Life as a Cafe

Eddie and I curated 'Life as a Cafe' with our dear friends, The Drawing Room Café. The exhibition features brand new work by our kinfolk; Audrey Anderson, Caroline Tomlinson, Flagg, Maria Lebedeva and Sarah Wocknitz!

Cafés are interesting spaces, not least because of the visitors who take up residence to eat, work and love in it's spaces. From a quick cup of coffee to a long leisurely lunch, the café offers sustenance of the beautifully crafted kind. 

The consultant, the student, the entrepreneur take refuge in the café, using the music, the endless coffee and the closeness of strangers to galvanise them into tapping away on their laptops. 

On any given day, there are the lovers, foreheads touching, fingers entwined, coffee cooling, and then there are the breakups, hookups, and the comings and goings of love arriving and leaving, fleeting and yearning. 

The café sees it all. The barista watches, cooly detached, the wait staff with their own stories unfolding. 

It is the unraveling and weaving of life. Life as a Café.

Introducing Paper from KIN: Paper | Metal | Clay

Paper popping up, drawn on, etched into, cut, printed, creating worlds, protecting precious objects.

With laughter, whimsy and love.

     

   

   

   

New KIN

_____

Lift the bowl
from the bottom shelf
and hold it
in both hands. Cup
the bowl. Let your palms
feel its weight. Wonder (...)
- Melissa Butler

After six years of providing a platform to South African design, I felt my focus shift. 

Locally manufactured was always integral to KIN; it was the first criteria of all objects in our bricks and mortar pop-ups, and then in our stores and then online.

Another was our love for the object and our devotion to the story around the object. 

I believe that our focus on ethical manufacturing can now take flight and go beyond our previous bricks and mortar bound existence

KIN’s focus remains very simple. But now, through our most beloved materials of paper, metal and clay, I will be focusing on:
Place: KIN's heart is in locally manufactured design
Meaning: KIN is the story of where an object comes from and where it will go
Craftsmanship: KIN is well made and made to last. Period.

Please join Eddie and I as we journey to designers' spaces and discover beautifully crafted pieces for your hands, homes and hearts.

To find Melissa Butler's book of poetry 'Removing', I order my copies from my favourite Cape Town bookstore, The Book Lounge.