Another undeniable part of Gilad's creative process: cigarettes. Makeshift ashtrays abound in the studio, like a wine goblet with its top smashed, the ashes gathering in a shallow pool above the stem. Gilad created this one, a silver-plated miniature replica of George Nelson's Coconut Chair, for a 2006 show at the Cooper-Hewitt called "XSmall: Old Ideas, New Objects."