Sci-Fi is the team made of Tomohiro Seguchi who works with metal and Kana Umeda whose specialty is glass. They combine the ideas of science and fiction, or process and imagination, to create pieces of jewellery that are almost pieces of art. Their (slow) website is a treasure chest of glass rings, earrings and necklaces that are chunky, yet graceful—full of character. Of particular note is the Zero collection of seductively fluid adornments.
More pieces in the Workshopped exhibition as part of Sydney Design 08 included this eye-catcher, the UPut Storage System by Angela Kane. Denis Abalos’ Razor Light provided a cool blue glow, while David Knott and Chris Hardy showed their lighting as well. Peter Stewart’s HP1 Stool combines net seating with a gentle rock, but Amy Tang’s Organic Culture Tables had their feet on the ground. Amy Cunningham’s coat rack and screen showed a good use of materials, and Kenan Wang’s Twist Bench was "somewhat" inviting. More photos by Blue Murder Studio after the jump.
+ Toshiyuki Kita designs the Tronco chair and bench for Stile Life.
+ Takashi Sato finds inspiration in the kitchen for his Tongs lamp. Via Dezeen.
+ Naoto Fukasawa collaborates with paper company ONAO for the Siwa line, which includes tote bags, lighting, and envelopes. Via Spoon & Tamago. JS
Donald Corey hooked us up with more coverage from the Workshopped exhibition during Sydney Design 08 with photos by Blue Murder Studios. Featured designs included jewellery and accessories as well as furniture and lighting, so a wide variety of fresh work on the Australian scene was presented with aplomb. Shown above is corner detail from Corey’s Jasmine Table, a mix of wooden, steel and personality. After the jump see birds on a wire that do double duty as a coat rack by David Potts, along with Corey’s helping hands. Luiza Milewicz showed some coloured modular lights, and Stuart Williams’ Pods were delicate-looking groupings of light “bulbs”. Also on show were Nick Randall’s Slip Credenza and David Knott’s Diamond Cut Basin.
In the jam-packed booth of quirky housewares company 2Jane—which reps U.K. designers like Mibo, Mixco, and Emma Jeffs in the U.S.—we discovered this simple-but-brilliant design: Mibo’s 15-cm-square tile tattoos. The stick-on vinyl decals are easy to apply and waterproof once adhered—an ideal solution for jazzing up those ubiquitous 4 1/4-inch white ceramic tiles (which no doubt cover the walls of your bathroom, too).
Australian designer John Van Den Nieuwenhuizen, now based in San Francisco, sums up the intuitive nature of his Hidden Radio: “The product attempts to be silent both visually and functionally by having the cap in the downward position. By lifting up the cap the user proportionally increases the volume. The further the cap goes up the louder the sound gets. To tune the radio you simply rotate the cap and receive feedback of tuning quality via the LED on the front.”
Last week we braved the New York Gift Fair, which turned up a number of great discoveries. Among our top picks was Teroforma, a just-launched, Connecticut-based manufacturer of sleek modern tableware headed up by husband-wife team Andrew and Anna Hellman. The company has tapped a global roster of 22 artisans—from the Czech Republic’s Roman Vrtiska to Portugal’s Jose Joaquim Ribeiro—to create elegant mix-and-match-able linens, china, flatware, and crystal fit for the high-design dining table. We flipped for the sublimely streamlined profiles but also the company’s noble conceit: pairing emerging designers with talented master craftspeople working in locales as far-flung as Slovenia and northern China. Shown above are the forms used to make bone-china plates.
This week's MoCo picks, Tokyo house edition.
+ Masaki Endo's six unit rental Natural Cubes at architecturephoto.net. Via Dezain.
+ ... and Masaki Endo's 150 sq. meter Natural Splits House outside of Tokyo, where "there is no room for a garden. So the problem in this suburb is the same as in the city, so we have to figure out how to arrange the windows to get the most light and still retain privacy." (Flash site, choose English, go Home> Works). Via Dezain, via architecturephoto.net.
+ Ryuji Fujimura's BUILDING K video at 10+1, a house we've seen before now on video. Via Dezain.
+ Kimizuka Architects' Lightwell House in Tokyo at Dezeen, "A central lightwell links the living areas of the family and owner, and reminds the owner of the layout of the original house.".
+ RuralZED zero carbon eco homes at Jetson Green, "more than a house, it's a system for developing zero carbon, zero energy, healthy homes.".
+ More miniHome 12WIDE, "a 12 foot wide park model [introduced by Sustain] earlier this year and found that it cost the same to build as the smaller miniHome solo model... that is what the factories are set up to build, that is what the material suppliers produce for, so they were able to deliver 72% more space for the same $120,000". Via TreeHugger.
+ NYTimes: A Sustainability That Aims to Seduce, about "an emerging movement in environmentally conscious landscape and garden design.". Don't miss the slideshow.
+ Caroline Linder's 2x4 light and Fizz pendant lamp, "Fizz is a more traditional lamp made from blown glass and designed to evoke blowing bubbles. 2x4 is a more technologically advanced lamp made from iconic 2x4s and LED lamps. The light shines through thin parts of the wood etched in.". Via designboom.
+ Heather Mae Erickson's The Industrial Hand ceramics collection, "which consists of simple black and white ceramics fit for everyday use. her work combines glossy and flat surfaces together in a variety of asymmetrical shapes.". Via designboom.
+ mashallah.design's simple and novel shoe storage / display Miami Stiletto Shoeshelf. Via Designlines.
+ Shiu Yuk Yuen's Eco Brolly umbrella, "The pocket-size umbrella frame makes use of whatever materials are handy - everything from plastic bags to newspapers can be used". Via designklub.
+ The Graft designed Kanera 1 E Sink, made specially for the W New York Downtown Hotel and Residences (which opens in '09) the "gently sloping curves ... look as much man-made as they look carved by glaciers, the designers clearly have mastered the impossibly sleek organic forms that define today's aesthetic.". Via Cool Hunting.
+ Sam Baron's lightly illustrated porcelain plates from a Vitra workshop at the Fine Art School of Limoges. Via pan-dan.
+ Alexander Lyapunov's portable clip-on Lighter, "closely resembles a hi-light marker that is used to hi-light text, however the Lighter ... is lit up by a Phillips fluorescent bulb". Via Yanko Design via Designet.ru.
+ Brian Lee's Chubby Brothers ash wood dining table with hidden chairs and leaf spring chairs (for added comfort). Via Yanko Design.
+ RIIS' small but thoughtful functional household products, we especially liked Grip, a spoon holder that keeps ladles and other kitchen utensils from sliding into a pot, Cuttoff Steel for plastic or aluminum rolls and Doorstop Steel, activated by "lightly pressing your foot". Via Hemfeber.
This week at Art MoCo we took a look at work at the Red Cake Gallery, an on-line gallery that features affordable original artwork. On Monday we started with exquisite oil paintings of birds from the Middle East (and their headgear) by Anna Kipervaser.
Allen Stickel’s portraits infuse melancholy with colour.
Domes and Chirals are the subjects of Brenna Burns’ delicate paintings.
Sherry Koyama lets us have our cake, but not eat it.
Vintage tulle jellyfish by Elide Endreson have none of the sting of their salt water comrades.
More at Art MoCo.
Swedish graphic design studio Dizel&Sate have used a tri-colour palette on an innocent white background for their new lighting collection, a tribute to the fashion capital of Paris. "Wayfarers, art deco, Kate Moss, the 1950s, black humour, modern architecture and dizzying adventure form the basis of their illustrations.". The Stay Creative lighting collection is being made by Bergo Belysning, a Swedish lighting company, and designed by Dizel&Sate. Dizel&Sate is design duo Slobodan Zivic and Thomas Petersson, in addition to the lighting collection they also work within fashion and have released their own collections of paintings, prints, wallpapers and t-shirts.
