When you think of Icelandic design, you should think of one word: WOOL.
Sweaters, hats, scarves, mittens, wall hangings, and more are made of the warm and loosely knit rough wool that is collected from the roving sheep that we saw all over the place.
Yup, that's me with a lamb that was following me around. I'm also wearing an Icelandic sweater that I got there.
I'll talk a little more about the rest of the Icelandic products we encountered over the next few days, but I wanted to start with my absolute favorite thing we saw for sale in Iceland: the fuzzy stool.
The fuzzy stool was created in 1972 by Sigurdur Mar Helgason. It's a long-haired fluffy sheep wool to and 3 stubby legs which I think you can screw on and off, since the whole package comes in a small box for transport.
It's designed and manufactured in Reykjavik.
It's really fun to ruffle your fingers through the fur top. I think the stool should come with a hairbrush, because I would totally spend hours brushing it.
If I recall correctly, the fur can be washed carefully, or not carefully if you want it to dred up. Wouldn't it be cute if your furniture grew dreds?
Unfortunately, though we hemmed and hawed about it, E and I left Iceland without one of these because it was just a little too expensive for us to justify it.
I don't regret it, but looking at these photos again makes me want one!
They were retailing for over $400 when we saw them in shops in Reykjavik, and honestly that is more than we've ever spent on a real chair let alone a stool.
Plus we were worried that the animal fur in our apartment would blend with the fuzzy stool fur in unappealing ways. And then there was the issue of whether we'd get a brown one to match his stupid cats' gross shedding fur? Or a white one to match my spectacular bunny's wonderful fur?
I can't quite figure out how the shopping cart here works, but it looks like they are for sale here for 564 Kr which right now is $446. Not sure if they ship to the US or what.
You can also email: modelhusgogn@simnet.is to place an order
Or you can just take a trip to Iceland. Here are the stores that sell them:
Epal ltd Skeifan 6 108 Reykjavík Tel: +354 568 7733 Fax: +354 568 7740 www.epal.is E-mail: epal@epal.is Kraum ehf Aðalstræti 10 101 Reykjavík Tel: 354 517 7797 www.kraum.is E-mail : halla@kraum.is Þjóðminjasafn Íslands National Museum of Iceland Suðurgötu 41 101 Reykjavík Tel: 354 5302200 E-mail: thjodminjasafn@thjodminjasafn.is www.natmus.is
more! more! - Nichole
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