Hasta La Ideas

War-torn cities, dinosaur fossils and destroyed art inspire thoughtful ceramics

Sculpting work based on images from conflict-ravaged cities, British ceramist Mary-Jane Evans presents adaptations that somehow resonate with the same sense of destruction as war itself. Inspired by places like Beirut that are seen every day on local news bulletins, she started creating these individual buildings—entitled “Cities” and “Ruins”—that eventually develop into large-scale pieces. Evans’ most recent work “Ruins” is currently being presented in the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Art in London .

According to Evans she begins each piece intuitively to allow the structures to evolve and develop on their own throughout her process. To create a burnt effect she multi-fires the ceramic at 1,300 degrees Celsius and adds corrosive materials such as copper and oxides. Evans’ violently affected ceramics compel observers to look beyond the physical appearance of her pieces in order to contemplate the inevitable destruction of war.

For “Coast Series” Evans drew inspiration from the fossils littering the coastline of Dorset in the South West of England where she grew up, crafting wall-mounted pieces she created from her own photographs of the beach treasures. The same Jurassic inspiration carried over to the site-specific installation “Trails,” which, explains Evans, “evolved and grew and finally ended in destruction.

Evans recently ventured into creating smaller pieces of art that double as one-of-a-kind jewelry. The ceramic necklaces, buttons, and rings appear to be shards of a greater piece of art or destroyed structure, allowing the owner to be connected to the artist’s original mission.

Evan teaches many of her personal ceramic techniques in workshops run in her studio, as well as in a course at Kingswood School in Bath. The Summer Exhibition containing Evans’ work will run until 12 August. For more information on Evans and her work visit her website.

The Invert collection of concept jewelry takes subtlety to a whole new level! The series, which includes earrings, wrist band, necklace and rings was designed with the idea that the user should wear the jewelry for themselves rather than for other people to see. The designs leave the gem stone almost totally unexposed, keeping the rock closer to the wearer and giving others who see it just a glimpse of the bling underneath.

Designer: Melany Wimpee

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(Just a Lil’ Bling Bling! was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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Caitlin Mociun invites shoppers to her new store to dig through wares in a constantly changing installation

To properly experience Brooklyn-based designer Caitlin Mociun’s new Williamsburg store is to take a moment to explore each of the unusual clusters of objects that adorn the display tables, window sills and floor areas. Mociun wants you to peer into the ceramic bowls, to reach under the tables and display cases, and to lift up the vintage Moroccan rugs.

“In a retail store, you’re supposed to act like a grown up, and there’s a certain way that one behaves in a retail environment, and it’s not like having people reach under a piece of furniture and crouch on the ground and maybe dig through things,” says Mociun, who is best known for her elegant jewelry lines and Bauhaus-inspired clothing and textiles. “I’m hoping to give people an experience that is more fun, and have them discover something in a different way.”

Mociun also hopes her eclectic arrangements encourage customers to consider different uses for the objects in her store.”It’s about getting people to see functional pieces as art objects, to not just be like, ‘Oh, this is a cup,'” she says. “It’s like, ‘This is a cup, but you can also put it on a table and it also can be this beautiful thing that acts as a piece of art.'”

Included in Mociun’s unique collection of products are colorful coasters by Chen Chen and Kai Williams; bulbous stitched baskets and bags by Doug Johnston; assorted ceramic pieces by Blue Eagle Pottery, Eric Bonnin and Shino Takeda; knotted rope bracelets and necklaces by Wing Yau; leather Baggu bags, pouches, and keychains in black and neon; geometric jewelry by Samma; soap by Saipua; and a variety of beautiful objects by Iacoli and McAllister. The store’s centerpiece is, certainly, Mociun’s delicate rings, necklaces and bracelets, featured in two glass display cases.

Mociun began to see opening a retail store as a possibility after running her own pop-up shop in downtown Brooklyn in May 2011. The shop, which opened this past March, is located on the corner of brand new building on Wythe Avenue, a burgeoning shopping destination for design lovers, with Baggu Summer Shop and Pilgrim Surf + Supply just around the corner. “It’s just a really nice Brooklyn community of stores that actually support each other instead of compete with each other,” Mociun says.

Mociun, who receives new merchandise every week, continues to tweak the store’s product lines. She plans to streamline the ceramic collections the store carries, add some jewelry lines, and introduce a line of shoes. As the store’s products change, Mociun also plans to adjust the store’s layout, moving the modular furniture around in an effort to give customers a new shopping experience. “I kind of think of the whole space as an installation,” she says.

Mociun is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 8pm.

Inspired by viruses, jewelry designers grow crystals on rope

by Adam Štěch

Exploring the formation of the jewel as a natural process and celebrating it as a performance, the latest collection of distinct jewelry from the conceptual Prague-based designers Daniel Pošta and Zdeněk Vacek of Zorya fuses dynamic drama with simple beauty.

The Virus collection, the most experimental project to date from this creative pair, launched last October at Designblok 2011 Prague design week. Their previous jewelry includes strangely organic creations of raw beauty in which biomorphological inspiration meets precise technical execution with materials such as gold, silver and stainless steel, as well as textiles, pearls and plastics—as exemplified in the pendants and earrings resembling flowers and beetles in the Bye Bye Birdie collection.

Discovering new possibilities of the performative qualities of contemporary design, the Virus collection marks a new chapter in the work of Pošta and Vacek. Inspired by the natural processes and substance of every virus and their ability to take hold of their victims and spread, they have created process-based jewelry using simple chemical reactions. Their instrument was the crystallization of alum, which was grown on raw ropes to create natural crystal structures. The upshot is an unorthodox connection of materials with natural and creative art processes.

The elegant collection, which was awarded the main prize at the annual Czech Grand Design Awards, is characterized by a beauty that seems both brutal and fragile.

Zorya’s collections range between $400-$1,000USD and are available at selected retailers in the Czech Republic, as well as at Charon Kransen Arts in NYC.