Tureens, Totems, & Tables: What’s Next for Workaday Handmade

When we think of ceramicists at work, we often conjure romantic visions of noble artisans wearing clay-streaked aprons and strenuously channeling their artistic magic behind a potter’s wheel. Which is mostly true, to a point, and yet — what happens once that noble artisan also has to figure out how to run a thriving, growing business? To find out, we visited the Brooklyn studio of the hugely successful Forrest Lewinger (aka Workaday Handmade) with photographer Paul Barbera.
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Affordable Art Prints by Alma Charry

New Affordable Art Prints by Parisian Illustrator Alma Charry

Ever since we pulled together our first styling gig late last summer, we've been obsessed with the most niggling aspect of the whole process, which was where we could find pretty but affordable art (and amazing patterned rugs, but that's another day and another post). So we were happy to get news this week that one of our favorite illustrators — the young Parisian graphic artist Alma Charry, who we featured around this time last year — has not one but two new outlets from which to purchase her work.
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Hunting & Narud Studio Visit

Hunting & Narud Are Rewriting the Rules of Scandinavian Design

Originally from Norway, Amy Hunting and Oscar Narud both completed design education abroad — Hunting at the prestigious Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK) in Copenhagen and Narud at the RCA in London — but the design heritage of their home country remains an important theme in their work. "There's obviously this romanticized cliché of Scandinavian style but a lot of young designers are now trying to push back," says Narud when we talk about their aspiration to reinterpret the stereotypical notions of a Nordic aesthetic. "Scandinavian design is redefining itself with our generation. We all struggle with the weight of the heritage, but there's a lot of stuff happening now."
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7 Design Insiders On Their 2015 Faves … And What’s Coming Up Next

We come here every day to tell you about our favorite things — so for our last round-up of 2015, it seemed only fair that we spread the love! We asked seven of our favorite design insiders to reflect on their best design moments of the past year — an experience they had, an exhibition they saw, a discovery they made, an interior they fell in love with — as well as offer the one thing they're most looking forward to in 2016. Enjoy, and see you back here next Monday!
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The I’m Revolting Stone Show at Kiosk

A few weeks ago, I got an email from our friend Su Wu at I’m Revolting, asking if I’d be part of a show she was putting together for Kiosk. “Will you send me a stone?” she asked. “The show is of rocks; everybody loves looking at rocks! Me too: you know I move slowly on beaches. It can be a pebble from your morning walk or a pretty specimen, craggy or river-smooth, petrified, funny holes.” As someone whose daily routine hardly deviates from a straight line through the East Village, I didn’t have anything particularly suitable. But starting this week at Kiosk (and on Instagram at #stoneshow) you can find out who did. The results were delightfully inventive and weird: Albert Chu from OTAAT sent hot-pink Pop Rocks; Doug Johnston sent a solid piece of aluminum made from melted beer cans that people had thrown into a campfire; and Bari Ziperstein’s rock crystal, which dissolves in water, can only be cleaned with smelly vats of brine. Some of them were also surprisingly moving: “Lauren Ardis found her rock in Bolinas; it has a heart shaped indent in the back,” Wu says. “She used to make fun of her mom for collecting heart-shaped rocks; now, she laughs about getting more sentimental with age.” The rocks will be exhibited at Kiosk’s new location at 540 LaGuardia Place and placed at the base of a tree outside the shop when the exhibition ends. Here’s a snapshot of the submissions.
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top interior pins

10 Interiors That Killed It on Pinterest in 2015

This week we'll be reflecting back on your 2015 favorites — the top ten stories you loved, the images you pinned, the Instagrams you thought were 100 (double underscore!). Today we're reviewing the 10 most popular interiors we pinned on Pinterest this year — enjoy our look back, and see you back here in 2016!
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The 10 Instagrams That Made You #OMG in 2015

This week we'll be reflecting back on your favorites — the top ten stories you loved, the images you pinned, the Instagrams you thought were 100 (double underscore!). Today we're reviewing our top ten most popular Instagram posts of 2015 — enjoy our look back this week, and see you back here in 2016!
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Our Most Popular Posts of 2015

This week we'll be reflecting back on your favorites — the top ten stories you loved, the images you pinned, the Instagrams you thought were 100 (double underscore!). Today we're starting with our top ten most popular posts of 2015 — enjoy our look back this week, and see you back here in 2016!
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The Collage-Like Paintings of L.A. Artist Ramsey Dau

The elements of Los Angeles-based Ramsey Dau's artworks look like they've been torn from old encyclopedias, or found in a utility drawer, or cut from Memphis material libraries, then assembled into collages that blend the modern and the primitive. But sometimes looks can be deceiving.
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Note Design Studio Stockholm Interior

The Color Palette of This Stockholm Interior Is Just. So. Right.

This 2,000 square-foot apartment renovation in Stockholm by Note Design Studio — which we spotted on Yatzer yesterday — features sloped double-height ceilings, skylights, sleek built-in storage, and harmonic geometries at every turn. But for us, it's really all about one thing: the drop-dead gorgeous color palette.
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Bryan Metzdorf’s Sunday Morning Sketches

If you're a creative who's ever had a day job, you will no doubt understand the plight of Bryan Metzdorf, the full-time Urban Outfitters set-builder who, despite also doing freelance projects on the side for brands like Areaware and The Greats, still can't help but spend his Sundays at home working — on the weekly collage series he posts on Instagram with the hashtag "#sundaymorningsketches."
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Canadian furniture designer Thom Fougere

A Canadian Furniture Designer Strikes Out On His Own

At the age of just 24, having just graduated from architecture school, the Winnipeg–based designer Thom Fougere became the creative director of EQ3 (which is something like the Canadian version of Room & Board). Now, just five years later, Fougere has opened up his own shop as well.
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