01.28.21

Eye Candy

In Quarantine, Some of Our Favorite Products Are Hardly Products At All

Some of the more interesting submissions we've gotten lately have existed outside the boundaries of what we typically think of as a product. Number one amongst these is a series of vases by Dutch designer Willem van Hooff, which were commissioned as holiday gifts for the EDHV design studio and Dutch Invertuals teams in Eindhoven, each vase based on the personal characteristics of its recipient and meant as a way to honor each team member in this difficult year of working remotely.

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12.02.20

Eye Candy

How Jewelry Designer Hannah Jewett Embraced A Pivot To Candles

Hannah Jewett's jewelry designs have been embraced by many a celebrity stylist, appearing on post-pop star Charli XCX, the comedian Julio Torres, and rendered influencer Lil Miquela. With factories closed and her Dumbo studio inaccessible during lockdown, 2020 prompted something of a return to form for her: Leaning into the “ambiguous energy” of her designs, she decided to try her hand at candles.

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10.23.20

Eye Candy

The Texas Jeweler Plucking Sculptures from the Recycling Bin

Early in quarantine, way back in April, you couldn't open Instagram without running into a designer teaching a papier-mâché tutorial. Down in Austin, Texas, Sarah Murphy of the jewelry brand Hey Murphy caught the bug, like many of us did, and began making pieces from what she calls "quarantine trash" as a creative distraction and release while she watched TV and drank wine (relatable). "The point was to not create any more waste, so they are mostly made from the contents of our recycling bin," Murphy says.

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09.04.20

Eye Candy

We Want to Live Inside This Editorial On Conscious Consumerism

As our planet hurtles towards climate oblivion, it seems like literally the least we can do is engage in conscious consumerism. And this editorial — published last month in Elle Decoration UK and conceived collaboratively between London-based photographer Kristy Noble and stylist Katie Phillips — makes a pretty excellent case for it.

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08.03.20

Eye Candy

Tired of Hearing About Masks? Not Once You See this Antwerp Duo’s Incredible Creations

Clouds blowing swirls of wind, gentlemen with fin-de-siècle mustaches, finely dressed generals with elaborate headpieces — such are the lost-in-time characters depicted in "An Entrance to Mention: the Park Pardon Principles," a 52-page book about a fictional park and its inhabitants that Dutch illustrators Bloeme van Bon and Geran Knol created together in 2014. Last year Knol and van Bon began turning the characters into one-of-a-kind papier-mâché masks, and today they've launched the latest edition in the ongoing (and consistently sold-out) series.

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07.31.20

Eye Candy

These Blocky Pastel Pieces By Studio Nucleo Will Make You Do a Double Take

When we first saw these pieces by the Turin-based collective Studio Nucleo, we thought they were miniatures. Between the pastel colors and the blocky Tetris aesthetic, we understood them, at first, to be maquettes, studies for a larger project. But after looking twice, judging them by the details of the garage they were photographed in (and, more recently, seeing the pieces with a human for scale) we realized they were the real deal — called Primitive, the pieces represent the 10th anniversary of a collection originally created in all white and now re-imagined in color for an ongoing exhibition at Nilufar Gallery in Milan.

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07.30.20

Eye Candy

Harvey Bouterse’s New Ceramic Lamp is a Study in Contrasting Textures

It's basically our job here at Sight Unseen to follow the career trajectory of up-and-coming designers, and in our professional capacity, we've come to realize that most ceramicists follow a certain path: First come the smalls, like cups and mugs and plates and vases. The next step is usually lamps — think of Natalie Weinberger's pleated clay shades, Workaday Handmade's listing table lamps, and BZIPPY's pyramid-shaped bases. Today, we're featuring one of the first lamps by Belgium-based Harvey Bouterse.

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07.15.20

Eye Candy

Scandinavian Art Mirrors Are Having a Moment — Here’s Our Latest Favorite

If you are one of the 36,000 people who follow 26-year-old Simone Noa Hedal on Instagram, you probably know her as a very specific kind of Danish influencer who posts photos of herself — wearing clothes that are often the color of cotton candy or peach sorbet — interspersed with art and design inspirations working within a similar palette: Wang & Soderström, Helle Mardahl, Roger Muhl, Justin Morin, and the Seoul bakery Banana Haruki, among others. But last year, Hedal began posting in earnest pieces she had made herself that fit snugly into her already-established aesthetic — a series of mirrors painted with swoops of pastel acrylic paint.

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07.06.20

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Caroline Z. Hurley’s Gee’s Bend–Inspired, Stitched-Together Paintings

Caroline Z. Hurley is best known for her block-printed quilts, tablecloths, blankets, and fabrics by the yard, but if you follow Hurley on Instagram, you know that painting is also a huge part of the Brooklyn-based artist's practice. Her newest works combine elements of both mediums, using vintage fabrics or cottons woven by hand by artisans in Oaxaca as the base for painted and stitched-together canvases.

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07.01.20

Eye Candy

Gabriella Picone’s New Company — And Hand-Painted Silk Scarves — Were Inspired By Summers in Sicily

After working for four years at the New York design gallery R & Company, artist and RISD grad Gabriella Picone shifted to a full-time studio practice this year to pursue ceramics, painting, and textiles. Her first collection — the result of a company she founded called idda, which means "her" in Sicilian dialect and was inspired by Picone's childhood summers in Sicily — is a series of silk and cotton scarves printed with Picone's expressive paintings on paper.

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06.29.20

Eye Candy

These Surrealist-Inspired Vases Are the Breakthrough That Resulted From a Creative Block

At the beginning of the pandemic, some designers may have viewed the ensuing solitude as an opportunity to "bloom where you grow." But not everyone found it easy to stay inspired. "After lockdown started in the early months of 2020, I felt completely unmotivated to make work," confesses the Brisbane ceramicist Nicolette Johnson. After a while, however, Johnson gave herself permission to make literally anything, and began sculpting shapes out of soft clay — inspired by Surrealist and Constructivist motifs — and attaching them to small wheel-thrown vases.

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06.25.20

Eye Candy

These Duotone Vases Are Reversible, Depending On Your Color Scheme — Or Mood

The up-and-coming Australian designer Dean Toepfer had been primarily working on commissions and larger furniture pieces — like a bar cart made from a faux terrazzo composite and a sling chair upholstered in pink shag — since graduating from RMIT. But with the onset of the pandemic, Toepfer decided to reassess. "Vase Versa is my first object collection, and first self-produced range," Toepfer explains.

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