Hasta La Ideas

Thai designer Decha Archjananun has made a series of vases with concrete bases to hold water and wire frames to support flower stems.

The concrete parts sit within each steel frame and weigh the pieces down to prevent them toppling over.

Called Weight Vases, the collection comprises different shapes for different types of flower arrangement.

Archjananun developed the project while studying at the Ecole Cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL).

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Here’s some text from the designer:

What is a vase? How does it work?

Those were simple questions I asked myself for this historical object which was created since Neolithic period.

I found that, all the vases in the world have a same basic principle to hold flowers. There are 2 important parts which function differently.

Top part (vase-mount), has a duty to hold flower stem and base part, to hold water and also offer a stability to the vase.

“Weight” brings a new perspective on a vase design by the separation of 2 different parts which support each other.

Water container made of concrete pile-up on a steel piece to give a stability for holding flowers.

In the collection, there are 4 vases for different flower setting from single flower to flowers panel.

Project name: Weight Vases
Material: Concrete , Laser cut steel
Pictures by: Decha Archjananun

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Bucket Vase by Qubus Design	Pretty Vases Collection by FX Balléry	Lanterne Marine by BarberOsgerby

Milan 2011: German designers Ett La Benn show these vases made of biodegradable cellulose as part of Poetry Happens at Ventura Lambrate in Milan this week.

Called Kami, the pots are moulded by hand and left to air-dry.

Ventura Lambrate is open until 17 April. Download the Ventura Lambrate map and guide »

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Here are some more details from Poetry Happens:

kami

The ‘kami’ collection of pots/vases/home lighting encourage a new way of thinking in eco-friendly lifestyle products.

Made from 100% biodegradable cellulose, an enormously solid and light material, ‘kami’ transforms this most abundant natural raw material into objects for daily use by simple air drying.

Charles Bukowski: ‘Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.’

Design as a creative discipline always floats between pure culture and an applied profession that fulfills industrial needs.

Our exhibition project emphasizes the experimental ‘making’-oriented cultural path of design. As every year, Milan is the best place to showcase these new concepts and researches. Our exhibition POETRY HAPPENS displays authentic, archetypal projects, prototypes and installations with a narrative design quality. Poetry as a headline gives every invited designer, architect and artist the freedom of his / her personal approach and interpretation of his / her work related to poetry.

Poetry transferred into the world of design can be: The poetry of making by emphasizing the personality of the maker or the unique and individual strategy of the creator behind an object.

The poetry of collages combines readymades or parts, principles and mechanics of existing ‘everyday’-products into hybrid objects with a new life-cycle that, unlike standard industrial production, also shows signs of usage. The poetry of prototyping: process models, mock-ups and regular prototypes generate the story and evolution of creating – a narrative quality with often a bigger impact than the final product.

The poetry of materials and technology experiments is the engine of the continuous evolution of design. The history of design would be blank and just a formal discipline without the quantum leaps in materials and technologies.

The poetry of spaces and installations expands the pure object’s existence into space and environments which finally every object has to deal with.

The poetry of sustainability begins when design objects tend to achieve an archetypal long lasting quality with a maximal visual continuity: classic pieces and long runners in the market won’t absorb new resources.

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Laurens van Wieringen at Ventura Lambrate	Diederik Schneemann at Ventura Lambrate	JamScape at Ventura Lambrate

Milan 2011: Eindhoven designers Formafantasma present this range of plastic vessels resulting from experiments with natural polymers at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in Milan this week.

Called Botanica, the project was commissioned by Italian foundation Plart, a research institute dedicated to preserving plastic works of art and design.

The designers experimented with making plastic from natural resins, rubbers, shellac, wood and animal products.

These materials have been combined with traditional materials like wood, ceramic metal to furniture, lighting, vases and bowls that have shapes and details derived from natural forms like pine cones or seed pods.

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The following information is from the designers:

Botanica

Botanica is the latest project by studio FormaFantasma, commissioned by Plart, an Italian foundation dedicated to scientific research and technological innovation in the recovery, restoration and conservation of works of art and design produced in plastic. Maria Pia Incutti, founder of Plart and Marco Petroni, curator of the project, commissioned the studio to create their own personal interpretation of polymeric materials.

The perception of plastic materials has drastically changed over time. Initially considered the material of the future, synthetic polymers are now seen as the symbol of a not anymore exciting oil era. Scientific research is increasingly looking to find sustainable alternatives or ways to make plastic biodegradable. In opposition to this, the Plart foundation is addresses another necessity with its activities and research: to preserve plastic-based art and design pieces.

The tension between the need to find valid alternatives to an extraordinary material, and to preserve the artworks of the last century underlines how deeply both the qualities and disadvantages of plastic have penetrated into our culture. Most of the objects we use daily are made of plastic, and though the material may take a different form, plastic will remain relevant as we move forward.

With Botanica Studio Formafantasma is giving its personal homage to plastic materials by investigating the history of polymers.

About the project

Botany, as a discipline, began with early human efforts to identify edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, making it one of the oldest sciences. More then two centuries ago plants started to be categorized also for their secretions, a possible source of material. The objects displayed in the Botanica collection are designed as if the oil- based era, in which we are living, never took place. Almost as if historians, Studio Formafantasma investigated the pre-Bakelite period, discovering unexpected textures, feelings and technical possibilities offered by natural polymers extracted from plants or animal-derivatives. The designers researched and hunted for information, digging into the 18th and 19th centuries, when scientists began experimenting draining plants and animals in search for plasticity.

Rosin, Dammar, Copal (a sub-fossil state of amber), Natural Rubber, Shellac (a polymer extracted from insect excrement that colonize trees) and Bois Durci (a 19th century material composed of wood dust and animal blood), are amongst others, materials investigated by the studio. The organic details and plant-like forms of the pieces underline the vegetal and animal origins of the resins, while the palette of colours is based on natural amber tones in combination with traditional materials such as wood, ceramic and metal.

The natural textures and honey-like colours of the resins evoke the memory of 20th century bakelite objects, however, the finish and details are somewhat archaic yet contemporary. In Botanica, plastics are used as precious details, in an attempt to develop a new post-industrial aesthetic.

Today, we can be said to be moving towards a new post-oil era, the pre-oil era is starting to be globally re discovered in search for alternatives. Online blogs and archives are constantly collating and updating information challenging consumers to produce their own plastics, while an American University is currently importing Russian Dandelion flowers, reigniting the lost tradition of extracting rubber from the plants roots. In line with this attitude, Studio Formafantasma looks to the past as a source of inspiration, while delivering a body of work with a contemporary twist. With Botanica, Studio Formafantasma offers a new perspective on plasticity, reinterpreting centuries old technology lost beneath the impeccable surface of mass production.

Credit photos: Luisa Zanzani
Project:Studio Formafantasma – Andrea Trimarchi, Simone Farresin
Commission by : Plart Foundation
Curated by Marco Petroni

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Autarky by Formafantasma	Baked by Formafantasma	More homewares on Dezeen

Bauhaus-inspired glassware by a Portland-based artist

Sourcing glass from as far off as Sweden or as locally as Washington state, glass artist Lynn Read works with glass from a variety of different sources (sometimes even old beer bottles) to produce a similarly wide array of pieces in his Portland, OR studio. His style ranges from intricate detailing reminiscent of a medieval tapestry to smooth and simple housewares in shades of deep cobalt blue and shimmering gold.

“I use different glasses for a variety of results,” Read explains, “like color, clarity, viscosity, cost, quality and its ability to be tweaked.”

Read got his start at Baltimore’s Maryland Institute College of Art, starting by studying sculpture and painting but soon taking up an outside apprenticeship to work with glass. Rather than blowing glass into a mold—perhaps the influence of his sculpture background—he shapes each red-hot piece (at about 2150°F) with soft touches and gentle air pressure.

Read produces two separate lines in the Vitreluxe studio. The clean, simple, Bauhaus-inspired line of housewares starts at about $14 a piece and can be found in retail stores all over the country. His signature line starts at about $1000 per piece and can be found in museums and galleries, such as the Seattle Art Museum and the Williams College of Art in Massachusetts. For more information, check out his website.

German-Taiwanese designer Béatrix Li-Chin Loos has created this series of spherical vases from layers of scrap wood, glass, cardboard and leather.

Called Beautiful Planets, the handmade vases each represent a different planet in the solar system and are made from material off-cuts and reclaimed leather straps.

The objects are all unique, as they are made of any available leftover materials.

Li-Chin Loos created the series for Galerie Gosserez in Paris.

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Here’s some more information from Galerie Gosserez:

Beautiful planets by Béatrix Li-Chin LOOS (2010/11)
Insolit sculpture vases, each one of which suggests a different planet of The Universe.

The series plays with the mix of materials (wood, cardbox, leather and glass) and with the contrast between the rugged and the finished surfaces, in order to reach a new esthetics.

Each piece is an unique eco-design creation, each one being different from all the others through choice of materials, particular veins in the wood, and above all the result of what material left overs are available at a given moment. Each planet is hand made and born out of the designer’s work.

The  ”mother earth – la terre est notre mère” motto serves as a reminder of our collective duty of care to our Planet. It’s also Beatrix Li-Chin Loos’ leitmotiv and the source of her ecogical inspiration.

Materials: Off-cuts of wood (elm, chipboard or medium), recycled card box, blown glass tube, recycled leather strap
Dimensions: diameter 15, 18, 21 and 28 cm

Beautiful planets collection is created in exclusivity for Galerie Gosserez. Unique pieces.

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Paperpulp by Debbie Wijskamp	Weld Vases by Phil Cuttance	Wood Vases by Paul Loebach