New accessories inspired by trees

As with all of my home accessories, I put a lot of thought into the design process to be able to offer you versatility and ways for you to display them in your interior in a way that suits your needs. But my aim is also to create beautiful and interesting objects that you will cherish and that will bring you joy. Objects you’ll want to enjoy and touch.

I often hear how tactile my accessories are, and it’s true, there’s something about the texture that draws people in to want to touch them, I’ve noticed and heard it many times when I do in-person events. So my new trio of holders are not just functional and well-designed, they have an even more textured surface and look to them, making them extra ‘touchable’. So here is a little look at what inspired me.

Inspiration behind the range

Trees are nature’s giants of this world, majestic and working very hard to keep this planet liveable. I feel trees have somehow been on my mind from the very beginning when starting Mono & Lena. My accessories all have tree-related names and I decided to partner up with JUST One Tree from the get-go, who plant trees in the right places where they are most needed supporting wildlife and the surrounding communities. And now, trees have inspired me to create this range.

I always start my creative process by gathering lots of imagery from which I then make a selection and group into boards. The boards help me organise all the images I’ve gathered and discover sub-themes within the larger subject.

Board 1 • shows the amazing bark textures, so versatile and beautiful with all their knots and cracks. Some are smooth and some heavily textured, all so very tactile.

Board 2 • I love this contrast of smooth & rough, and have tried to incorporate this in my designs where I carved the sides to create a ‘bark’ texture and the tops are left untouched.

Board 3 • I was looking at a way to recreate these pops of brown/orange coming through the bark. I experimented with various techniques, including incorporating rust in my mixtures but none gave me the result I was after until I found a more abstract way to represent the patches and gradients as seen on the board.

After creating the boards and having a clear vision of what it is I want to incorporate into my designs, I start sketching rough ideas until one of them feels right and I can envision the product in my head. After this, the actual making process will start.

Meet Kiri, Karri & Koa

Kiri & Karri can be used as candle holders for your stick candles or as decorative bud vases for one or a few dried stems, they give you the option to use them in the way that brings you the most joy while offering functionality. Super sweet on their own, as a duo or as a colourful cluster to brighten up a table setting or corner of your home ☀️

Koa is a tealight holder and comes with a glass cup in which you can fit standard-size tealights or tealight refills to minimise waste from disposable cups.

As I wanted the texture to do all the talking, I kept the actual design simple and it turned out to completely fit the theme as the column shape is reminiscent of a tree stem or log.

And as you can see, I’m bringing back the Harvest yellow colourway 💛 It’s such a warm and joyous hue, perfect for summer ☀️

Meaning behind the names:

Kiri = skin of a tree (tree bark) or fruit, of Maori origin

Karri = an Australian gum tree/Eucalyptus tree with hard red wood

Koa = ‘Acacia Koa’, a species of flowering tree that is found in the Hawaiian Islands