Clare Page and Harry Richardson of design duo Committee have been trawling London’s flea markets and car boot sales for inspirational tat ever since they set up their workshop in 2001. Their studio—profiled here on NOWNESS—is a veritable Aladdin’s cave of bric-a-brac, full of items that time and taste have forgot, but that Page and Richardson have obsessively retained to use in their work. Here Richardson highlights some of his favorite pieces at the studio awaiting a new life.

The Multicolored Feather Duster 

It’s like one of those big brushes that you have at a car wash. It’s iridescent without meaning to be, because it’s made of cheap acrylic, and the colors are this beautiful blue and green, a fantastic yellow and a fantastic pink. Both Clare and I studied painting and color is enormously important to us. When we were painting we’d spend all day trying to work out what color a little square inch needs to be, so when you unearth something that’s just lying there and is already wonderful, it’s very exciting.

The Ugly Pot

There’s one pot that we’ve been trying to use for six years now and in one sense it’s the most hideous pot you’ve ever seen. But it’s so unusual that it somehow transcends it and becomes very special. The colors are just so unlikely—an insipid purple, green, blue and yellow. It’s terrible but when you put that with something clean and precise it becomes an even greater marvel.

The Plastic Paddles

We’ve got these three lovely bits of plastic from Tokyo, which were from a game. They’re like three paddles, three little signs. It’s basically a flat disc with a little cylindrical handle coming off it and there’s a character on each one—one red, one green and one blue and apparently they say "yes," "no" and "maybe." 

The Trashy Lampshade

Anyone who sees this next item wants to know more about it. It’s from some horrible trashy lamp from the 60s and it’s a piece of resin soaked something-or-other. It looks like a draped piece of cloth. Again it’s quite naff in its surrealness but it’s a wonderful color—a lovely light turquoise-y pastel—and its age also makes it special.

The Vanilla Thermos

I’ve got a thermos flask that has a great finish. It’s almost like vanilla ice cream that has the pods in it—little dots. A very 80s thing really, that pattern. It’s a good replica of stone but it’s just plastic, so again it transcends itself really, because it’s so accomplished, it’s so well done.