arranging things

There’s nothing I love more than pottering: moving things about endlessly at home, at our studio, or on set while shooting. I consider it a very serious past-time of mine (no judging!).

Nudging a vase 1mm to the left, swopping out a coffee-table book with another because the cover speaks to me more that day, or colour-coding ceramics into a different configuration on a shelf. Perhaps it’s a way for me to calm, control or contain the world around me, through object placement or play (or perhaps it’s a distraction from all the crazy, and just procrastination).

But this is also my job: gathering, curating, and arranging things in real life and on screen. And as I’m sure you’ve noticed, these pages are filled with countless examples of object play and placement, some accidental, but most very intentional. We’ve turned the art of arranging things into a serious art form, business and passion (how great that we get to call “pottering about” a full time job?!).

So for this edition (‘Curate’), we’ve curated a collection of carefully-considered spaces thoughtfully crafted by people (aka curators) who live mindfully and make intentionally. These are places that all evoke a sense of calm and stillness, and all nurture a connection to the land or natural world through location, context, materiality, or story.

It’s now more crucial to consider that the design and spending choices we make daily affect not only how we live, but also impacts the world and those around us. How is something made? Who made it? Where is it from? Why do I own it?

We have a responsibility. This edition encourages mindful living (and arranging), and celebrates those who are aware of their immediate surrounds and society at large. There’s more to that vase than just taste or aesthetics…

See you again soon in winter, for Volume 21!