London Design Week

First, on the Monday, to Graphic Africa at Habitat on the King's Road. This exhibition is on till 20 October - more info here. I didn't have my camera so the pix are courtesy of Jo -

Overview of a corner of the gallery

Only 3 drawers in the sideboard - but look at the massive stone lamp base!

Made of recycled oil drums, amazing

Yet more oil drums, brilliant

A short bus ride to "Cabinets of Curiosity" at Mint and outrageous wildness by Korean designer Myung Nam An at Squint -

Flocking - fabric collage - patchwork upholstery - a profusion by Myung Nam An

Inside a chair, who knew?

Leaving "Chelsea Quarter" of the design festival, we went to 19 Greek Street, drawn by this "floating world"

The 3D drawing in the air seemed to be strips of felt, held with a tricksy series of invisible threads - you can just about see the grid of hooks on the floor -

With time running out, on Friday I made it to the V&A to see the work of Julia Lohmann, whose stint as artist-in-residence - or rather, Design Resident - finishes this month. She's been working with kelp, treating it so it keeps its elasticity when dry, and stretching it over canes. She calls the studio Department of Seaweed -

At the end of the gloomy Leighton Corridor is Oki Naganode, the luminous creature that she

made from a type of Japanese seaweed,  -

The canes are covered with metal tubing -

ao textiles is a group whose practice emphasises the sustainable. I was impresssed by the marbling on silk, and the way embroidery (with recycled indigo-dyed thread) is used for emphasis -

The fabric yardage is woven from yarn dyed with madder, but what interested me was the effect of erasure with white paint to produce the backdrop -

Along a corridor, 70 designers' sketchbook response to three questions: what can we not live without; what needs improving; what would you like to design -

I was delighted to see Tina (centre, bottom row) among them - years ago we were part of a group that went to the V&A or British Museum to fill our sketchbooks. Read more about the moleskine sketch relay, and see lots of good pix, on her blog.

Contributions from the public were part of the display

Between the metalwork and medieval galleries, 5000 paper windmills made an impressive door curtain -

Every now and then a switch flipped and a wind blew through the Wind Portal, turning some of the windmills - my camera was too fast to get much of a blur -

Leaving the V&A via the front entrance, you see 28.280 by Omer Arbel "a pure celebration of the monumental height of the building". It's there till November -

Of course there was much more to see in the various "design quarters" around town, in shops and special spaces - but not enough time (or obsession) to see it all.