Leah Ring assumed it would take years — half a decade, maybe — to get her line of original furniture, objects, and clay jewelry off the ground. She had a full-time job as an interior designer, after all, and though she’d gained valuable manufacturing know-how in a previous stint at a Los Angeles furniture company, this was her first solo venture into the world of product design.
Yet that’s not quite how things turned out. After only a single, well-timed email, sent when we were in the midst of planning for this year’s Sight Unseen OFFSITE show, the designer landed herself a dedicated booth from which to launch her debut collection — a feat made possible by the support of Levi’s Made & Crafted, the denim brand’s elevated sister line, on whose Instagram we’ve often spotted some of our favorite makers and designers. Ring’s line, Another Human, included pieces like the Stacks Bench (meditation stones reimagined in lush gray velvet); the transparent acrylic Vacation Table (filled with black sand and Mexican obsidian), and the Tubular Magazine Rack, a fat-legged beauty that’s now for sale in our online shop.
Ring, who still works full time as an interior designer, first became interested in designing products while working at a Manhattan firm, years earlier. “I was buying things at Christie’s and Sotheby’s and was being exposed to this really high-end aesthetic,” she says. “But I was also learning that people were making things of this caliber in America. I’d been more familiar with finding really fine pieces in galleries in Europe or at auctions, but to see that level of craftsmanship coming out of New York? That’s when I thought, you can do this? For a living?”
Her own works represent striking and deeply thoughtful iterations on familiar forms, but there’s something brighter and more buoyant that binds them. “There’s a sort of playful geometry that’s present in all of my work, and I definitely hope that all of it communicates a sense of joy,” Ring says. She recently invited us into her Atwater home and studio to reflect on her space, her process, and the importance of play.
“One thing I think is a really important element of residential interiors is that it’s an incredibly personal endeavor, and the space should be a reflection of the person—or people—that live there,” says Ring. “I’ve been fortunate enough to work for design firms that do really beautiful, high-end work so it’s challenging when you have a million ideas, but you don’t necessarily have the budget for them. However, I think given my limited budget, I’ve still managed to create a space that reflects my personal style and aesthetic.”
Ring’s living room contains a cheerful hodgepodge of shapes and colors. “I’m interested in playing with proportion and juxtaposing textures. I’m also very drawn to curvy lines, which can be seen in both the products I design and in my own living space.”
A rug from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul serves as a color-rich anchor to a space that includes a statement light fixture from Soho Mod, variously shaped mirrors, and a once-white IKEA shelf that Ring—a proponent of all things DIY—painted herself. Framed prints from Studio Proba and Society6 neighbor a white textured muslin piece, another of Ring’s works.
On display: words of wisdom from Henry David Thoreau.
One-off metal pieces from an Eric Trine studio sale sit beneath a homemade hanging sculpture built of clay, plastic tubing, and metal shavings leftover from a welding class.
Its unusual shape may have presented more than a few design challenges, but the designer’s living room highlights two of the great perks of living in LA: lots of space, and plenty of natural light.
“I like that my living space is big enough that it provides opportunities to try various things, move furniture around, and style different moments as the mood strikes.”
Fueling Ring’s work is a steady influx of inspiration from design magazines (current subscriptions include RUM, World of Interiors, and Elle Decor) and a growing collection of books. “Looking at books is one of the best ways to gain inspiration,” she says. “You’re not just looking at things that are trending on the internet, that everyone is looking at.”
Ring’s acrylic Squiggles tray (complete with emerald green Drop coasters) holds a deck of Tarot cards and an assortment of stones and crystals.
After having difficulty finding a magazine rack she liked, Ring designed her own. The 70s-inspired piece, part of the Another Human collection, is made of powder coated steel and boasts a black leather sling.
An acrylic table sits atop a white shag rug, contributing to what Ring refers to as a Pee-wee’s Playhouse look. “In the same way that I don’t take the products I make too seriously, I want to have fun in the spaces I design, as well. If you don’t like it, you can change it. Nothing’s permanent.”
“Figuring out what I can make, as far as resources go, is the first step to creating a piece,” says Ring. “Then I typically do a lot of different drawings to make sure I’m not missing anything. After that, I’ll mock it up in foam-core in my studio to make sure the proportions are right. Then I work really closely with my fabricators. Luckily, there’s a wealth of amazing ones here in LA. I meet with them, walk them through the drawings, the materials. I’m really involved in that process. With some of the things I’m doing, I’m sure they think I’m a little nuts.”
Everything starts with a sketch. “I keep a sketchbook on my nightstand. I really try to force myself to sketch something every night, even if it’s crap, just to get in the habit of that creative exercise.”
In her studio, a pin board plays host to an evolving miscellany of images, shapes, textures, and materials.
Pictures of furniture are conspicuously absent. “I try to put up images and materials that are going to encourage my brain to bounce around a bit creatively…I don’t want to feel like I’m being directly influenced by a piece. Rather, I’ll look at a texture or shape in an image I find inspiring and allow my brain to work over that concept and figure out how it can be applied to furniture or products.”
Ring’s polymer clay jewelry designs are named for their whimsical shapes (examples include Donut, Shoop, and Wiggle). “Clay is just easy,” she says. “You can work with it anywhere as long as you have a table. It’s fun and therapeutic, and really evokes that childlike sense of play.”
Ring’s first-ever product, the Aura mirrors, are now a staple of the Another Human collection. Each one-of-a-kind piece features a monolithic mirror set atop semi-precious stones. “I like creating tension between materials,” the designer says.
Ring’s lighthearted nature is evident in her work, workspace, and beyond. That unmistakable blue hair, once waist-length, is the most recent phase in a years-long journey that began at purple. (Next up: pink.)
We featured Wary Meyers' incredible trove of finds in our 2012 book Paper View, and we were delighted to see some of those items pop up in the house tour Curbed published this week, including the Alex Tavoularis painting Linda's parents picked up at a Florida estate sale and the abstract canvases John was creating at the time. We've been tracking their home — a 1960s-era ranch that was renovated in the '80s — on Instagram since the couple bought it three years ago, and these pictures show the space in its full glory.
Whither Johnson Trading Gallery? The New York design gallery — which in its heyday introduced an American audience to the work of contemporary designers like Max Lamb, Kwangho Lee, Katie Stout, Aranda/Lasch, and more (not to mention Rafael de Cárdenas's epic first furniture collection) — had been relatively quiet of late. Now we know why: Earlier this month, it was announced that while JTG will continue selling vintage work, the contemporary artists in their stable will be absorbed into a new program at one of our favorite art galleries, Salon 94.
If the weirdness of Ellen Degeneres starting her own Project Runway–style furniture-design reality show didn't fully strike me when I first heard about it, a couple of months back, it definitely hit home shortly after the show first aired on HGTV last Monday night, when I got the following text from my mom: Do you know any of the designers on Ellen's Design Challenge? The weirdest part of all, of course, was that I did: Katie Stout, one of Sight Unseen's inaugural American Design Hot List picks and the winner of our own erstwhile design competition (our 2013 pumpkin-carving contest), is one of the show's six contestants. After watching the first episode myself, in which Stout introduces mainstream America to the squiggly cabinet above, we knew we had to get the full story from the designer. “It was really surreal,” she says of the experience.
