10.05.15

Studio Visit

Los Angeles Textile Artist Rachel Duvall

Since moving to Los Angeles five years ago, the artist Rachel Duvall has been refining an almost scientific approach to handweaving, based as much in foundational considerations like hue and line as in methodical chemical experimentation. She uses only natural dyes and modifiers such as copper and iron to “investigate the subtlety of colors,” she says, though the range she achieves — including a bright neon yellow and purple from fermented lichen she collects herself and then brews in her backyard — is striking.
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10.02.15

Sighted

OTTO Objects by Roula Nassar

Nassar runs the Brooklyn studio OTTO, through which the erstwhile fashion student and ever-curious autodidact became known primarily for her art books and artisanal knitwear — the items that caught our eye back when we first featured her last February — before turning her hand to the vessels featured here, partly because of their appeal as a consummate blank canvas.
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SARKOS' hand-painted wallpaper
09.30.15

Up and Coming

SARKOS, a Brooklyn Wallpaper Company

One of the primary objectives of Sight Unseen OFFSITE has always been to feature up-and-coming designers who are experimenting with materials and processes in interesting, and often very personal, ways. So we were delighted earlier this year to welcome Stephanie Dedes Reimers’s just-launched wallpaper company SARKOS to our line-up. SARKOS — whose name translates from an Ancient Greek word for the tactile sense of our earthly spirit — mixes deeply personal inspiration with fine art, hand-painting techniques, creating a line of papers that are muted and highly individual.
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09.29.15

Fair Report

At the 2015 London Design Festival

In terms of sheer distance traversed, if not content, LDF now stands nearly on par with the Milan fair. But these days it’s also becoming equally vital as a destination for open design debate, with a strong manufacturing voice represented and a buffet of ambitious installations on offer. Guide in hand, we hit the mean – but thankfully sunny – streets of London to choose our favorites from this year’s show.
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09.28.15

Q+A

Laura Houseley on Ready Made Go at the London Design Festival

Last week's London Design Festival included plenty of beautiful objects thoughtfully displayed on pedestals or on gallery walls. But possibly even more compelling was the setup at the Ace Hotel's Ready Made Go exhibition, curated by Laura Houseley of Modern Design Review magazine, where visitors could experience a handful of new designs by local up-and-comers actually put to work in their intended habitat.
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07.30.13

Sighted

Ben Medansky Studio Visit on Los Angeles, I’m Yours

It's a quiet summer week here at Sight Unseen HQ. August is approaching, we're spending more and more weekends out of the city, and the time in between them is becoming increasingly shorter and less productive. But that doesn't mean we don't know from hard work — we've spent the last four years pouring inordinate amounts of time and effort into the stories on this site, and so we're all the more sympathetic when we see other blogs doing the same. Case in point: the ridiculously extensive, print mag–worthy interview with ceramicist Ben Medansky we spotted recently on the blog Los Angeles, I'm Yours, a city-centric cultural resource founded in 2011 by The Fox Is Black's Bobby Solomon with editor Kyle Fitzpatrick. We've excerpted part of it here, along with a selection of the accompanying studio photos.
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09.26.15

Saturday Selects

Week of September 20, 2015

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: Photographs that make us scratch our heads (like the one above by photographer/architect Erin O'Keefe), a colorful Baggu x New Friends collab, and a bunch of fall art exhibitions.
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09.25.15

Shopping

Top 5: Mobiles

A periodic nod to object typologies both obscure and ubiquitous, featuring five of our favorite recent examples. Today, we're turning our attention to a perennial favorite subject: mobiles! (And for those in small spaces, don't worry — these beauties will look as good hanging against a wall as they do in mid-air.)
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09.24.15

Q+A

David Haskell on His Psychotic Plants Show at Coming Soon

New York-based editor and Kings County Distillery co-founder David Haskell has been collecting cacti and other succulents in his spare time for the past decade, and he’s also spent his Tuesday nights over the last two years cultivating his skills as a budding ceramicist. In search of the perfect pots for his handpicked plants, Haskell linked his two passions, the results of which are on view at “Psychotic Plants,” opening tonight at Coming Soon.
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09.24.15

Up and Coming

Norwegian Product Designers Gunzler Polmar

Gunzler Polmar, led by ceramicist Victoria Gunzler and furniture designer Sara Wright Polmar, haven't churned out a ton of work just yet, but the projects they have designed — including their new textile series launched this week at 100% Norway in London — display an eye for form, proportion, and material that certainly merits further attention.
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09.22.15

Up and Coming

Norwegian Product Designers Stokke Austad

It's a bit strange to call Stokke Austad Up and Coming, especially since their current project list includes the interior design for a major new wing of Oslo's airport. But this week we're spotlighting three of our favorite studios presenting new work at this year's edition of 100% Norway at the London Design Festival, and we'd be remiss if we didn't include them in that list.
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09.22.15

Sighted

Tetra, A Designer Smoking Accessories Shop

Launched yesterday, Tetra is the first shop devoted entirely to beautiful smoking accessories like lighters, ashtrays, and incense burners — objects that have either have never before been aggregated in one place, or, more often, have been neglected by design entirely. Marianne Brandt, Enzo Mari, and Dieter Rams created incredibly sleek smoking accoutrements for the home in the '50s and '60s, and Tetra's intent is to revive that tradition in a contemporary way.
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09.21.15

Up and Coming

Norwegian Furniture Designer Silje Nesdal

This week we're showcasing three Norwegian studios showing new work as part of this year's 100% Norway at the London Design Festival. First up is Silje Nesdal, who began her career with a short stint in fashion and textiles, then incorporated those skills into a furniture practice, creating objects that are functional and honest in their construction.
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