A slow, intentional January with the Henning Koppel collection from Georg Jensen [ad]

[AD – This is a paid partnership with Georg Jensen. All images: Cate St Hill]

The start of the year is a time to reflect and set down new intentions for the months ahead. Most New Year’s resolutions often set us up to fail, so instead of restricting or taking away something, I find it’s as good a moment as any to add something to your life, however small. Our lives are busy and it can sometimes all get a bit overwhelming, so I find it helpful to focus in on the little things that we can be more mindful of in the everyday.  Simple rituals can offer a moment of calm and clarity; a chance to reset.

While styling Georg Jensen’s Henning Koppel Collection and enjoying a quiet moment with some beautiful pieces of timeless design in my own home, it got me thinking about the joy of moments spent offline without any distractions. How often do we actually take the time to really slow things down and truly absorb ourselves with our surroundings? To properly pay attention and appreciate the little things, without our mind getting wrapped up in the bigger stuff? Even when we’re just having a break or enjoying a cup of tea we rarely allow ourselves to get truly absorbed in the moment, we’re probably thinking about the next thing on our to-do list or what someone else is doing on social media.

Of course you don’t always need material things to find mindful moments, but there is a case to made that surrounding yourself with just a few beautiful, considered objects almost forces you to slow down. These things deserve our attention and appreciation; as you arrange the flowers in the vase or pour yourself a glass of water from a pitcher, you might start to wonder how the object has been made, who conceived that shape and how they got the metal to bend in that way.

Danish artist and designer Henning Koppel first started working with Georg Jensen in 1946. He had originally trained as a painter and sculptor but found his calling in product design and particularly silverware. Georg Jensen’s CEO at the time, Anders Hostrup-Pedersen, was drawn to his modern approach and gave him free reign to explore his creative ideas. For the rest of his life until he died in 1981, Koppel created a series of design classics, some of which are still the most popular in Georg Jensen’s collection today.

Henning Koppel was one of the pioneers that helped bring modern Scandinavian design to an international audience. After the war, as designers sought to offer a more uplifting alternative to the sombre past, Koppel became known for his free-thinking functionalism. Koppel’s nature-inspired designs are simple and stripped-back, but they’re also known for their soft, organic curves, giving them the soul that can be often seen be lacking in minimalism.

Koppel’s designs, from pitchers and bowls to clocks and cutlery sets, stand on their own as sculptural pieces, but they also look right at home with more everyday items in the home. The silhouette of the mirrored stainless steel pitcher has made it one of Scandinavia’s greatest design icons.

After Koppel’s death to celebrate 100 years since his birth, Georg Jensen added a series of vases in mixed materials to the Henning Koppel collection. The Georg Jensen design team looked through the archives of Koppel drawings and watercolours to develop new variations on his designs. Inspired by Koppel’s designs in the 1960s, they include the Koppel vase, as well as Turnip and Onion Bonbonnieres that pair tactile, solid oak with the shiny, polished stainless steel. Koppel’s original designs would have been in dark wood and silver, but this lighter update makes them fit more seamlessly into the contemporary home, whether for sweet treats in the kitchen or for storing trinkets in the bedroom.

To finish, as I take a moment to pause to appreciate these Henning Koppel designs, I thought I’d share some my own intentions for 2020:

– Less screen time, more ‘me’ time – instead of mindlessly scrolling through my phone whenever I have a spare moment, I’m trying to develop healthier habits when it comes to social media and the internet. That means leaving my phone downstairs when I go to bed and using a wake-up light alarm, putting my phone in another room when I want to concentrate on a particular task so I don’t get distracted and having the odd digital detox at the weekend, spending 48 hours from Friday evening to Sunday evening offline. By slowing things down and consuming less, I find it helps me feel more present and less anxious. It’s all too easy to quickly grab a coffee or wolf down a meal while engrossed in your phone, without really paying attention to your surroundings. It may be as simple as committing to enjoying a hot drink without any distractions, really concentrating on the way the water ripples in the cup when it’s being poured from the kettle, how the curve of the coffee pot’s handle feels to touch, the warmth of the cup in your hands or the sweet aroma as you lift the cup from your lips.

– Starting the day with 10 minutes of meditation – it helps to get the day off on the right track. I used to just automatically reach for my phone, but I began to notice that all that stimulus first thing in the morning made my breathing quicken and my chest tighten as soon as I woke up. A slower, more natural start with some mindful meditation helps get me in the right mindset to start the day with a more positive energy.

– Drink more water – I’m terrible at doing this and always find I get to the end of the day and haven’t drunk so much as a glass of the good stuff. I find having a big carafe or pitcher of water nearby helps keep those water levels up; whether it’s by my desk, when I’m reading a book or when I go to bed.

– Just one coffee a day – In the fast pace of life, you can find yourself knocking back cup after cup to keep yourself going throughout the day, but I found they were making me feel even more wired and tired. I still have one cup in the morning, but I’ve cut out my afternoon coffee and swapped it for tea. What I actually craved, more than the caffeine itself, was the break; a quiet moment’s pause to stop and take stock before getting back on with things.

– Do one creative thing a day – for me, creative moments feed my soul; it’s what I live for. Amongst the emails, invoices and more mundane planning, I also need to find time for creative freedom everyday, whether it’s coming up with ideas while out on a walk, or styling and taking photos just for the sake of it. I also want to develop a new creative hobby this year, I tried a pottery class before Christmas and loved it. Henning Koppel’s daughter Hannah remembers him always sketching and painting; she recalls, ‘When I was a girl, I remember he often said to my mother – “I need to get out”. That was his cue to get out of the house with his pencils and canvas. The sketches and watercolours were his way of winding down from his other work.’ We all need a little moment in the day where we do something just for ourselves and no one else, with no expectations or constraints.

Do you have any intentions to start the new year? What do you do each day that’s just for you?