against a deep blue sea. Often it is the feeling of a place, rather than its individual objects, that is worth bringing home.

This week in the shop

Favourites from different places around the world

Muskhane turtle-shaped felt cushion on a bed

Nepal

Uganda

Scotland

On our studio table

Inspiration doesn’t have borders. Growing up overseas, and moving regularly as adults, we have been lucky enough to have travelled around Australia and internationally, and our artworks have all been influenced by the places we visited in some way.

Whether it was a walk along tropical beaches laden with broken shells, the colours in a fabric bought at a market, or the wild flowers growing on mountain slopes, our visual libraries are full of ideas just waiting to come to life as art.

Child holding a basket of knitted BlaBla animal dolls

Meet the maker

Each Blabla doll is knitted and embroidered from natural cotton and alpaca wool by skilled artisans in Peru. They each have their own personality and are one of our most loved products, with families coming back to purchase them for gifts over and over again.

From the archives

Sofa with patterned cushions and Mondocherry paper feather artworks

Our paper feather artworks were among our earliest designs, originally inspired by the wonderful texture and movement of African Juju hats.

Bringing the world home

Edition No.10 | Spring

This week in the shop

From the archives

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