From print journals dedicated to dogs to digital sensors for monitoring your pooch’s activity and health, we’ve seen some pretty spectacular products aimed at canine culture. And so, handmade accessories don’t seem like that far…
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It’s been two months since “Red, Yellow and Blue” opened in NYC at Madison Square Park, and every day it continues to leave a gaze-worthy impression on passerby who are unsure how to approach the spilled,…
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New York designer Stephen Burks filled the Milan showroom of Italian brand Calligaris with colourful ropes and columns of plastic chairs lashed together last month (+ movie).
Called Variations, the project was curated by PS design consultants and involved Burks travelling to Calligaris‘ production centre in Manzano, where he conducted experiments in composition using the company’s range of chairs.
Burks altered the brand’s existing products by wrapping and weaving cords around and through their structures.
He also created installations from the chairs by piling them high and binding them in striped ropes.
“The experiments that we’re doing now are, in one way or another, helping explore the future of plastic chairs,” says Burks. “What happens when we have so many plastic chairs that are all so similar – are there ways that we can use craft to find a unique positioning?”
Thirteen kilometres of multicoloured ropes were strung from floor to ceiling in the showroom during Milan design week to create vitrines for the resulting pieces.
The experiments may form the basis of a new seating collection by Burks’ studio Readymade Projects and the installation will be taken to the Paris showroom as part of Paris Designer Days from 4 to 9 June.
Burks often works with communities of artisans and past collaborations include lamps, tables and storage units made with basket weavers in a village outside of Dakar, and wire tables for Artecnica made by craftspeople in Cape Town.
See all our stories about Stephen Burks »
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for Calligaris appeared first on Dezeen.
Central Saint Martins graduate Eilish Macintosh showed outfits tied up with knotted lengths of rope at the institution’s show during London Fashion Week.
White ropes were wrapped around simple, black floor-length gowns and knotted in various places to give form and create a monochrome graphic effect.
“I started trying to make textiles or garments that are more like jewellery, with the separate rope pieces and solid ceramic elements cast into the garments,” Macintosh told Dezeen. “[The collection] was based on traditional pacific jewellery, bondage and in particular the photographs of Nobuyoshi Araki, and Eduardo Paolozzi sculpture.”
Lengths tied around the head obscured models’ vision, while noose-like necklaces hung down the front or back.
The loose ends of the cords were left to trail and whip around the feet of the models as they moved down the runway.
Some of the jersey dresses had full-length sleeves, while others left arms exposed.
A number of outfits had holes in the fabric edged with white ceramic elements, positioned above the navel, close to nipples and at the base of the spine.
Macintosh was awarded the L’Oreal Bursary Award for her collection, which was shown alongside work by other graduates from London’s Central Saint Martins art and design college.
We’ve featured a few Central Saint Martins graduate projects on Dezeen, such as one collection of body jewellery made from bent wood and another formed from plastic bubbles and tubes.
More collections from London Fashion Week include Sister by Sibling’s over-sized crocheted accessories and dresses patterned with bridge trusses by Mary Katrantzou.
See all our stories about collections from Autumn Winter 2013 »
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by Eilish Macintosh appeared first on Dezeen.
The Brooklyn-based makers add accessories to the mix
Having built a repertoire of supremely simple, thoughtfully crafted contemporary furniture, lighting and home objects, Brooklyn-based design pair Gregory Buntain and Ian Collings of Fort Standard take their ethos in a new direction with a line of jewelry. “Jewelry allows us to explore the more sculptural side of design…
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Ukrainian designer Vasiliy Butenko has made a series of pendant lamps by wrapping cotton rope around plastic bottles.
Called Acorn, each one has an LED light source and comes in black, brown or blue.
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Photos are by the designer.
Here’s some more information from Butenko:
Cotton rope is a simple but quite interesting and pleasant material. The majority of objects crafted with the use of the rope are woven, which makes the object manufacturing process more complicated. My intention was to create an utmost simple and modern object avoiding the use of complicated weaving techniques. In order to create volume of the illuminator, I used the bottle, which in my opinion had the best shape to fit in.
Having bonded all the layers, we created a compact, light and neat illuminator shape without a frame. Given that the shape is very simple, I tried to consider every detail. I used LED bulbs in this illuminator as they provide integral and concentrated light, which enables to zone space the illuminator is hanged over.
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Vasiliy Butenko appeared first on Dezeen.
Architects Oyler Wu Collaborative wound more than 13,000 metres of rope through steel frames to create this screen wall for Dwell on Design 2012 in Los Angeles (+ movie).
From some angles the wall appears to be organised in a pattern, but from other directions the surface seems distorted and irregular.
The rope is also tied around the framework of a bench, which protrudes from one side.
Oyler Wu Collaborative’s previous projects include a moving installation for the LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design and an aluminium staircase in the SCI-Arc gallery in Los Angeles.
The movie is by Them Too Productions.
Photographs are by Oyler Wu Collaborative and Clifford Ho.
Here’s some more information from Oyler Wu Collaborative:
Screenplay by Oyler Wu Collaborative will be on view from 6/22 to 6/24 at Dwell on Design 2012 at LA Convention Center.
Screenplay is conceived of as a ‘play’ on one’s visual perception. This 21-feet-long screen wall is constructed of 45,000 feet of rope strung through a series of lightweight steel frames.
The wall is designed with the intention of provoking a sense of curiosity by slowly revealing its form and complexity through physical and visual engagement with the work.
The wall is made from a repetitious steel framework with rope infill that varies over the length of the wall in three dimensions, forming a thickened undulating screen made up of dense line-work. In its orthographic, or ‘straight on’ view, the wall forms a meticulously organised series of patterns easily recognised by the viewer.
As the viewer moves around the wall, its three-dimensional qualities reveal a more complex system of deep sectional cavities, twisting surfaces, and material densities.
The experience is meant to build on an ‘on again/off again’ system of pattern legibility, using optical effects as a means of provoking engagement in the work.
Project Design and Fabrication Team: Dwayne Oyler, Jenny Wu, Huy Le, Sanjay Sukie, Yaohua Wang, Qing Cao, Farnoosh Rafaie, Jie Yang, Clifford Ho, Joseph Chiafari, Tingting Lu, Qian Xu, Mina Jun, Vincent Yeh, Kaige Yang, Shouquan Sun.
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Oyler Wu Collective appeared first on Dezeen.
Taut rope is all that holds together this furniture by Dutch design graduate Toon Welling.
The criss-crossing lengths of rope take the place of nails and screws for each piece in the Bound Basics collection, which comprises a desk, a chair and a set of shelves.
The furniture is held together by ‘tensegrity’, a word coined by architect Buckminster Fuller to describe the way components can be joined and supported by continuous tension.
Each piece is assembled from sustainable materials, including hemp rope and FSC-certified plywood.
Welling recently graduated from the product design course at Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU) in the Netherlands.
Photography is by Wouter Stelwagen.
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Here’s some more information from the designer:
Bound Basics is a line of furniture entirely held together by rope. Their design was inspired by the sculptural works of Kenneth Snelson and Santiago Calatrava. What is immediately apparent about their sculptures is their underlying structural strategies, their ‘tensegrity’. A term coined by Buckminster Fuller, tensegrity is short for tensional integrity. Binding parts in a web of tightened wire or cable, an elegant and stable construct emerges.
Entirely held together by the tensional force of the tautened cord, these structures project a deceptive simplicity and inherent strength. A series of exploratory tensegrity models soon developed into ideas for the Bound Basics, a furniture line that uses ropes instead of nails or screws and investigates the structural advantages of tensegrity.
The designs now collected under the name Bound Basics each attempt to expose the pieces’ construction and internal stability. The choice of the materials — FSC-certified ecological HPL multiplex and hemp rope — follows the same spirit, foregrounding the design strategy over the flash and glamour of high-tech surfaces.
Ultimately, these Basics are just that, basic furniture pieces modest and elegant enough to fit in homes or offices without being distracting, and instead striking a strong and lasting note of simplicity.
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by Toon Welling appeared first on Dezeen.
Bright bracelets from Maine
A non-traditional take on a classic, utilitarian material, Shana Aldrich Ready’s jewelry line, The Ropes is a colorful ode to her Maine roots. “I always had a farfetched dream of trying to bring my design skills back to Maine,” says Ready. “I like the idea of visiting different metropolitan cities but then coming home to Maine to interpret and digest everything.”
Inspired by the nautical materials and the rich marine culture of her home state, Ready launched The Ropes in March 2011. “The Ropes actually started completely accidentally,” she says. “About two years ago now I was just messing around with rope I had around the house and ended up making two bracelets for myself.”
Those two original bracelets are now the Kennebunkport and the Portland styles, which, along with the rest of the line come in a vibrant assortment of colors from neon brights to classic white—inspired by the buoys Ready’s husband uses in his lobstering business. Each piece is handmade in Maine using authentic nautical hardware and cords, most of which are made in Maine as well.
The Ropes can be found online at Spaces Kennebunkport and at the Bliss boutique in Portland, Maine. Prices range between $30 for the Scarborough bangle to $70 for the multi-strand Portland bracelet.
Endhoven designer Joon Lee has created this tea set where all the cups are linked to a central jug by ropes.
Called Drink Link, the project involved heating the synthetic rope to fix it round the porcelain, but allowing the links with each cup to stay flexible.
Here’s some text from the designer:
Eindhoven based designer Joon Lee looks to old artifacts when designing tableware that engages people to converse at the table. The “Drink Link” tea set consists of a teapot connected to its cups, directly linking every person to each other.
“By mimicking an historical artifact through using a different methodology and material, I created my own interpretation of the traditional Delft blue porcelain”, says Joon Lee. Synthetic rope covering the porcelain was hardened through a heating process while the linkages to the cups remained flexible.
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| Tea pot by Lee West for Eno | Tea pot by Designerette | Tea pot by Patrick Frey |
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