Hasta La Ideas

Bazoombas and bananas inspire a collection of children’s furniture

The childlike work of Japanese artist Misaki Kawai shuns expertise, embracing “heta-uma”, an anime-derived method that risks amateur aesthetics by embracing basic expression. Her approach provides a nice parallel to the world of squirming tikes, who brim with creativity but lack the motor skills of a master painter. Furry animals, banana chairs and whimsical snake benches make up “Love from Mt. Pom Pom“, Kawai’s ongoing exhibition at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in NYC. In conjunction with the show, select furniture and decorative elements have just been made available for purchase from Paddle8 through 10 June 2012.

Kawai employs painting, drawing, sculpture and video in her site-specific show, bringing her signature playful stylings to the museum space. The exhibition functions as a play area for museum-goers, encouraging interactive engagement from children. As part of the CMA exhibition, Kawai was able to hold workshops with students, teaching them a bit of her artistic method—a process-focused, hands-on approach that develops artistic instinct rather than traditional skills.

Highlights from the collection include an expandable, breast-themed “Bazoombas” bench and a less-than-terrifying green snake piece. Geometric color blocks and bold forms are in keeping with Kawai’s other work, which walks the line between primitive abstractions and cartoon animation. The furniture, created by Brooklyn’s Tri-Lox in collaboration with Take Ninagawa Gallery in Japan, is available from the online art store Paddle8 through 10 June, when both the sale and the exhibition at CMA will end. Proceeds from the sale go to benefit the CMA.

Children’s Museum of the Arts

103 Charlton Street

New York, NY 10014

If you want industrial design glory, you probably dream of pulling the sheets off of your furniture designs at Milan or the ICFF in New York. It’s a minority of young designers who are determined to make a difference in the medical design field, who dream of presenting at the Medical Design & Manufacturing Conference in Philly. But each year that latter conference, now in its 30th year, draws thousands of manufacturers, designers, engineers, R&D guys, and materials experts all dedicated to producing devices that extend and repair human health.

In this first video from MD&M, IDEO’s Brian Mason and Stacey Chang (Medical Products Lead Designer and Director of Healthcare Practice, respectively) discuss their approach to medical device design and explain how the peculiarities of the field dictate that creativity has to happen in the early stages of the process:

At this year’s conference a company called Secant Medical’s Vice President of Advanced Technologies, Jeffrey M. Koslosky, will deliver a talk on his company’s specialty, Biomedical Textiles in Implantable Medical Devices. “Biomedical textiles can transform medical device engineers’ design portfolios to create truly innovative and market-leading devices,” says Koslosky. Secant’s expertise is highly specialized, as they focus on the development of materials that need to reside within the human body. In the video below, Secant design engineer Amy Woltman shows and discusses some of these materials (starts at 0:53):

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All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!

We talk a lot on Unclutterer about honoring the things you choose to keep in your life. Put these things up on a (proverbial) pedestal and enjoy the items you value and treasure. But … the KAZeKUP isn’t really what we had in mind:

If you’re someone who goes to the beach every sunny day during the summer and who doesn’t like to twist your cup into the sand to make a drink holder out of nature, today’s item might not be a unitasker for you. For most of us, however, who only spend a few hours each summer lounging on a beach, this monument to drink holding is probably unnecessary. The pole is pretty long and the holder (as is evident in the picture) is significant enough in size to be able to support a Big Gulp. It’s not a small device; the KAZeKUP is the Olympic Torch of drink holders.

If you’re worried about high tide filling your drink with sea water, I recommend doing what I do and put your drink into your cooler during these brief expanses of time. Anyway, high tide is surfing time — you don’t want your drink to get warm while you’re out on the waves.

Thanks to reader Patty who introduced us to an entire series of beach drink holders. We didn’t even know our cups dug in the sand were uncool.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

Sex and punk elegantly balanced in the sculptural jewelry designer’s latest collection

Balance is the term that first comes to mind when describing Bliss Lau‘s approach to jewelry design. A soft-spoken Hawaiian with a New York sensibility, she embodies a certain duality that comes across in her work. The statement-making body accessories comprising Lau’s line are at once elegant and provocative, with a posh-punk aesthetic brilliantly captured this season by emerging illustrator Heather Benjamin.

Benjamin is the brains behind the lewdly funny, manga-esque illustrated zine, “Sad Sex“, which Lau discovered through one of her young interns. With classical music playing in the background, Lau talked to us at her NYC studio. “I think I was interested in working with her largely because of this idea of her working with the female body and breaking boundaries with that, and then just the fearless, gnarlyness of it—it’s just really powerful and fantastic,” she explains.

Lau commissioned Benjamin to create a series of drawings inspired by the “Sad Sex” seductress, but that would more appropriately showcase her Spring/Summer 2012 collection. “We had this idea of this naughty girl running rampant through the city doing things like smoking, hanging out with tigers, just this idea of this magical, sexy, sort of wicked girl that has fur coats and an amazing manicure but is like totally cool and punk rock, and she does dark things but she does them in fabulous ways,” says Lau.

The finely detailed illustrations perfectly capture the essence of Lau’s pieces, which turn robust materials like powder-coated brass into finely crafted designs. There’s a 1920s kinkiness to Lau’s accessories that is obvious from first sight, but it becomes even more pronounced on the body. The armor-like weight makes you feel regal and powerful, but the delicate way the pieces lay on your skin and move with your body also provides a feeling of sensual refinement. Like the flexible “Hourglass” necklace or “Calder” bracelet, which are technically flat metal pieces that fully form around the body thanks to her clever use of vintage snake chains.

For Lau, designing to the kinetic and sculptural elements jewelry can possess is as important as the visual component. For her S/S 2012 collection, Lau was inspired by the geometric solid. She channels this concept into works that trace the body, giving masculine shapes the ultimate in female sex appeal. “In a way you’re kind of engineering how a person’s going to hold themselves”, she explains. Lau’s vision encourages bold moves but with poetic rhythm.

Lau designs to enhance every part of the body—from rings that connect to the wrist to leather pieces that draw beautiful attention to the waist. Her sculptural jewelry sells online and in stores around the world. See her website for a full list of stockists.