Rice DK Autumn 2015 Preview

Rice - Denmark's brightest and most colourful design house - likes to be noticed. You can instantly
tell you've arrived at Rice HQ when you turn the corner on the small industrial estate in which they are situated and spot the wall painted bright pink. Rice have been a big part of our business since we started our small shop in 2007 and we've seen their collection grow and develop over the years, but never has it been anything other than bright, bold and colourful. Rice are now such an important part of our business that we have come to Odense in Denmark to preview Autumn / Winter 2015 as early as possible, and we're pleased to be here, not least of all because Rice share our ethical business principals.

Sometimes a place feels instantly like home - rarely does an office achieve that. Our visit is a chance to catch up with old friends - various colleagues at Rice we have worked with over the years greet us. Rice, however, has an ethic built around home comfort, family life, entertaining and friendship so maybe it should be little of a surprise that this is one office which manages to be comfortable and welcoming. Decorated typical Rice-style with a combination of old and new pieces of furniture, all set off by a huge amount of colour, the Rice office is a place to relax and play as well as work. The whole office is open plan so everyone is accessible. Even the staff canteen is a riot of beautiful colours. It quickly becomes obvious that design, colour and a happy environment inform everything Rice does.

But work is what we've come all this way to do so before long it is down to previewing the new collection for Autumn 2015. This year, Rice have nailed their Autumn colour range with a combination of rich purples and blues together with muted pinks. The new designs on the melamine are beautiful and quirky. Thrown into the Autumn colours are splashes of gold and rich blues. Quirky characters also feature in the collection as usual - playfulness is a key part of Rice's style and this season's striking illustrations by Andrea Letterie feature scarf clad polar bears and cups of whipped cream topped hot chocolate. It's almost enough to help you forget the beautiful summer weather and make you hanker for longer autumn nights in. 

Because a busy day always requires a hearty lunch, Helene and Maria take us to the Riceteria - Rice's new venture into cafe culture. It's a great new project in the centre of Odense - the perfect place to hang out with a cold drink on a hot day, full of young mothers and other lunchers eating and drinking Rice style. The Riceteria is a great showcase for Rice products with all the food served on them together with a shop area attached. Helene tells us that Rice are now franchising the Riceteria to several locations in Germany. 

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There are some great new designs coming to the new collection at Rice. We love these big candle lanterns and some of the quirky new illustrations from Andrea Letterie. It almost makes you hanker after the colder winter nights.

New Rice Autumn stock will be arriving soon at fig1.co.uk. 

Mother's Brewing

Mothers know best. This can be an annoying fact when it comes to Mother's Day. They already bake

Spring flowers by our local florist, Vera. Jug by Rice.

better, find better presents and wrap them more beautifully than any other member of the family. But then it isn't really about one-upmanship, more "feet up, woman!"ship: trying to get them to sit down, take a break and stop looking after everyone else for five minutes. My Mum spends her life cooking for and running around after the family.

Well here's a recipe which I like for being tasty, showy and actually quite easy, and which is also good for any time of the day. I harbour a suspicion that the phrase "breakfast muffin" was actually designed to market cakes at a whole new time slot, but these ones aren't too sweet and they do have fruit in. As an occasional treat they're pretty good with a morning cuppa, or they go down equally nicely with an afternoon brew. Pick your time.

But before I publish this I have a guilty confession to make. I've stolen this recipe from the woman herself. My Mum tends to make these for our birthdays, even once going so far as to turn up at my brother's office with a basket of them for him and his colleagues. So they may impress your Mum but they will be no use at all in one-upping my mother. Although I'm guessing she has never dusted her nose with icing sugar trying to get unusual photographs of them.

Lemon Curd and Blueberry Muffins

Muffin cases by Rice DK

Ingredients

335g self raising
220g caster
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
100g melted butter
250ml milk
The zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
200g blueberries
10tsp lemon curd

Preheat oven to 200 degrees centigrade
Makes 10 muffins



Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, mix together. Make a well in the middle and add all the other ingredients except the berries into it. Whisk together, bringing in the flour from around the edges until combined, without overworking. You should end up with a stiff batter. Stir through the blueberries.

A third fill the muffin cases. Add a teaspoon of lemon curd into the centre of each, then cover over with more muffin batter. Remember the mix will expand so don't overfill them.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Finally, drench with icing sugar. And try not to get overcome with the urge to take ridiculous photos while you do that: a trap I unfortunately fell into.

Photographing muffins - got a little carried away.

A Warm Welcome After the Rice Spring 2015 Preview in Malmo, Sweden

Colourful, welcoming, bright, bold and a little bit crazy - not a list of adjectives you associate with Scandinavian crime drama. However Malmo, where we have been invited to preview Rice's Spring 2015 stock, is just over The Bridge from Copenhagen airport. Yes - the bridge from The Bridge. Øresund Bridge. For two Brits abroad it's an interesting start to the day, to be driven across the hugely long span between Denmark and Sweden, the low coast lines of both countries barely seeming to break out of the water amidst forests of eerily silent wind turbines. We islanders are not used to such international mornings - at least on the ferry to France there's time for a nice cup of tea.

Kristina's home near Malmo is full of
welcoming spaces for socialising

Luckily for us, the lingua franca between the Danes and the Swedes is English so we don't have to get too far outside of our comfort zone. Over dinner later that evening one Swedish blogger asks me if I'm Danish. I tell her that no, I'm English - did I look Danish? and she says maybe and that she just thought I had only been speaking in English for her sake - "we can't understand the Danes, they sound like they are speaking with porridge in their mouth". The Swedes generally seem to consider the Danes to be extremely laid back - a way of being which they think extends to their lazy way of talking - so many written sounds are dropped or half pronounced that, although the two languages are closely related, they cannot understand the way the Danes speak. Certainly the time we have spent in Denmark recently shows them to be a very informal. hospitable and friendly nation.

But if this Danish laid back and homely style is supposed to be in contrast to the Swedes, then the
particular Swedes we met have definitely caught a dose of the Danish. After the preview day we were lucky enough to be invited back to Kristina's beautiful home in the Swedish countryside together with about 12 other Swedish bloggers and buyers. Kristina works for Rice in the south of Sweden but definitely lives her work - her house is stylish, colourful, beautiful, eclectic, welcoming and just a tiny bit crazy, but of all these adjectives the most important for Kristina seems to be welcoming. To invite colleagues and customers to your house is one thing, Kristina was actually hosting 5 or 6 of her clients overnight and had decided to feed us all a beautiful feast too. "I just love to have visitors" she told us, as we helped ourselves to salads, pulled pork, dips and pita breads which she managed to conjure from nowhere. 

And her house reflects that welcoming hospitality - there are plenty of areas to sit and chat, with

An inviting, open and welcoming kitchen greets us after the preview day

The scene already set for us includes a warm and welcoming table

chairs facing each other, not solitary or facing a TV screen. Places which have been designed for chat and socialising. The kitchen is abundant and open, with dishes stacked high in vibrant blobs of Rice colours - inviting you to help yourself, to be happy, to eat, to drink. Visiting that house made sense for me of why we love working with Rice - that kitchen made sense of it. We have always loved feeding people, socialising with people, talking and eating together more than anything else. If there isn't food in the fridge and a drink in the cupboard to share with friends who happen past then home isn't home for me. And apparently this is a sentiment shared by all around the table that evening. It's a sentiment which Rice as a company is built on, from its strong ethical values to its bright and welcoming style. There are quirky and unusual finds including many lamps and candles dotted around invitingly and most of the pieces Kristina has chosen seem to be picked to make you smile. And that, in turn, makes you comfortable and relaxed. 

Below are some more pictures of Kristina's fabulous house and a preview of the some of the Spring
2015 finds from Rice. I hope you enjoy them.

by Mark Fletcher

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The Rice Spring 2015 collection is peopled with quirky, bright and colourful creatures. Living life in glorious Technicolor seems to be raison d'etre of all Rice products. The creatures on board this colourful life journey are fun and playful and bring a smile to your face. A full album of finds can be found on our Facebook page. 

But see the way Kristina styles her home with these colours and creatures and you'll see that as well as playful and fun, it can also be sophisticated. Below is a selection of some of the amazing lighting pieces Kristina uses in her house. The cosiness of using so many low lights and candles, together with her use of pattern, shows a great way of working with Rice and other designers to produce a colourful but sophisticated effect. Once again, a complete album of images used from Kristina's home can be found on our Facebook page.

Colourful Christmas Inspiration

Owl Candle Holder by House Doctor

I've become obsessed with my camera of late. In the Spring I treated myself to a Canon 70D and it has become my constant companion, my friend and my plaything. I may even be a little in love with it. Remember when you were young how certain presents at Christmas invaded your imagination with their newness and you couldn't stop playing with them? I was like that with every set of Lego Technics I was ever bought and I'm like that now with my Camera. And like Lego, it keeps it's newness because there is always another bit you can bolt on - lenses, lights, flashes and tripods - and always new things you can make with it.

Last week I had the opportunity to help style a Christmas photo shoot for a magazine with a friend of mine - Kirstie Young - an inspirational photographer. It was a great opportunity to combine the visual styling side of my day job with some practical experience and learning from a great photographer. The day left me inspired to put together my own Christmas shots for Fig1.

Below is a sneak preview of some of the Christmas table ideas I've been working on. We have a collection of more traditional decorations in the shop too, but this was a chance to experiment with colour. Working so closely with the Danish company Rice for the last few years has been a shock treatment in the possibility of quirky and unusual colour combinations - I love throwing different colours into the mix and seeing what combinations take flight in my imagination. Some combinations come alive when you put together, seeming to tug at you invitingly. So why not? While I have the chance to play with colour and experiment with my camera, why not build, make and create something different?

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by Mark Fletcher

In the pictures: I've taken some of the geometric and metallic influence from our other Danish companies House Doctor and Bloomingville and added in some crazy, quirky Rice-style colour combinations - mostly thanks to their beautiful ceramics - to get a non-traditional Christmas look. For me, a neutral background is essential to any bold use of colour to keep a sense of calm and to make the colours you want sing out. 

The presents in these pictures are wrapped in House Doctor double sided wrap, again with unusual quirky geometric patterns, the double sided nature of the wrap means you can turn back an edge to reveal a stripe of the pattern on the reverse of the paper. 

Character, fun and playfulness: characters like the Owl candle holder, bird and gnome candles add a sense of fun to an otherwise sophisticated setting. I like having something in the room which makes people smile when they see it. The photo below is my favourite from last years Christmas photo shoots and it still brings a smile to my face.

Keep an eye on our Facebook fan page for more Christmas ideas as we get closer to the big day and check out our Christmas section of the site and the Rice ceramics section for most of the products used in these photos.

Competition Coming Soon....

We have a competition to win 2 Rice kids storage baskets arranged with the Green Parent Magazine - out on 7th November - grab the magazine off the shelves or keep an eye on our Facebook fan page or our blog for more details around that date.