Les équipes d’AmnesiArt ont produit cette magnifique vidéo, nous plongeant avec talent au pays du Soleil Levant. Soulignant avec brio cette étrange alchimie entre modernité et tradition, cette vidéo retrace en quelques minutes les plus beaux lieux du Japon avec notamment des images de Tokyo & Kyoto.
Le photographe Weerapong Chaipuck décrit dans ses photos l’Asie. Un beau et mystérieux continent avec des paysages à couper le souffle et des traditions profondément enracinées. Profitez du voyages et de son travail sur la lumière grâce à ces superbes photos disponible sur Fubiz dans la suite de l’article.
Maritime gas lamps were used as a reference for these pendant lights created by Danish studio Space Copenhagen for design brand &tradition.
To create the Copenhagen Pendant, Space Copenhagen modernised the form of the old lamps once used to illuminate the Danish capital’s piers.
The studio’s design for Danish company &tradition consists of a lacquered metal shade, which is clamped to the cord with four arching plated steel tabs where the curving shape narrows at the top.
“The starting point was to create a design that would allow us to use various metals, but also that the design works from a purely sculptural point of view, with a monochrome finish,” said Space Copenhagen founding partner Peter Bundgaard Rützou. “Depending on the purpose and space it’s used in, the lamp can do both.”
Light is directed downward through a wide hole in the base of the shade.
“The pendant is widest in the middle and narrows at the open top and bottom to ensure that the lamp has a substantial body, while still protecting you from looking directly into the light,” said the studio’s second partner Signe Bindslev Henriksen.
The lamps are available in three sizes and five matte colours. The two smaller designs are made from steel and the larger model is formed from aluminium.
Copenhagen Pendant will be presented at imm Cologne next week, as well as at Maison & Objet in Paris at the end of this month and during Stockholm Design Week in February.
Here’s some more information for the designers:
&tradition launches the Copenhagen Pendant light by Space Copenhagen
In their second collaboration, following the success of the Fly lounge series, &tradition collaborates with Space Copenhagen on a new elegant pendant light.
“We are very pleased to be working with Space Copenhagen again,” says Martin Kornbek Hansen, the Brand Manager of &tradition. “They have an exceptional eye for detail and surface texture, and a unique way of combining the classic with the contemporary.”
An exercise in contrasts, the Copenhagen Pendant combines the classic and the modern, the maritime and the industrial. Its matte lacquered metal lampshade disperses the light in a subtle but spectacular way resembling the classic gaslight feel of the bleak Copenhagen piers.
“Over the years we have made several bespoke light pieces for our interior projects,” says Signe Bindslev Henriksen of Space Copenhagen. “So the biggest challenge in designing the Copenhagen Pendant was to meet our own expectations in making an equally sculptural and functional light.”
Originally, Space Copenhagen designed one version of the pendant, but it expanded into a series of three sizes: 200 millimetres, 350 millimetres and 600 millimetres in diameter, and five matte shades: blush, moss, slate, black and white. “The starting point was to create a design which would allow us to use various metals, but also that the design works from a purely sculptural point of view, with a monochrome finish. Depending on the purpose and space it’s used in, the lamp can do both,” says Space Copenhagen’s other founding partner, Peter Bundgaard Rützou.
The flexibility and attention to detail of the Copenhagen Pendant is a careful consideration inspired by Space Copenhagen’s experience as interior architects. Even the flow of light was carefully planned from the start. “The pendant is widest in the middle and narrows at the open top and bottom to ensure that the lamp has a substantial body, while still protecting you from looking directly into the light,” says Bindslev Henriksen. The downwards light is even and solid, while the subtle uplight is diffused, adding to the atmosphere of the ceiling.
“The Copenhagen Pendant is a perfect example of a classic typology of light reinvented in an innovative and contemporary way, qualities that we value highly at &tradition,” says Kornbek Hansen.
The post Space Copenhagen creates nautical
lamps for &tradition appeared first on Dezeen.
by Veronica Menendez Heather Schultz and Juan Lujan were inspired by the people of Dikokore (pronounced “dee-ko-ko-ray”), while living and working near the village in the nation of Benin. Working in realms spanning education, gender development, environmental awareness, creativity and art, after arriving…
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Artisanal leather goods inspired by the Futurist camouflage patterns of WWI ships
Applying a Futurist pattern to an ultra attentive cold-embossing technique, the designers behind the new leather accessories line Midsummer +1 give an old-world Bengali craft new shape. The brilliant leather clutches—produced by a fair trade co-operative in Kolkata, India—follows the lengthy Shantiniketan process where the leather is soaked, stretched,…
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Hand crafted leather saddles from a fashion design professor turned bespoke upholsterer
Known to the cycling community as one of the premier bespoke bicycle upholsterers around, Australia’s Busyman Bicycles shines through custom craftsmanship in an industry salivating for specialized components. As the brains and braun behind the one man operation, Mick Peel turns regular old saddles into custom masterpieces by hand upholstering with traditional tools and a level of knowhow only earned through years of tinkering. His precise, and often intricate designs extend from classic perforations to perfectly mainicured letters and logos.
With a BA and MA in fashion desgin, nearly twenty years of lecturing on the subject and a sizable stint as head of the fashion design program at Melbourne’s RMIT University, Peel’s experience with elaborate pattern making and knowledge of functional design made for the perfect pathway into the world of custom saddle making. And as if his educational experience weren’t enough, Peel also did a fair amount of graphic design for Adidas Australia in the 1990s and has dabbled in furniture design here and there as well.
Regardless of the discipline at hand, Peel feels his knack for design comes from simply doing. “I do design by making. My knowledge of materials and techniques and the memory accumulated in my hands through crafting have become very much my tools and method of designing. In my practice designing and making are not separate things.”
As one would imagine working with a wide range of saddle designs means finding just the right materials to get the job done. As Peel points out, each leather has it’s own different characteristics and properties. Sheep is extremely soft and easily stretched but can be quite fragile, whereas cow leather is generally more balanced in terms of mold-ability, strength and durability. “My favourite material is definitely vegetable tanned, full grain kangaroo skin. It moulds more easily than cow skin and performs much better in both tensile strength and abrasion resistance. I will always choose kangaroo if it meets the specifications of the job at hand.”
While the expertly crafted saddles are Peel’s specialty, he also dabbles in crafting custom handlebar tape and other specialized bicycle components. For a closer look at Peel’s handy work see the slideshow below and keep an eye on the often updated Busyman Bicycles blog.
Designer Gül Agiş addresses controversial social issues with traditional Turkish symbols and striking imagery
After eight years in advertising, Turkish designer Gül Agiş switched gears and returned to school, studying fashion first in Istanbul and then in Milan, where she received a masters degree from the revered Politecnico di Milano. Her talents caught the eye of C’N’C Costume National, and she worked there for several years before returning home to set up her own line, Lug Von Siga. Agiş has built a name for herself with collections based on essentials, keeping to clean cuts, neutral tones and feminine silhouettes. Now in its fifth season, Agiş’s latest collection begins to explore a more decorative side, with an elegant combination of technical construction with traditional Turkish styling.
“My Tears Are My Witness” is the main theme of the collection, where style, anthropology and social issues come together. The collection makes a direct reference to women who, in some regions of Turkey, are forced to get married with older men, in turn losing their own future and the possibility to dream.
While approaching this strong and controversial reality, the clothes show an intricate yet clear combination of textures, like the Anatolian symbols hidden in traditional carpet patterns. The shapes are incredibly modern and define an almost imaginary feminine body, full of extreme curves.
Shown here for the first time, the press campaign underlines these cultural and visual extremes thanks to the dramatic pictures shot by Ayten Alpün, and styled by Hakan Öztürk. The upshot are highly narrative and intensely evocative images reminiscent of innovative artistic movements like Expressionism and Surrealism.
Our interview with Li Daiguo on the band’s experimental mix of tradition and ceremony
One of the most interesting phenomena to hit Chinese avant-garde music is The Tea Rockers Quintet—a tea ceremony performed by master Lao Gu and accompanied by the all-stars of Chinese contemporary music: contemporary folk singer Xiao He, China’s top noise artist Yan Jun, academic guqin player Wu Na and the young and talented instrumentalist, Li Daiguo. Together they create a mesmerizing blend of traditional instruments, vocalisms, noise music, and harmonious movement.
We recently had the chance to talk with Li Daiguo (aka Douglas Lee)—the ensemble’s eclectic musician and gifted solo performer—just before the release of their first album “Ceremony.”
Yan Jun was invited to participate in a Swiss cultural/arts festival in 2010 and he put us together for two shows that went well. That was probably the catalyst for making us decide that this is a long-term project. Before that, we were all friends and had played together in various formations as duos and trios etc., but nothing regular like the Tea Rockers had become.
We all love new music, different kinds of Chinese traditional music, improvisation, nature and each other. Finding the right blend is a matter of mutual listening and enjoying each others’ sounds. Musicians are often regularly getting new ideas or developing new skills and techniques, so it’s really important to improvise together to listen to who a person is and what they are saying at that moment and not be stuck in some image you have of their identity or who they should be based on your past experiences with them.
I trained in different kinds of classical music for years before I realized it was a form of expression that really works for me. It has become an important practice for me, and one of the guiding things in my life because it is such an integral part of how I keep learning more about my body and consciousness and other important things.
Western classical music and the classical musics of the erhu and pipa were huge influences early on in terms of technique. Later I studied bluegrass, played a lot of heavy metal, and was getting into different kinds of new music. Aesthetically I am really touched by so many different sounds, but I would say in recent years I have been influenced most by Shona music of Zimbabwe and different music from Mali. Of course I am still practicing 5-8 hours a day, so my ideas and techniques are still developing.
Since I was young and was interested in erhu and other things about Chinese tradition, I was attracted to the idea of coming to China to live. My father is a pretty spiritual person and is really interested in Daoism and Buddhism, and that had some influence on me for sure. By the time I moved to Sichuan in 2004 I was already very interested in different kinds of spiritual practices, so one of the things in my mind in coming was to get closer to some of those traditions. When I arrived and stayed for a year there were so many doors opened and so many possible roads to go down I just decided to stay and eventually built my life here.
Released on 4 April 2012, The Tea Rockers Quintet’s debut album “Ceremony” is now available through Amazon and iTunes.
European luxury and traditional Chinese craftsmanship in a Shanghai boutique
by Alessandro De Toni
In a bustling metropolis like Shanghai, Shang Xia‘s boutique strikes a balance between “human and nature”, a millenary value of Chinese culture that often appears to be lost in the country’s economic rush. Wood and sandstone are combined together with high-tech fiber to create a corner of peace, a unique and harmonious environment.
The Shang Xia brand was founded in 2008 by Chinese designer Jian Qiong Er and Hermès, one of the most well-known western luxury brands in China. Together, they collaborate on a line of furniture, decorative objects, jewelry and high-fashion garments entirely produced in China and characterized by excellent craftsmanship and understated simplicity.
As the name Shang Xia implies—it translates to “up and down” in English—style is a state of harmony achieved by a dynamic flow of energy from the past, present and future. It’s a dialogue between tradition and contemporary taste, which aims to create a 21st-century lifestyle founded on the finest of Chinese design traditions.
Among Shang Xia’s most beautiful crafts are the jewelry collections “Garden” and “Shan Shui”. In the former, the Taihu rock—an ancient symbol of wisdom and immortality—is combined with red sandalwood, jade, agate, gold and silver through a carving process that can take up to 300 hours.
For “Shan Shui”, agate and jade are carved and polished in the shape of an ancient Chinese coin. The process requires abut 480 hours of craftsmanship by a single artisan who cuts and polishes the agate on a spinning wheel. It is an almost spiritual exercise that recalls samsara, the Sanskrit word for the ever-turning wheel of life.
Shang Xia
1F, South Tower, Hong Kong Plaza
283 Huaihai Middle Rd, Shanghai
A nutty French refreshment from LA’s Victoria’s Kitchen
A longstanding French tradition, almond water has been produced in small batches by nut lovers around the globe for hundreds of years. Bringing this all-natural treat to the masses is Victoria’s Kitchen, a small, family-run company started by husband-and-wife duo David and Deborah Meniane to “honor the importance of family and traditions that are passed on from generation to generation.”
Loaded with the nutrients found naturally in almonds, the gluten-free beverage still uses Grandma Victoria’s original recipe of water, natural almond flavor, pure cane sugar—and, say the founders, her love—for sweetening. Although some may be put off by the added sugar, we can assure you the mild taste is just right.
Victoria’s Kitchen is available in select stores across California, Texas and Florida, as well as online where a case of 12 16oz bottles sells for $27.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
