Hasta La Ideas

Product news: diffused light gently glows from a cavity in the side of this ceramic lamp by designers Something of London and Verona for French brand Ligne Roset.

Inspired by hand-held carbide lamps used by miners in the early twentieth century, Naica bounces light around the void to emit a soft flush of light from one long face.

The lamp’s gently curving corners create a softened profile, which the designers say alludes to the form of a cavern, and the name Naica refers to a working mine located in Mexico.

A fabric-covered cable loops up through the top of the lamp to form a handle.

The product is available in white with either a red or white cavity.

Something was founded by designers Daniel Debiasi and Federico Sandri.

Similar lamps on Dezeen include one held together with a silicone band by Benjamin Hubert, also for Ligne Roset, and another by Luca Nichetto, called Vader after the Star Wars character whose mask it resembles. See more stories about lamp design »

Other recent launches from Ligne Roset include a glass table with three tops, an asymmetric desk and a chair inspired by spaghetti. See all our stories about Ligne Roset »

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for Ligne Roset appeared first on Dezeen.

Israeli ceramics designer Shlomit Bauman combined white porcelain with the very last batch of clay from a local pit to make these stretched and distorted objects (+ slideshow).

The objects in the Ran Out collection combine porcelain with a type of Israeli terracotta that has almost been used up completely.

“The local authorities realised that mining this clay would cause it to become completely extinct, so they closed the mine,” Shlomit Bauman told Dezeen. “I bought that last ton of clay from the suppliers.”

Bauman turned a variety of everyday objects into moulds, including a mobile phone, a television and a megaphone.

Two of the moulds – a teapot and a fish – were salvaged from a ceramics factory in Tel Aviv that had closed down in the 1990s.

Bauman then combined the moulds by casting them one on top of the other or by attaching them after casting. “The broken appearance is a result of the different shrinkage characteristics of the materials,” she explained. “But for me, it symbolises the distortion of the process of trying to mix two different cultures together.”

Bauman teaches ceramic design at Holon Institute of Technology in Israel.

Other similar designs we’ve featured include a set of crockery made from roughly carved moulds and a project to make tableware from muddy clay found on the banks of the River Thames – see all ceramics.

Here’s some more information from the designer:

Ran Out is a ceramic design project that raises a discussion concerning the extinction of natural resources, of conception or objects that are running out. The project brings together local clay – a ceramic material that ran out in Israel and abroad (S5), and porcelain – the fashionable and noblest ceramic material. This project makes use of historical molds and materials from closed Israeli ceramic factories.

The different characteristics of these materials in cultural, technological and formal terms result in contrast, cracking and distortion of objects. This creates a tension between the desire for likeness and connection, and the exposure of the differences and the distorted. These works deal with the loaded field of the extinction of natural, cultural and personal resources.

Shlomit Bauman is an Israeli ceramic designer that relates to the ceramic design field as a “cultural research lab” by dealing with cultural, technological and traditional aspects. Along her work she explores the methods and strategies of action in the wide context of material culture. Her creative activity covers many fields that include design, art, education and curation as a way of life.

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Shlomit Bauman appeared first on Dezeen.

Maison&Objet 2013: French designer Benjamin Graindorge has created a series of vases with tops that loop over the flowers to frame them.

The Heirloom vases are made of ceramic in three designs: a small version with one half enclosed like a hood and two larger ones with four or eight ribs. They come in dark blue, light blue and yellow.

The vessels were on show at Maison&Objet in Paris last week. See all our stories about design at Maison&Objet here, including cutlery based on chopsticks by Toyo Ito and a chair draped in a wooden mat by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance.

Benjamin Graindorge has a studio in Paris and we’ve previously featured his garden that floats on the surface of a fish tank and uses fish waste as fertiliser.

Moustache is also based in Paris and produces work with designers including Inga Sempé and Big-Game. See all our stories about French design brand Moustache here.

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for Moustache appeared first on Dezeen.

In a movie filmed by Alice Masters for the Designers in Residence exhibition at the Design Museum, Oscar Medley-Whitfield and Harry Trimble explain how they turned clay dug from the muddy banks of the river Thames into ceramic tableware.

Recent graduates Oscar Medley-Whitfield and Harry Trimble produced the Wharfware collection as a response to the Design Museum’s theme of “thrift”.

‘Thrift for us is essentially making something out of nothing,” says Trimble in the movie. Looking at the museum’s surroundings to see what they could take from the local area, the designers found that the mud under Tower Bridge had the potential to be made into ceramics, and the area had also been home to a thriving ceramics industry 300 years ago.

Once they’d dug up the mud and brought it back to their studio, they experimented with additives to prepare the clay for firing.

Above: photograph is by Carol Sachs

“Conventionally, pottery clays are heavily engineered with additives to give them specific properties,” they told Dezeen. “Wishing to keep the clay pure and stay true to the brief, we devised a manufacturing technique of moulding at high pressure.”

Above: photograph is by Rima Musa

After perfecting the mixture, they formed the shapes in a homemade press, using a car jack to push the clay into its mould. Inspired by centuries-old tableware made in the Tower Bridge area and wanting to maximise space in the kiln, they created the pieces in tesselating hexagonal shapes.

Above: photograph is by Rima Musa

The Wharfware collection includes three sizes of bowls, a serving plate, a trivet and a fish brick, which pays homage to Terence Conran’s chicken brick steam cooker, explains Medley-Whitfield, while also referencing the clay’s origins in the river Thames.

Above: photograph is by Rima Musa

Last year Medley-Whitfield experimented with casting copper-bullion bowls as a way for investors to display the increasingly valuable metal at home.

Above: photograph is by Rima Musa

We’ve already featured two movies by Alice Masters about the Designers in Residence programme – in one, Lawrence Lek shows how his system of bent plywood pieces can be tied together to make furniture and architecture, and in another, Yuri Suzuki explains how he made a radio with a circuit board arranged like the London Tube map.

Above: photograph is by Rima Musa

See all our stories about ceramics »
See all our stories about Designers in Residence 2012 »
See all our stories about the Design Museum »

Above: photograph is by Rima Musa

Photographs are movie stills by Alice Masters, except where stated.

Here’s some more information from Medley-Whitfield and Trimble:

Designers Oscar Medley-Whitfield and Harry Trimble Share an interest in sourcing local materials and using bespoke manufacturing processes. Together they experiment with how products can be made to embody local identity and heritage to give economic, environmental and emotional benefits.

Above: photograph is by Carol Sachs

Inspired by the historic Southwark ceramic industry that thrived in the area surrounding the Design Museum 300 years ago, Oscar and Harry have produced a ceramic tableware range, Wharfware, made of clay dug from the banks of the Thames around Tower Bridge.

Above: photograph is by Rima Musa

Before the clay could be used it had to undergo an extensive refinement process. The clay is laid out to dry before being soaked to a slip. It is then passed through progressively fine grades of mesh to remove impurities.

After further drying on plaster to achieve the desired consistence, the clay is ready to be moulded and then fired. A complex testing process was used to find the right composition of clay, sand and firing temperature.

Above: photograph is by Luke Hayes

The forms of the works were process driven. Rather then using traditional studio pottery techniques unlikely to work with the unpredictable raw clay, Oscar and Harry applied an industrial approach. The moulds were designed to allow the clay to be shaped under pressure reducing the likelihood of warping and distortion.

Above: photograph is by Luke Hayes

The geometric shapes help the pieces to be easily remove from the moulds whilst also allowing them to tessellate in the kiln meaning more units per firing, bring down overall costs. In creating Wharfware, Oscar and Harry have created a locally relevant product in an innovative and resourceful way.

Above: photograph is by Luke Hayes

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at Designers in Residence 2012 appeared first on Dezeen.

Italian designer Guido Garotti worked with traditional ceramicists to create a hand-painted vase with the appearance of a stereoscopic image and a pair of road signs that look like decorative plates (+ slideshow).

The project began when designer Guido Garotti was invited by the cultural association Gruppo Acca to take up an artist’s residency in Albissola, a small town in northern Italy known for its traditional ceramics.

“Once I got there, I was so impressed by the ability of the local painters executing their traditional decoration that I decided to design something to highlight their talent,” Garotti told Dezeen.

“They embraced the project with enthusiasm and curiosity, following my directions with outstanding precision. In both projects the result is so neat that it is hard to believe that they were painted by hand,” he added.

Garotti explored the local “Antico Savona” style, which is traditionally blue and white but also has a red and white variant.

He then combined these two styles in 3Dzionale, a vase decorated with the same image twice to create a stereoscopic 3D image – although not a perfect one, according to Garotti. “As the vase is hand-painted, it lacks the mathematical rigour that is necessary for a real stereoscopic image,” he explained.

The other project, called Deviazione, is a pair of ceramic road signs in the two traditional colour varieties, each hand-painted with reclining figures and winged babies known as putti.

“As the general interest towards very traditional ceramics slowly seems to decrease, the craftspeople involved genuinely appreciated this attempt to produce something fresh incorporating their culture and skills,” said Garotti.

The pieces were offered for sale at Cavallerizza Reale in Turin last weekend as part of the Operae design exhibition.

Garotti graduated from the University of Florence’s Industrial Design course before studying Furniture Design at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. In 2011, he and Sehr Khan founded the studio Life Given A Shape.

We previously featured a series of chairs by Garotti designed to age gracefully and encourage their owner not to throw them away.

Other road signs and markings we’ve featured on Dezeen include a jumbled up zebra crossing painted on a road in Serbia and a set of illuminated glass and steel road signs in Madrid.

We’ve featured a number of ceramics projects lately, including an illuminated constellation of ceramic yoghurt pots and a tea service based on the parts of an engine.

See all our stories about ceramics »
See all our stories about vases »

Photographs are by Gianluca Anselmo.

Here’s some more information from the designer:

In May 2012 designer Guido Garotti was invited by Gruppo Acca of Albissola, Italy (popular in the ’20s to be home to Ceramic Futurism), for an artist residence project aimed towards promoting ceramics as a creative language for art and design. In this context two projects were developed exploring the local decoration.

The decorative code named “Antico Savona” identifies a particular style that was born and evolved between Savona and Albissola (Liguria, Italy) around the middle of the XVII century. Very popular in the white/blue version, the style developed a white/red variant and a fully coloured option can also be found. Traditional objects decorated with the Antico Savona style were once highly looked after, however as fashion evolved, these artworks today seem to have lost much of their appeal. The two projects “Deviazione” and “3Dzionale “, aim to utilize this local traditional expertise to obtain a contemporary result.

With obvious wit, Deviazione (Diversion) makes use of the chromatic analogy between road signs and the traditional decoration for a courageous proposal: to realize the local street signs with the Antico Savona style. The result is bold however possibly too precious to be realistically used on the streets.

3Dzionale (3Dtional) through an adventurous time travel puts forward an unusual hybrid: a three dimensional version of the Antico Savona hand decoration. Although without rendering – of course – an impeccable stereoscopic image, the project brakes the schemes which froze the Antico Savona for the last few centuries. The funny thing is that such an original and culture jamming result can be achieved simply by repeating twice the same age old decorations.

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by Guido Garotti appeared first on Dezeen.