October 2, 2008

Day 2 - NANNA DITZEL

"Beauty is a superpower that should not be underestimated"

Born in Copenhagen, Nanna initially trained as a cabinetmaker.  She was interested in obscure shapes, strange curves and continued to focus on those throughout her career.  

Not only a furniture designer for adults and children, she also designed jewelry, interiors, and fabric.  Many of her designs including her award-winning Hallingdal fabrics, can still be seen in airports, hospitals and houses around the world.
"Hanging chair" - probably her best known designs worldwide.  There have been many imposter designs, but none can match the perfect simplicity of the original.
"Sausage" chair.  

Many of her pieces were made with rattan, fiberglass, foam rubber and textiles.  I love the fact that she designed furniture for children.  Even now, there is very little groovy nursery and toddler furniture.  Nanna's designs became very popular in the '50's and '60's especially the toadstool table (not that I was alive then).

I love the idea of the Egg Chair but I have never really been that comfortable relaxing in one. I'm always afraid that either the chain is going to break, or its going to pull out of the ceiling.

2 comments:

Hannah Stephenson said...

That red chair is AWESOME! I agree about the peril of hanging chairs...especially creaky ones.

But I would love some kind of indoor hammock.

So Lovely said...

Isn't it gorgeous - a lot of my furniture is mid century so this would fit in perfectly. Thanks for dropping by.