Salt – the one ingredient that can make or break your signature dish! Understandably, this is why the Pinch was the first product ever launched via Kickstarter. It is the drama and experience of adding ‘a pinch of salt’ to the dish that makes it exciting. In its conceptual stage, we loved and supported the Pinch; now when it’s the real deal…we want to share its story with you.
Inspired by the use of coarse and flaky seas salts that chefs use while cooking, designer Craighton Berman wanted to bring these amazing salts and the visceral experience of pinching to the dining table, and so he designed the Pinch.
The salt cellar holds a portion of sea salt, and the top sphere is a traditional pepper shaker, which acts as a cover for the cellar when not in use. The act of ‘closing’ Pinch results in the satisfying slide of two pieces of ceramic against each other—reminiscent of using a ceramic mortar and pestle.
Apparently salts are kept in open containers called “salt pigs” and are placed next to the stove. While cooking, portions of salt are “pinched” and applied liberally to the food. This entire drama of adding salt to food gave birth to the Pinch. Designed in Chicago, made in Thailand, this unique salt and pepper holder has its roots tracing back to a design competition in Chicago, circa 2007. Ever since its October 2010 Kickstarter success, the Pinch has been an object of desire, a classy product that you want spicing-up your dining table.
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To call salty licorice an acquired taste is an understatement. Even in Northern Europe, where salty licorice reigns supreme over the red Twizzlers variety, it’s still a polarizing treat. Upon returning from Scandinavia (and developing a taste for the salty delicacy), the crew…
From the creators of the adorable Jumbo dish dryer, this clever table set combines containers of salt, pepper and olive oil conveniently and stylishly! The glass dispenser perfectly nests the two ceramic shakers, keeping together this essential trio that no meal is complete without!
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Emerging Objects imagine différents objets et projets grâce à l’utilisation de l’impression 3D. Avec Saltygloo, ceux-ci ont utilisé une grande quantité de sel cristallisé pris en Californie à Redwood City pour ensuite utiliser la matière accumulée pour imprimer un igloo. Une création impressionnante et surprenante.
“The structure is an experiment in 3D printing using locally harvested salt from the San Francisco Bay to produce a large-scale, lightweight, additive manufactured structures,” said Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello of additive manufacturing startup Emerging Objects.
They explained that 500,000 tonnes of sea salt are harvested each year in the San Francisco Bay Area using power from the sun and wind. “The salt is harvested from 109-year-old salt crystallisation ponds in Redwood City,” they said. “These ponds are the final stop in a five-year salt-making process that involves moving bay water through a series of evaporation ponds. In these ponds the highly saline water completes evaporation, leaving 8-12 inches of solid crystallised salt that is then harvested for industrial use.”
In addition to being a renewable resource, the salt is inexpensive compared to commercially available printing materials and creates strong lightweight components.
They claim that their pavilion is the first to be printed from salt but draws on traditional techniques for building with the material. “No one has ever 3D-printed a building out of salt,” Rael told Dezeen. “However, there is a long tradition of architecture constructed of salt blocks, particularly in the Middle East and in desert environments.”
The 336 unique translucent panels of the Saltygloo structure were made in a powder-based 3D printing process where a layer of salt is applied then fixed in place selectively with a binding agent, before the next layer of salt is deposited and the process is repeated.
The panels were then connected together to form a rigid shell, further supported with lightweight aluminium rods flexed in tension.
“Each panel recalls the crystalline form of salt and is randomly rotated and aggregated to create a larger structure where all tiles in the structure are unique,” explained the designers.
Photography by Matthew Millman
“The form of the Saltygloo is drawn from the forms found in the Inuit igloos, but also the shapes and forms of tools and equipment found in the ancient process of boiling brine,” they added. “The translucent qualities of the material, a product of the fabrication process and the natural properties of salt, allow for natural light to permeate the space, highlight the assembly and structure, and reveal the unique qualities of one of humankind’s most essential minerals.”
Photography by Matthew Millman
Rael and San Fratello are professors of architecture and design at the University of California Berkeley and San Jose State University. They founded Emerging Objects six months to focus on printing architecture from a diverse set of materials, largely renewable or sources from industrial waste, including some they have developed themselves.
Besides salt, they are also working in 3D-printed wood, cement and paper, adapting old models of 3D-printers to suit their materials and processes. “Emerging Objects is interested in the creation of 3D printed architecture, building components and furnishings that can be seen as sustainable, inexpensive, stronger, smarter, recyclable, customisable and perhaps even reparable to the environment,” they explain.
The Saltygloo pavilion follows a piece of furniture printed in the same way and the firm is now gearing up to produce a large-scale architectural room. “We see possibilities to create building enclosures and building cladding systems, as well as free standing walls using the salt material,” Rael told us.
The project is on display at the Museum of Craft Design as part of an exhibition called New West Coast Design 2 until 5 January 2014.
Design team: Ronald Rael, Virginia San Fratello, Seong Koo Lee. Fabrication team: Ronald Rael, Seong Koo Lee, Eleftheria Stavridi Material development: Ronald Rael, Mark Kelly, Kent Wilson Special thanks: Professor Mark Ganter, Solheim Lab, University of Washington, Ehren Tool, Department of Art Practice, University of California Berkeley, Department of Architecture, University of California Berkeley, Department of Design, San Jose State University, Kwang Min Ryu and Chaewoo Rhee.
The Salt & Pepper Slides are a modern, elegant twist on classic shakers that were designed around the idea that contents could gently slide out versus being shaken out. A small capsule in the center holds the pepper or salt which are easily & intuitively distributed by simply lifting the upward tail of the S-shaped shaker.
Voici une vidéo belle et émouvante sur le travail de Motoi Yamamoto qui compose des installations magnifiques en utilisant du sel. Réalisée pour The Avant/Garde Diaries, cette vidéo donne la parole à cet artiste qui utilise le symbole funéraire du sel afin de guérir le chagrin qu’il a connu à la mort de sa soeur.
1. Photography Galleria Carla Sozzani’s newest exhibit, simply titled “Photography,” brings together a wide group of internationally renowned photographers from both fashion and fine art. The exhibition focuses on new works from prominent artists, including William Eggleston, Martin Parr, Ryan McGinley, Taryn Simon and more and runs through 18…
Motoi Yamamoto est un artiste au talent incroyable qui compose ses oeuvres avec du sel. Sa dernière création en date s’appelle ‘Floating Garden » et est présentée à la Laband Art Gallery, à Loyola Marymount University. Un travail d’une précision impressionnante réalisé en 11 jours de travail à découvrir dans la suite.
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