Hasta La Ideas

Laura Wass strikes out on her own with jewelry combining the industrial with the handmade

Balancing a spare, industrial aesthetic with the richness of fine jewelry, designer Laura Wass has opened up an interesting niche for herself in the market. With Fall 2012 she has launched WXYZ, a focused line of “DNA” and jacks bead necklaces, rubber and steel pulley bracelets, rubber bubble bangles and geometric metal-and-resin rings. With each detail, from the softness of the neoprene bracelet links, to the satisfying weight of a beaded helix and the almost hidden precious pearls floating in resin, Wass balances the focused precision of large-scale metalwork with handmade thought and, equally as importantly, injects a playful attitude in every serious piece.

We caught up with Wass at her studio and workspace at the 3rd Ward, where she makes it all happen, from hand-sketching and CAD—and some desktop acrobatics to keep the creative juices flowing—to steel lathing and metal finishing. With her first collection freshly launched, she filled us in on process and inspiration, while offering us a sneak peek at the Spring 2013 collection.

You worked with established brands—Philip Crangi, Giles & Brother, Metal Dynamics—before striking out on your own. What did it take for you to make the jump?

It was like jumping off a diving board. In some ways when I started I was anxious to start my own projects and then at the same time I felt as though I would never be quite ready. I always felt there was something more I could learn, or some way I could grow before starting my own thing, but then at some point those two paths crossed—the desire to create and the feeling that I had a really strong foundation in the industry and in manufacturing and design practice and those things came together and it was just time. And I also had the support—my boss at the last company I worked for is a great mentor, and has taught me so much about new manufacturing methods and engineering and so he was really fundamental in my growth as a designer and in helping me articulate what I wanted to do.

How did your work evolve to the industrial, and how much comes from personal taste?

It started with a fascination with the history of design and the Bauhaus movement, and it evolved as I entered the industry, and started becoming more experienced and interested in the process of how things are made. Which was always my focus—my initial entrance came from making things by hand, but then, when I started to explore the machine I saw how much more it was capable of doing, and then that drew me back again to the traditions of Bauhaus. By incorporating both the handmade and the industrially made, we get such a wide range of design capabilities, so for me it became this hunger for knowledge so that I could expand and inform my design practice.

How similar is the finished product to what you originally envision?

It definitely evolves, there are a lot of surprises. I’ll usually start with one goal or one idea and then come out with something entirely different through the process of sketching, of physically making with your hands. I think for me when I’m making something with my hands my brain is activated and starts really running through new ideas, so things tend to evolve a lot from the initial concept however there are some instances where something will just snap into my head and there it is and that’s the way it started.

When it comes to the mix of industrial and handmade, what’s you and what are you outsourcing?

For me because the industrial and handmade production are both so important I’m really exploring as many different production methods as possible. So in order to do that I have to find as many different resources where they specialize in these different techniques. So, from die striking, brass stamping and zinc die casting to screw machining, C&Cing and lasering to water jet cutting (which is much stronger than laser cutting, surprisingly) and, let’s see what else—powder coating, plating, die cutting, ball chains, automated chain-making and lathing, which is similar to a screw machine.

The jacks beads look familiar—where did they come from?

The jacks beads are inspired by a childhood bead I played with growing up. I took the concept of that bead and engineered it in CAD—it went through about 10 different revisions, actually—I tweaked the shape and the form so that they sit together. They’re different, though. The original beads have round fronts, and I wanted to create a pyramid structure, something architectural. It’s both organic—a fundamental structure of life, almost like a chemical composition—but it’s also manmade, architectural and geometric. I wanted them to fit together with space for you to see the articulation of the shape, but also create a new form with these individual pieces.

That’s actually really important for the line—the use of individual components that together create an entirely new form. The DNA necklace is another example of that: individually they’re these beads and rods, but together they creates this whole new structure, much like the way life is made.

So how do you go about reengineering something?

The jacks beads are created in a blue model as a rapid prototype, and then they’re basically engraved into a steel die. So you take a piece of steel, and there are several different processes that you go through to create a negative form with this extremely hardened steel, and then the molten metal is injected into the steel die. It’s a way of casting that’s not commonly used for jewelry because it’s a very high production run—to get the machine up and running you need to have about 2,000 pieces. So, the molten metal is injected into the die, and because it’s a steel form it’s filling, it’s extremely precise, and can be replicated over and over and over, whereas as with lost-wax casting there are a lot of irregularities. So it’s perfect for this industrial, super-defined form.

Does your creative process start with the fashion and style element, or does it start with the scientific, industrial aspect?

It definitely starts with the technical, industrial and biology/chemistry part of it. For instance, right now for next season I’m really inspired by these overlapping architectural movements—so, Moorish and Arabic geometry and architecture, and how that intersects with the other histories of religious architecture, whether it be Jewish or Christian. I was just in Israel so I saw this amazing confluence of Jewish and Arabic and Christian design, and the histories of those places, what that means to so many people and how it looks—kind of like this tapestry of cultural influence. I’m looking at design motifs and architecture, and, of course, I’m looking at nature as always. Also, I’ve been thinking about mazes, and humans creating abstractions in the landscape through the use of geometry, so looking at where city and nature meet in design. Fashion, in many ways, is just the world that I live in so it kind of seeps in through the cracks of what I’m thinking. It’s not necessarily the focus, but it’s always there.

Images by Greg Stefano

Portland craftsmanship meets Parisian style in a sustainable tote

Setting out to make the perfect tote, Parisian design label Jardins Florian teamed up with the Portland-based craftsmen of The Good Flock. Together they have created a stylishly minimal bag that speaks through its quality materials and handsome detailing.

Made by hand from waxed cotton canvas and vegetable tanned leather, the tote reflects the conscious design approach of both makers, who share a desire to make beautiful functional products with the least environmental impact possible. As Florian Gonzalez, founder of Jardins Florian, explains, the design process was dedicated to the art of “keeping things simple.”

“We did not want to use any hardware or zips, so that the bag would be made of only two materials, both bio-degradable,” says Gonzalez about their effort to make a tote with a closure. “The design battle to find how to close the bag in an original and functional manner led us to months of prototyping and eventually to the beautiful leather flap one can see on the final model.”

Such rigor is evoked in The Good Flock’s three design principles: “Use wholesome materials, work with a conscience and design with minimal waste.” Marco Murillo, founder of The Good Flock, heralds their work as “products that can be buried in your backyard. They are made of wholesome things that won’t hurt the earth or trees or worms, even the mean ones.”

Gonzalez describes Jardins Florian as a “modern-day Maison” that designs and sells quality goods. With an exceptional eye for design, Gonzalez also benefits from a savvy approach to collaboration, so far working with luxury brands to create his products. Currently this includes an organic scented candle made with spa brand ila and a customized limited-edition Rolex Watch with Bamford Watch Department.

The Good Flock + Jardins Florian tote bag is available online for £250 (about $387) for a limited time (they indicate the next edition will come in different colors and at a higher price).

Diesel fuel, tobacco, damp dirt and pine tree perfume from Portland, OR

Perfumer Heather Sielaff hand-blends idiosyncratic, mostly masculine scents for her label OLO Fragrance in her apartment in north Portland. “I’m not really girly,” she admits, and her perfumes tend to be intriguing rather than sweetly attractive. For example, Forêt’s notes of pine and vetiver recall the scent of earth and damp northwestern trees, while Victory Wolf’s birch tar, cedar and tobacco evoke nights spent camping beside an open fire.

Sielaff recently had a commission to create the smell of diesel fuel, which succeeded but had some unexpected consequences: “[The client] turned out to be allergic,” she says.

“Years of practical use allowed me to get to know the individual essential oils quite intimately,” says Sielaff, who trained as a neuromuscular therapist and studied aromatherapy on the side. “The thought finally occurred to me that making perfume would give me the opportunity to utilize my knowledge in a more creative way. It was initially just a hobby and I’m still a little surprised OLO took off the way it did,” she says.

Undoubtedly one of the most significant elements to OLO’s appeal is Sielaff’s sense of humor. Diesel-based perfumes aren’t the only unconventional product that she’s attempted—the limited edition Make Deux room spray—interpret the pun in order to deduce its intended usage—asks the would-be customer, with tongue firmly in cheek, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a smell?”

Sielaff’s intimate knowledge of scents keeps her perfumes multi-layered, personal and complex. Many of her projects stay local and never make it out of Portland.”Some perfumes are limited edition or created for special events,” she says. One such side project was a fragrance created for the Portland-based band YACHT, called Shangri-La, that blends more than a half-dozen scents into one moody, floral concoction. She also created a limited edition art bottle and box series with Portland glass artist Andy Paiko and Portland woodworker Jason Rens.

OLO fragrances are available online or at selected retailers. For more information on Sielaff’s upcoming projects, check her blog.

Per il 4°anniversario dell’apertura dello store di Seul, Corso Como 10 ha realizzato in collaborazione con SUPER questo modello in edizione limitata. Packaging illustrato da Claire Duport.

Questo modello Hawaiiano è di Tantum. Lo trovate da Union.
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