Spring is so close we can smell it in the damp sidewalks and melting clouds. Sandals are on everyone’s mind and every store’s display, and very shortly the lovely ladies of New York will venture forth like long-legged ducklings perched on new roosts (inevitably while it’s still chilly enough for swaddling). Maybe all this springtime anticipation has something to do with the proliferation of twiggy and reedy design popping up in our inboxes…the birds are about, and they require swank nests.
1. The cranes, industrial ports, and archipelagos of fashion designer Annele Valkama’s native Helsinki inspired the silhouettes of her himmelis, a type of Finnish mobile made from reeds. Her product series Mennen Tullen, which means “come and go” in English, includes three mobiles handcrafted from reeds gathered on the shores of Enojärvi and Kilpilampi in the Häme region of southern Finland. The mobiles, each accompanied by a matching embroidered linen tablecloths or napkins, launched just last week at the Friends of Finnish Handicraft’s 130th anniversary exhibition, “Friends and Friends - 100% Finnish,” at Design Forum Finland. Annele Valkama, +358-40-5411387; http://www.creadesign.fi/.
Driftwood Floor Lamp from Dealer Albert Joseph Gallery
2. Perfect for a vacation house – or making your real house feel like a vacation – Albert Joseph designed his Taragon Twig floor lamp with a pull switch on the socket and a dimmer switch on the cord. Handcrafted from driftwood by artisans in Northern Thailand, the lamp can also be plugged into a socket that’s controlled by a switch in the room. The design is versatile, simple, yet charming – your country cottage awaits. Albert Joseph Gallery through VandM, 973-376-5400; http://www.albertjosephgallery.com/.
3. The 13th consecutive installation on the Cantor Roof Garden at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will soon take shape as an evolving bamboo jungle, courtesy of the New Jersey-born identical twin brothers Doug and Mike Starn. Known for art that defies categorization, the brothers have been invited by the museum to adapt their site-specific installation Big Bambú against the backdrop of Central Park and the NYC skyline. Starting April 27, visitors can watch the Starns work with a team of rock climbers over the course of the spring, summer, and fall to construct a giant bamboo structure ultimately measuring 100 feet long by 50 feet wide and 50 feet high. Built from a complex network of 3,200 fresh-cut, interlocking 30 and 40-foot-long bamboo poles, lashed together with 30 miles of nylon rope, Big Bambú will combine sculpture, architecture, and performance – a museum-worthy spectacle further enjoyed by sipping chilled wine in the sunshine. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 212-535-7710; http://www.metmuseum.org/.
Nest House from Dealer Droog
4. Droog has teamed with Barcelona-based design collaborative Azuamoline to produce what might be used as a child’s hanging seat, a toy, or a sculpture. Any way you look at it, Nest House is clearly inspired by birds whose natural instinct is to build a house using the resources at hand. The nest’s steel structural frame is suspended by rope and wrapped with natural branches and leaves for a tempting hideaway for daydreaming or perhaps contemplating the differences between plant, animal, and human life. Droog through VandM, 212-941-8350; http://www.droog.com/.
5. As anyone whose received one at a housewarming can testify, candles are a perfect way to, well, nest. Marsia Holzer Studio’s two Bird’s Nest candleholders are made of glass wrapped in either bronze or aluminum and measure 4.25-inches-high and 7-inches-wide, accepting a 3 to 4-inch-wide candle. And there’s more where these came from. Holzer’s studio produces furniture, lighting, sculpture, and custom interior finishing for the likes of David Rockwell, Jeffery Beers International, Thom Felicia, Victoria Hagen, Brad Ford, and Thomas Jayne. Marsia Holzer Studio, 212-431-9343; http://www.marsiaholzer.com/.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment