All posts tagged: ceramic

Iittala X Issey Miyake

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A few weeks ago I attended a preview for the new Iittala X Issey Miyake Collection at the MoMA Design Store in New York City. The collection, which combines the Finnish craftsmanship of Iittala with the iconic style of fashion designer Issey Miyake, includes high quality ceramic plates, platters, cups, and a tealight candleholder; a glass vase; and textiles including a pleated totebag, a “table flower” in two sizes, napkins, place mats, and cushion covers. A color palette of white, pink, green, gray unites the modern, yet soft pieces. The MoMA Design Store will be exclusively sell the collection through May 2016. All images courtesy of Iittala, except where noted.

Tanssi Tableware Collection from Iittala

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New from the iconic Finnish brand Iittala, the Tanssi tableware series features illustrations by Finnish artist Klaus Haapaniemi. The group of dishes, plates, mugs, and other decorative pieces were inspired by Haapaniemi’s visual designs for the Finnish National Opera production of The Cunning Little Vixen, a Czech opera by Leoš Janácek that premiered in January 2015. The story, which looks at the co-existence of animals and humans and the eternal circle of life, comes alive on tableware shapes created by Finnish designer Heikki Orvola. Reflections from both ancient Oriental and Slavic imagery, as well as traditional stories appear in the drawings of deers, badgers, vixen, and foxes. The earthy color palette coordinates with all current Iittala glassware, including the brand new desert color now available for the Aalto vase. All images courtesy of Iittala.

Memories USB Collection

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I met Vanessa Redondo during the London Design Festival, where she was displaying her Memories collection of ceramic building-shaped USB sticks. Redondo, an architect and designer, was born in Caracas, Venezuela and currently lives in Madrid. She began her career as an architect and graduated from the Central University of Venezuela in 2010, after which she studied photography and design at the Instituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Spain. Inspired by the city of Caracas, her Memories collection of USB sticks are an amalgamation of her studies. The green and cream ceramic pieces mimic skyscrapers and small buildings to form a little cityscape on the wooden base. The concept, says Redondo, is to be able to organize important life events and keep them within reach. “Nowadays we’ve become more digital…we load information in computers and are no longer aware of it, we accumulate for no reason,” she writes. Her collection of USB memory sticks are an attempt to bring value back to this common digital storage tool. “In the end…it has become a delicate piece with …

KINTO Tableware

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One of the best things about going to the New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF) each season is discovering manufacturers that I never heard of and becoming a fan before I’ve left the booth. At this winter’s show, that company was KINTO Co. Founded in 1972 as a wholesaler of porcelain and ceramic tableware in Japan’s Shiga prefecture, the company began to develop their own designs in glass, wood, ceramic, and other materials, for the Japanese lifestyle in the 1990s, and started a full-scale export business in 2009. Based on the simple premise of creating products “to make our lives comfortable”, their line includes a range of coffee and tea related pieces as well as other designs. New this year is the Couleur teapot set, which combines a modern design form with the classic Japanese teapot. The microwave- and dishwasher-safe set includes a pot, cup, and saucer. Inside the pot, the spout is covered by a delicate porcelain strainer that is an example of the company’s craftsmanship. KINTO also launched an elegantly glazed new tableware …

Heath Ceramics Summer Collection

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It’s beginning to warm up here in the New York City area, and people can get a little carried away that winter is finally over. Once the temperature hits 60 degrees Fahrenheit, suddenly every other person on the street is walking around half-dressed. I think some men buy special calendars that announce it’s the Official First Shirtless Day of the year because, as if all at once, all you see is chest hair and bad tattoos. Launching in April in limited quantities, Heath Ceramic‘s new collection of tabletop pieces is also eager for the summer to arrive. Along with a fresh color palette including California Poppy, Grapefruit, and Birch, the collection revisits the company’s previous experiments with exposing the natural clay body texture of their designs. Like those fancy bakery cookies that have their ends dipped in chocolate, these luscious glazes are tempting enough to bite into. Clay is exposed at defined points on many pieces, either towards the neck of a vase or base of a bowl. In the collection, matte glazes also continue …