Hasta La Ideas

Since the last installment of our Quarterly Co subscription service a lot has happened here at Cool Hunting—most importantly, our first CH Edition trip to South Africa and Zambia. CH co-founder Evan Orensten drew on the safari experience for our fourth Quarterly shipment, which reaches subscribers this week. Inside…

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Naturally scented candles in beautiful hand-blown glass

The aptly named line of candles, cloth and curiosities from New Zealand-based Curio Noir ranges from the vaguely sinister Lilith Doll candles in the shape of a baby’s head to woven linen napkins with floral line art, but we were most captivated by the carefully scented biodegradable botanical wax candles in hand-blown glass.

Certainly some may see the candle as little more than the go-to generic gift item, or perhaps a collectible for others based on a favorite fragrance, but it’s rare for the home staple’s packaging—in this case gorgeously simple, thick, rounded glass jars handcrafted by a classically trained Venetian glass blower in Auckland—to get as much attention as the product within. “Meticulous hands and eyes are at the heart of Curio Noir,” says founder Tiffany Jeans, who broke down the thoughtful process behind each piece.

Can you explain how the glass containers are made?

I have had a fascination with glass for a long time. Until the 19th century glass blowing was the main technique of hot working glass. Air is blown through a hollow blow-pipe to inflate a mass of molten glass gathered at the end. In this nearly liquid state a blob of glass can be formed in to a bubble that can then be reshaped, layered or decorated by other means. Glass blowing requires speed, strength and dexterity. The classic technique of glass blowing is used for each piece from the Curio Glass range, one piece at a time, making them truly individual, unique objects of art. We use a mold and then once the glass is out we have another piece of glass added to the surface where the Curio Noir stamp is applied. To turn glass batch in to glass, it gets melted at 1300 degrees Celsius over the course of a day. Once it has cooled to 1100 degrees the glass is ready to be worked.

How do you get colored glass?

To make our colored glass, metal oxides are added in powdered form to the raw batch before it is heated. Luke, my glass blower, makes his own colors from scratch so to have maximum control over the end product. As these are also made in small batches there are slight variants in color tones within a range, which I love, as this shows these are not factory pieces. Once a piece of glass is finished it is left to cool for many hours.

How are the candles scented?

The candles are scented with perfume which is made in small batches mixed in Grasse, France. We currently have Vetyver Bouquet with notes of cypress, jasmine, orange flower and vetyver; Black Spice with notes of aniseed, cinnamon, nutmeg and fresh tea leaves; Chypre Gardenia with notes of gardenia, violet, musks and iris; and Tubereuse Noir with notes of tuberose, violet, heliotrope and spices.

The entire Curio Noir collection is available at select boutiques in New Zealand, Australia and online.

Ceramics, candles, hand printed agendas and more from one of our favorite Parisian brands

It took a recent visit to one of our favorite Paris shops to realize that despite using their products all the time we’ve never written about them. Astier de Villatte is a 15 year old lifestyle powerhouse founded by Benoît Astier de Villatte and Ivan Pericoli. Their unique take on ceramics, paper goods, perfumes, candles, furniture, silverware, glassware and more are created in a Bastille workshop that used to house Napolean’s silversmith.

They are perhaps best known for their 18th- and 19th-century inspired handmade ceramics, many of which are designed with the equally multi-talented French artist Nathalie Lété. Their team of twenty ceramicists (perhaps the biggest in Paris) makes pottery the way Benoît’s father taught him and his siblings. Starting with black Terracotta, each piece is finished with a milky glaze that amplifies the unique character of the clay, celebrating its imperfections and ensuring that no two pieces are exactly alike.

A similar nod to the past styles and methods can be found in many of their other products, from scented erasers to the only hand-typeset agenda in the world. The two-page week layout also includes an important 8th day that changes each week, named after some of their favorite foods (Cassouletday anyone?). Created with a vintage printing press, the new 2012 agendas feature the same signature mosaic pattern and bright colors but now include the Astier team’s insider tips on their favorite venues in New York as well as Paris. Studiohomme has a great video visiting Astier de Villate’s print and ceramic workshops:

The candle market is certainly a saturated one, but quality shines through in these glass or ceramic votives with vegetable wax candles, often named for places that inspire olfactory overload: Alcatraz, Algiers, Honolulu and Naples among them. Recent additions include a series made in conjunction with Françoise Caron and the Japan-based fragrance company, Takasago: Cabourg, Quebec, Broadway, Zermatt and Yakushima. We’ve had the soda-inspired “Broadway” scent burning in the office for the last week—a nice way to rid the office from the smell of its new lunchtime infatuation with the Schnipper’s Chicken Club sandwich.

Also new this fall is a collaboration with New York-based designer John Derian. The artist worked mostly on small plates, painting them with his signature menagerie of birds and insects, as well as sweetheart symbols and everyday household items. The John Derian collection for Astier de Villatte, as well as many other of their products, are available at his NYC boutique.

Astier de Villatte has a few shops in Paris, is available on their site and at stores in many countries. Check their site for details.

See more of our favorite items in the gallery below.

The classic DIY candle holder gets a modern design makeover

A clever nod to everyone’s favorite readymade candle holder, this twist on the repurposed wine bottle concept celebrates the the shape of the low-budget accessory. While it keeps the curvy top of the source material, it eliminates the bulky body of the bottle, allowing you to gaze unimpeded across the table— just like in the classic “Lady and the Tramp” scene that inspired it.

It sells starting at £19 from Couverture & The Garbstone’s online store in a variety of colors and sizes.

The world’s oldest candle maker opens up shop in New York City

Few brands have 367 years of heritage and know-how behind them, and few are lucky enough to have the skills of a talented marketer, patron of the arts and designer to support them. Cire Trudon literally gave light to the people (and royalty) and produced such high quality candles that it has survived, even flourished, in an electric world.

Cire Trudon’s staying power is partially due to the quality of their wax, which is made from rice, soy and copra (coconut kernal). It burns cleanly, doesn’t drip, lasts a long time, is biodegradable and is particularly well suited to carrying pigment and scent.

Ramdane Touhani has led the company since 2006, and in a few short years has created a wide range of products, a cult following, a new store in Paris and starting today their second store in the heart of NYC’s Nolita neighborhood.

The NYC store is inspired by the Palace of Versaille’s Hall of Mirrors. Ramdane had the mirrors made and aged in Paris, the stucco installed by a French company, the furniture made by an Amish carpenter in Pennsylvania, and the store filled with objects and curios found at the Brimfield flea market in Massachusetts (see our recent two part video series on Brimfield’s dealers and collectors). Surrounded by windows, the royal blue walls and gilded mirrors give the light-filled space a Parisian feel that somehow feels completely at home in NYC.

The store features the full range of Cire Trudon’s products: Brightly colored tapers in multiple sizes; scented and pillar candles; wax busts (Napoléon is a favorite); room sprays; stink bombs (small glass vials of room spray meant to be thrown on the floor in an act of scent terrorism); and plenty of gift sets.

When setting out to create the “scented, not perfumed” line of candles Ramdane looked to history, literature and art laced with a bit of wit and imagination. Scents like Carmélite (inspired by nuns moving through mossy stone corridors and their “peace of souls and eternity”), Roi Soleil (evocative of the Chateau de Versaille’s wooden floors, where the company’s “nose” was sent to copy the smell), and Odeur de Lune (created from the actual scientific data of moon dust, which said “nose” experienced at NASA) are unlike those you’ll find anywhere else. They come in small, medium and a supersized 2.8kg (6 lb!). New for holiday is “Contes de Noël,” a special box set with an illustrated book of fairy tales, a candle and room spray.

Worth noting are the glass containers used for the scented candles. Hand made in Vinci, Italy, the green tumblers are notched on the bottom. Because the candles burn cleanly the tumblers are easily reused as glassware, containers or planters.

Prices range from $20-$375. Cire Trudon will be available for sale online in December 2010. Retailers worldwide are listed on their site.

Photos by Karen Day