Stylish Spaces

Mohair - as the name suggests actually is hair - hair off the back of a specialist breed Angora goat, sheared twice a year to make a silky yarn that can be fashioned into anything from coats to cardigans to shawls and throws. Most confuse Mohair with Angora wool - which is entirely different. Angora wool is the fur off Angora rabbits, not goats. Mohair is known for its silky sheen and softness and was often referred to as the 'diamond yarn' for its scarcity and luxurious richness. But what I didn't know was South Africa is the biggest exporter and industry for the finest Mohair off Angora goats. My husband on a recent business trip to Cape Town brought back the most beautiful mohair throw and that ignited my interest and curiosity - after all Angora is in Turkey, miles and oceans apart from the southern tip of South Africa. It all started in 1838 with the Sultan's mistake. But going even further back, Mohair has been used to keep bodies warm since biblica...

For those of us destined to a life lived watching urban landscapes of solid and bulky concrete jungles - either by choice or necessity of earning an upkeep - bird watching, is the only and the most readily available/easiest form of dreamy escapism that takes our soul closer to nature without leaving the confines of our resident cities. I have lost count on how many times I have found myself stopping mid-sentence to stare at an amazingly agile, delicate, jittery bird in the bush or nearby tree, leaving either my husband or kids annoyed at leaving my sentence "hanging in the air" and ruining the fluid flow of conversation and the prevailing moods all around! But my bird watching is not a hobby, rather an almost instinctive, intuitive pull of nature. Some do it with a passion - there are plenty of bird watching societies out there with serious hobbiest willingly spending precious time (not to mention resources) to travel far and wide to catch a glimpse of rare birds in nature...

Fact: Alchemy is the pursuit of transmutation of base metals into gold or silver - chemists have engaged in this process for centuries. Artists over the centuries have also played with the idea of alchemy and believed that the process of painting requires some kind of inexplicable energy or focus that allows the paint to transform and transfix on the canvass as something other than paint - perhaps silver or gold. Art, I feel, encompasses such a broad spectrum of genre that sometimes in its very guise things are misconstrued and represented to the world as art which fall far short of any expression attributed to it.  This is especially the case with abstracts or nude canvasses that leave all to the beholders imagination. Looking at abstracts and failing to make sense of it many a times (apart from certain modernistic merits that make them useful in  minimalist settings),  I have often wondered at the futility of this form of art. Often it has seemed the lazy-way-out as ...

Fact :  The term Baroque was originally ‘barocca’ the name for highly prized, irregular pearls incorporated into fabulous, courtly jewels.  It now defines a design period which evolved out of the Renaissance’s formal, mannered style in the 1600s favoured all across Europe by Kings and aristocracy, but most famously in Varsellies, Italy - which also boasts the glittering  Hall of Mirrors- allegedly the brightest room in Europe from that era. Of late I have been dreaming of tall ceilings. Hall of Mirrors, Varsellies Why? I am not sure and a google search revealed a paradoxical interpretation to say the least. On on hand, a tall ceiling in your dreams means realising your biggest achievement but also means literally a ceiling per se - as in there is no where else to go, you can't soar higher and are hampered by its very presence. Huh! I thought, that is so typical of everything I do - waking or sleeping ambiguity abounds-  no clear answers, no clear direction ....

When I have a few hours to myself, I dream often of building my own summer retreat one day - a small cottage or a chalet somewhere tucked away in the mountains, not too far away from civilisation but far enough to breathe cleaner, fresher air and enjoy nature and all it has to offer. Sometimes the dream turns into a yearning for greenery and mountains- living in Dubai can bring that on - and I find myself reaching for my sketch pad and drawing lines and angles that turn into rooms and spaces of my "imaginary" retreat. Pages upon pages of my sketch pad are filled with drawings of such plans - some dating back a decade and a half (yes, I am quite consistent in my dreams however I maybe in waking life!)  and as I flick through them, I see that I always try and squeeze three features into my designs -three design nuances not necessarily associated with cottages or chalet-like structures, I must add here. The first is a  central courtyard - or my outdoors, indoor place as I c...

 The reality of a room, for instance, was to be found in the vacant space enclosed by the roof and the walls, not in the roof and walls themselves. The usefulness of a water pitcher dwelt in the emptiness where water might be put, not in the form of the pitcher or the material of which it was made. Vacuum is all potent because all containing. In vacuum alone motion becomes possible. One who could make of himself a vacuum into which others might freely enter would become master of all situations.  The Book Of  Tea I spent a greater part of my life thinking of vacuum as a harrowing hollowness inside ones soul or emptiness in ones heart or in the physical world cold, bare and sad rooms - in short, nothing to look forward to  - until I read this beautiful passage by Kakuzo Okakura. I remember reading this some ten years back and as the words slowly sank in, being deeply, profoundly affected by it. It was that moment of clarity for me. How wrong I had been...

Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others. The Book of Tea The art of decorating and adorning your personal spaces – and by personal spaces I mean your home and your personality - is one and the same – know your strengths and acknowledge your virtues but display them to the world subtly, almost humbly, even apologetically at times. The basic idea is to enhance and present the whole rather than zoom in on the carefully selected qualities you want the world to see. Emphasising and reiterating your virtues to others never does you any good - unless you are at an interview where they ask you to talk about yourself – it is a topic best avoided. And if you are so inclined, and human race is inflicted with vanity of the narcissist kind, then be warned – at best it will get people’s back up against you, and at worst will makes them horribly envious in a sadistic kind of way where they will gleef...