Glamm Fire: You'll never see fireplaces in the same way again

Portuguese interior design is really hot right now. Take a look at Glamm Fire as a case in point. The Portuguese company design incredibly modern ethanol fireplaces that suit modern homes, even those with no chimneys. They recently displayed at the 100% Design show in London and I'm absolutely kicking myself that I spent the whole of Saturday dragging my long-suffering boyfriend around the Origins Craft and the Tent London exhibitions without realising that they'd be there! Still, I suppose I can always catch them next year. Anyway, back to Glamm Fire. The name really is appropriate for a company that has managed to harness the full sensuousness of an open fire in all of their designs. Even their advertising (strangely suffused with doves for some reason - perhaps they're promoting game fricassée?) is dark and luxurious with an opulent feel to it. From the fireplace with a champagne bucket attached to the side, to the large open fire with a magazine rack or the playful and quirky "cow" design, any one of these pieces would grace a Homes and Gardens penthouse loft shoot.

Origin: The London Craft Fair

It's been a busy weekend here at London Lisbonite. I spent Saturday trekking around the London Design Festival and visiting the Tent London exhibition in the old Truman Brewery and the Origin Craft Fair at the Old Spitalfields Market. Both of them showcased some amazing new designers as well as couple of old favourites. However, the official London Lisbonite Design Festival award from 2010 has to go to Kealwork for their absolutely beautiful handmade rocking boat. The silky smooth wood is perfectly fitted together on a piece that almost seems too beautiful to be a children's toy. It was with great difficulty that I eventually tore myself away, doing frantic mental calculations about how I could afford both my rent and this little boat as I forced myself to leave their stand. The craftsmanship was impeccable and this has to be one of the most original toys I've ever seen. Kealwork, I salute you! You will be my first stop for toys when my best friends start to breed!

Portuguese Etsy: 4Eva gives you wiiiiiiings!

It's that time of the year when those of us incapable of doing anything without a well-structured list bring out the trusty pen and pad and sit down for a good think. Yes, Halloween is on it's way. This year I'll be returning to the Last Tuesday Society Costume Ball in London as one of Jack the Ripper's victims, which means I need to find a Victorian wench costume. Any pointers are gratefully recieved! However, if I were a little girl going on a normal round of trick or treating, the ONLY thing I'd want to wear would be a pair of these beautiful handmade and wire-free wings from Portuguese children's designer 4Eva. Sold through an Etsy shop, these designs are just fantastic and bursting with colour. Toys 'r' Us, your days are clearly numbered.

Portuguese Etsy: Traditional dainty Portuguese jewellery from Loveoffiligree

It's a bit of an Etsy-inspired week here on London Lisbonite. I've mentioned the traditional dainty Portuguese filigree jewellery found in Viana do Castelo before and so was overjoyed to find that it's finally available online at Loveoffiligree's Etsy shop. These beautiful and ornate pieces of jewellery were traditionally given as love gifts and are still widely known as the most romantic Portuguese jewellery that it is possible to receive. Aren't the hearts just lovely?

Portuguese Etsy: Portuguese cake toppers from PingaAmor

The next showcase for this Etsy-inspired week of Portuguese design comes from PingaAmor. It feels like my whole summer has been consumed by various weddings, none of which were actually mine. However, I do firmly believe that weddings are the best social occasions that it is possible to attend, unrivalled by any other for the potential for fun. With this in mind, I wanted to share these adorable handmade sewn bird cake toppers from Portuguese designer PingaAmor. They're certainly unusual and can be found in the PingaAmor Etsy shop.

Interview: Paula Valentim of OtchiPotchi

I've written about Portuguese potter / ceramics artists Paula Valentim before, after I stumbled across her lovely online shop. Not only is this lady very talented but she was also kind enough to take the time to chat to London Lisbonite about her work! Over to Paula!
1. How did you get started with what you do?
Some years ago I did a few ceramic evening classes and I became
very fascinated by it. At that time I was a librarian living in London.
When I returned to Portugal I decided it was the right time to change
my life. I did a three years ceramics course, which I completed in
Autumn 2009 and I set up my own studio in Spring this year.

2. What's your favourite piece?It is hard to tell. Usually my favourite is always the last creation. It is like every time I make something new I am still very attached to it. So my favourites are always changing, really!
3. What was the hardest thing for you to sell so far?
The set of 3 coasters, but they have only been added to the shop in
the last week so it is still too early to say how successful they are.
4. What has been your biggest success?
The white porcelain swallows, the stone wall vases and the crochet
stones are more or less even.
5. What do you do when you're not creating?
I read about a few subject I’m particularly fond of, go for walks where
I collect plants and stones and I go to my aqua aerobics classes.
Recently I started to teach myself how to crochet, which I find very
soothing and helps me get mentally organised.

6. Any future plans for the business?
My immediate plans are to set up my studio in a larger space
because at the moment I’m working in a tiny room at home and it is
becoming too small already. Then I just want to carry on working and
get better in what I do and make my ceramics known and available to
a wider number of people.

Hand-made Portuguese embroidered scarves from Vera Viana

My father recently made a documentary about one of the summer festivals in the Portuguese region of Minho and I was mesmerised by the beautiful embroidered fisherwomen's scarves. They're made by hand and so they tend to be very expensive and difficult to get hold of, even in other regions of Portugal. So thank heavens for Vera Viana, a new online shop selling beautiful hand-made embroidered Portuguese scarves and shawls. Whilst they're not the brightly coloured, busy and lavishly tasseled originals, they're still beautiful in their own, very modern, right. You have to order by email rather than paying online on their site which is irritating but the charming staff speak fluent English so take a look!

The TOUCH stool: Portuguese design in Los Angelos

TOUCH have collaborated with the brilliant Portuguese designers studioVerissimo to build a multi-purpose stool called Open. One of the best things about having a blog is that people keep their ear to the ground for new pieces coming on to the scene - thanks N!

Portuguese designers Cláudio Cardoso and Telma Verissimo (Studio Verissimo) designed the stool although TOUCH had it built in a small woodshop in Los Angeles using FSC-certified sugar pine. The stool takes the look and feel of a traditional Portuguese stool and makes it both modern (note the bright colouring of the slots) and multi-functional. The slot cut in one side means that this stool can double as an unusual doorstop. So environmentally sound, designed by a great emerging Portuguese talent and when you're not sitting on it, it'll hold your doors for you. A gentleman of a stool - who'd have thought it?

Portuguese beach astrays by Sagres beer

One of the worst side-effects of smoking is when cigarette butts are to be found littered all over the floor. I´m at home for a few days for a family wedding and I was really intrigued by the ashtray iniciative by my Portuguese hometown Cascais. Next to every beach is a little stand holding red plastic cones. Smokers simply pick a cone up, shove it into the sand next to their lounger where it fills with sand thanks to a grille in the bottom. They use it as an ashtray and when they´re ready to leave, they close the lid and leave it in another tray to be emptied. This way, the beach is free of cigarette butts. Portuguese beer brand Sagres are sponsoring the ashtrays - sometimes the simple ideas really are the most effective.

Portuguese mountain style: Sennes

The Portuguese mountain ranges of Serra de Estrela aren´t the biggest in the world, nor do they even come close to being the biggest in Europe. But their exports within Portugal, namely cheese, leather and wool, make them extremely popular within the nation. SENNES, brainchild of textile designer Nele De Block who has spent the last 10 years devoting her design philosophy and processes to the rediscovery and revaluation of the traditional values in woven products, has taken advantage of the ‘traditional values of the unique raw material wool’ available there to create a surprisingly contemporary range of bags and wraps. SENNES is very much ‘made in Portugal’, from wool taken from sheep that haven´t been chemically sprayed. After the shearing of the sheep, the wool is carefully selected, washed with soft spring water captured about 1400m of altitude. Color is based on the natural range of colors of the wool. No chemical dyes are used.When I told my father that I wanted a blanket made from "eco-sheep" he laughed, until I pointed out all of the processing that goes into normal wool. He´s now a bit of a convert and coveting a pair of the lovely hand-warmer gloves!

And the winner is...

Mverno! Mverno was picked by the random number generator (or random winner generator in this case) and will be using the £40 voucher from CSN stores for a serving bowl. Congratulations Mverno, I´ll be in touch with your voucher! Thank you all so much for taking part - watch this space for more giveaways!

Portuguese flavours: The new contemporary tableware range from Vista Alegre

Portuguese tableware and porcelain designers Vista Alegre have completely dominated the Portuguese design scene when it comes to fine china since they opened in 1824. One of the reasons for their continued popularity is their constant innovation and the way in which they use Portuguese designers and Portuguese artists to come up with new tableware on a regular basis. take the new, uber-modern and simplistic Flavours range for example, where the company worked with art students at the Faculdade de Belas Artes (Fine art department) at the University of Lisbon. The result is an extremely unusual and unique salt and pepper shaker that resembles a squashed doughnut, ostreamlined il and vineger salad dressing pourers and an innovative pestle and mortar with a cork in the pestle to allow the cook to store extra herbs if they need them.

Put a cork in it...and a candle in the cork!

The Portuguese obsession with finding new uses for cork (now that the world has apparently decided that the less traditional but decidedly more airtight metal bottlecaps are a sensible choice) continues unabated with Portuguese designers Corque Design. Alongside the usual chairs and tables made out of cork, I noticed this fantastic candlestick, designed by talented Portuguese product designer Fernando Brizio. Made from natural/black aglomerate cork, this is a playful and fun take on the traditional "candle-rammed-in-wine-bottle" found in so many Italian restaurants worldwide.

Competition: London Lisbonite giveaway!

The lovely people at CSN stores have been in touch with London Lisbonite to offer one lucky reader a £40 gift voucher to use in any of their six stores! The stores themselves offer everything from ceiling lights to cookware and the voucher is valid at any one of them!

I love these traditional Le Creuset soup pots from their cookware shop:

They've also got a modern furniture shop - how unusual is this pretty glass-topped console table?
To enter all you need to do is leave a comment below telling me what you'd spend your £40 voucher on. Are you looking for an unusual serving dish or cupcake stand? Or would you rather focus on a new focus piece like a chair? All entries posted before noon on Wednesday the 8th of September will then be put into a hat so check back here on Wednesday to find out if you were the winner! Oh, and you'll get an extra entry if you re-tweet about this competition/giveaway!

Traditional toys by Casa Ruim

These days toys appear to come in two varieties: those made of plastic that go "beep" and those made of plastic that go "beep" very loudly. Not only does this make them rather anti-social when used in public spaces (people that bring your children on commuter trains please take note) but they also don't demand much imagination and they don't help children to socialise. I was thrilled to see that Vanesse Fernandes and her boyfriend have devoted an entire section of their online store Casa Ruim to old fashioned Portuguese toys. From wind-up robot space troopers (€22) to hand-made vintage tin toy cars from the 50's (€18), they've really gone all out to secure a range of traditional toys that will evoke nostalgia in the givers as well as delight in the recipients!

Portuguese London: Guest blogging for Visit London!

Visit London has started an interesting project called World In London and asked London Lisbonite to be the guest blogger for the Portuguese spot! The question of what to write about was easily answered given the Portuguese obsession with food so I featured O Moinho, a Portuguese restaurant in Stockwell. Each of the 205 countries that will be taking part in the London Olympics 2012 will be featured so to check out the best Portuguese restaurant in London and to learn the other "loved-by-locals" spots hidden around the city, take a look at it here.

Portuguese London: The Pedro Pires exhibition

This week the Fine Arts MA students of Central Saint Martins School of Art & Design in London are having their graduation show on Charing Cross Road. This gives me a perfect excuse (as if any were needed!) to feature some of the work of Portuguese artist Pedro Pires. I've long been a huge fan of his Gunpowder Men series and was thrilled to see that he's branched out into photography. His website is hugely comprehensive and well worth checking out, as is the graduation show itself.