These Ceramic Tiles Bring a Pop of Pastel to the Kitchen

A taste for sweets crosses cultures and geographic boundaries, a sort of universal language of desire and delight. So, it’s only appropriate that delectable pastries were the inspiration for Patisserie, a collection conceived by Bodin Hon and Dilara Kan Hon of Studio Yellowdot. The design duo, based in Hong Kong and Turkey, paid a visit to tile manufacturer Orhan Gorbon’s Istanbul workshop, where they were mesmerized by the production process…and reminded of a pastry kitchen. The playful shapes and pastel hues of donuts, eclairs, and biscuits became innovative dry-pressed ceramic tiles that bring sugary energy to actual kitchens worldwide. The three-dimensional tiles are handmade from pigmented and glazed clay—but look good enough to eat.

BZIPPY Introduces Tables, Planters, and Vases With a Twist

• 

• 

• 

11 Design Highlights from Collectible Brussels 2023

“There seems to be a strong need for positivity this year,” says Liv Vaisberg, cofounder of Collectible Brussels, the annual event for collectible design taking place in the Belgian capital. “We have noticed that galleries are bringing many playful and colorful objects,” adds fellow cofounder Clélie Debehault. The sixth edition, running March 9-12, 2023, will draw new and established galleries, architects, designers, and collectives to a new venue, filling the sheds of Tour & Taxis.

Among the notable objects on view is a hot pink table wearing high-heel shoes. “While it seems just pink, girly and playful, her work is also a criticism about the white cis-male gaze and dominance in the design canons,” notes Vaisberg.

New this year is a section dedicated to architects and designers and an exhibit focusing on historical pieces from the 1980’s and ’90’s.

From that shoe-sporting table to knitted coral-esque luminaires to a collection of chairs allowing everyone their own expression, here are 11 of our favorite finds.

Playful and Colorful Design at Collectible Brussels

1. Dining with Daisy Table #1 by Anna Aagaard Jensen for Etage Projects

Clearly a step into the right direction for any avant-garde interior, the hot pink Dining with Daisy Table #1 by Anna Aagaard Jensen—rendered in polyurethane foam, styrofoam, steel, fiberglas, and acrylic resin—has two high-heel shoes integrated into its base.

2. Knitted Light by Sangmin Oh

Drawing attention to threatened coral reefs and their precious ecosystems—dying out due to climate change—the Knitted Light collection by Sangmin Oh combines monofilaments with flexible elastic yarns for luminaires in cheerful colors and eclectic coral-like shapes.

3. Adige by Lætitia Jacquetton for Sinople

Half sculpture, half vase, Adige by Lætitia Jacquetton is a play on contrasts, pressing a round sensual form (transparent mouth-blown Murano glass) to rough stone (Italian marble).

4. Low by Benni Allan for Béton Brut

Designer Benni Allan’s deep dive into the sitting cultures of Japan, China, and southern Spain gave rise to the Low collection, made from solid British oak.

5. Oyster by Carla Baz for Galerie Philia

Carla Baz tapped artisans local to her Beirut studio for her brushed brass ceiling-mounted Oyster light.

6. Almost 100 Chairs by Isabella Lobkowicz

“Chairs can–and should!—fit the personalities who will actually occupy them,” says Isabella Lobkowicz, the designer behind the expansive Almost 100 Chairs collection.

7. Spooter Ghost by Kartini Thomas for Mia Karlova Galerie

A glazed stoneware vase with gold luster and teeth, Spooter Ghost “looks handsome from any angle,” says artist Kartini Thomas.

8. New Wave Bench by Lukas Cober for Objects with Narratives

Over time, sunlight will alter the pale green hue of the hand-shaped semi-transparent fiberglass and resin New Wave Bench by Lukas Cober. To achieve its satin gloss, a waxed finish was applied.

9. Banded Convex Fold V by Steven Edwards for Objects with Narratives

Stressed-out clay is the trick behind the unique form of the Banded Convex Fold V vase, notes artist Steven Edwards, who applies pushing, pulling, compressing, and slicing to white and colored parian porcelain.

10. Bell by Samuel Accoceberry for SB26

A nod to architecture or the Art Deco movement, the bronze, aluminum, and hot blued steel Bell vase by Samuel Accoceberry encloses a waterproof cylinder allowing display of fresh flowers.

11. Post by Noro Khachatryan for Galerie Vivid

With a quick flip, the white onyx Post is side table or pedestal. It’s included in a collection of sculptural furnishings by Noro Khachatryan.

6 Homeware Designers to Know 

Whimsy and color abound in these homeware selections ideal for gifting.

These Must-See Home Accents Double as Design-Minded Gifts 

Sarah Espeute Embroidered Tablecloths

Available exclusively on French designer Espeuete’s own website, these tablecloths and runners are carefully embroidered by hand in Marseille on vintage linens.  Their quirky depictions of plates, food, cutlery, and more “are the trompe-l’oeil of an imaginary meal, a dear moment engraved,” Espeute says. We love their gestural, Matisse-esque quality. No mass-production here, these are instant heirlooms.

Chell Fish Dishes

Follow @chell_fish_nyc (aka Michele Mirisola) on Instagram to be alerted to when and where the Brooklyn-based artist is dropping the next installment in her line of covetable limited-edition ceramic goods (they go quick!). Her whimsical blue-and-white dishes and platters incorporate real shells held together by an air-dry clay. Gouache paint and food-safe resin lend pattern and shine. Don’t delay: these wares are sure to become collectables.

Delphina Sculpture Candle from House of Léon

Based on the seminal work of Ojai sculptor Firoozeh Neman, Delphina is a candle that echoes the female form, it’s semi-abstracted curves available in a host of refined colors: ivory, beige, stone, olive green, and obsidian black. Prop one on a stack of books to instantly bring an artistic touch to any room.

Libby Haines Prints

Haines is an Australian artist who paints color as feeling, her oils on canvas inspired by both her creative grandmother and greats such as Mark Rothko and Helen Frankenthaler. Working with warm and vivid tones and drawing on her experience of motherhood in Melbourne, Haines homes in on small domestic moments, creating vibrant still life art. Alongside her originals she sells prints of each work: all hand signed and numbered.

Scallop Linen Napkins by Matilda Goad

Dot Vase by Maison Balzac at Coming Soon

This New Lamp Collection Recalls Otherworldly Balloons With Encrypted Messages

Inspired by NASA parachutes, Bec Brittain’s Paraciphers collection recalls otherworldly balloons, with messages of equality encrypted in the geometric panels.

• 

• 

Malcolm 1, James 1, Angela 1, and Florence 1 lamps, ranging from 6 to 8 feet tall, each with a lacquered, cast-aluminum on poplar base, LED, fan, gold fittings, and ripstop-nylon shade, by Bec Brittain, through Emma Scully Gallery.

8 Imaginative Home Accessories and Furnishings by Top Designers

Jean-Baptiste Anotin gives a new meaning to “car seat,” and one-of-a-kind customizable light fixtures play with primary colors. Ring in the new year with these inventive home accessories and furnishings by top designers, including bowls inspired by Isamu Noguchi’s ashtray series.

8 Home Decor Accessories 

Ontwerp Onbekend by Vera Meijwaard and Steven Visser of Visser & Meijwaard

Investigations into corrugated sheet materials by the cofounders of the Dutch studio sparked a colorful series of blown-glass vases, their juicy rippled forms the result of being shaped in modular molds.

Table Basse by Maxime Lis of Manip

Mono-materiality and user interaction are the concepts that drove the Paris designer’s elemental table, created from a single scored sheet of anodized aluminum that ships flat for the recipient to bend into 3-D form.

Shou Sugi Ban by Anna Aristova and Roza Gazarian of A Space

An ashtray series by Isamu Noguchi that played with positive and negative space inspired the New York designers’ limited-edition bowls, hand-carved from salvaged Lebanese cedar and treated to the titular Japanese charring treatment.

Ert by Guglielmo Giagnotti and Patrizio Gola of Studioutte

The chair, in gloss-lacquered plywood, by the Milanese talents, is a tribute to the De Stijl movement and produced in a limited edition, its assertive geometric silhouette fabri­cated from seven conjoined planks.

No Seat Belt Required by Jean-Baptiste Anotin of Waiting For Ideas

A rectilinear aluminum base curiously supports a curvaceous chrome-painted seat (that looks machined but is in fact handmade) in the designer’s tribute to the Paris car shop his great-grandfather founded.

Loop by Paula Terra Bosch of Köllen Design

The young Spaniard leveraged a Kickstarter campaign to produce her adjustable floor- or wall-mounted coatrack, its rotating wood units and interstitial metal hooks twisting independently of one another.

Glyph by Kwangho Lee for Hem

The South Korean designer joins the brand’s expanding inter­national lineup, proffering this flexible side table that can stand upright or on its side; originally crafted of bronze, it’s now produced in sturdy powder-coated sheet steel.

Modular Ceramic Lamps by Adélie Ducasse of Adélie Ducasse Lighting

Customize color and form to create a one-of-a-kind sculptural light fixture, handmade in Italy to order (in under 6 weeks) or go with the Paris artist’s suggested shapes and pre­ferred primary palette.

Saba Yazdjerdi Explores an Ancient Martial Art in Her Debut Furniture Collection

• 

• 

8 Stylish Home Furnishings and Accents Made in New York

Out with the old and in with the new—these stylish home furnishings and accents made in New York double as conversation starters, from a mirror that looks like an open window to an LED-lit botanical-shaped fixture.

Explore New York-made product designs

Portal by Ginger Gordon for Hello Human

The recent RISD grad and current Brooklynite debuts a screen of hand-carved ash and steel with stained-glass inlays inspired by the windows and cast-iron gates of Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d’Orléans.

Blind by Danny Giannella, Jeffrey Renz, and Tammer Hijazi of Bower Studios

Available with colored or clear glass, this multipaned mirror by the Greenpoint-based trio gives the optical illusion of gazing through an open window partially obscured by blinds.

Hew by Pat Kim for DWR

Could Red Hook be Brooklyn’s center of design? Possibly. Witness the Van Dyke Street–based designer’s off-kilter side table—a DWR exclusive and best-seller—that now comes in terrazzo.

Drum by Mark and Maggie de la Vega of De La Vega Designs

Congratulations are in order: One of a slew of new pieces from another Red Hook studio, this side table, available in an array of translucent cast acrylics including Amber, celebrates the duo’s 10th anniversary.

Nana Lure by Jean and Oliver Pelle for Pelle

Cast-cotton paper, leather, and patinated steel, sculpted and hand-painted in the couple’s Brooklyn studio, form an LED-lit botanical illustration of a banana leaf come to life as a pendant fixture.

Reflection by Aimée Wilder of Shadow Wildling

Limited-edition silk-screened canvases, 4 feet wide and up to 67 inches tall, mark the Williamsburg-based textile designer’s fine art debut exploring tessellation, color theory, and more.

Boden by David Weeks for Roll & Hill

The collaboration between the Brooklyn design studio and the Manhattan maker-manufacturer yields a brushed-brass table lamp with a refined aluminum shade that rotates a useful 330 degrees.

Vol de Nuit by Gordon Harrison Hull for Eskayel

Wallpaper or linen fabric in five colorways, including Multi, showcase the New York–based creative director’s “lo-fi magic” artwork featuring a mélange of characters, places, and text.

10 Questions With… Casey Zablocki

Zablocki shares insights on his craft as well as his solo show, which runs through November 26, 2022.

Interior Design: Tell us about working with an ancient anagama kiln, which works differently than a wood-fueled kiln, from your first trial to how you’ve developed a relationship with the enduring process?

Casey Zablocki: The relationship is intense. With a wood-fueled kiln, I have to fire for about eight days, 24 hours a day, non stop. We use about 10 cords of wood in two different types, fir wood and cottonwood, which both give different effects. Cotton is high in potassium, which is ideal for glazing. In Montana, we don’t have hardwoods and I have to use what’s native to the land. Fir is a little denser, ideal for coal beds. I have a crew of around 14 people to fire with, and we fly around the clock. In anagama, the fire is in front of the kiln and the chimney pulls the flame and ash through, causing that ash land on top of my work to create the glaze from melting at high temperature. I control the atmosphere on the way up, so I tend to fire in a neutral carbon atmosphere on the way up and cold for two and a half days at around 200 to 250 degrees. In that stage, I start melting the ash in the work. 

ID: You commit to a physical affair, almost like a ritual. Could you walk us through the basic elements?

CZ: I use a big shovel to push coals on there to create different effects and variations in color. This process is similar to painting, but I don’t have control, except some of the atmosphere. I have to let go and let the kiln do its work. I cool the kiln in a neutral carbon-filled atmosphere to down to about 1600 degrees. As I cool the kiln, I build crystals on top of the glaze. Instead of a clear shining glaze, I have a matte glaze with crystals, which also adds a layer of surface and color to my work. I never really know what’s going on inside the kiln, or what’s going to come out until we open the kiln and hope that it cooperates with me. Think of a little dance or a relationship in which both parties have to trust each other. There is also listening, certain sounds that come from the kiln as well as certain smells that tell me what’s happening inside. If you’re not smelling any carbon, you’re probably burning pretty clean, but if you smell carbon, it is dirt and you’re in a carbon-filled atmosphere. When you throw wood in the kiln when it’s really hot and firing really nice, it sounds like you’re throwing wood onto glass with a melody to it. The relationship is always changing, depending on the mountainside where the wood comes from, as well as the people I fire with, or the surrounding climate.

ID: How about the work’s timeless effect? The stoneware sculptures look archaic, even excavated from another era, but also contemporary and sleek.

CZ: I take inspiration from the modern world we live in but also sculpt and fire with traditions in mind. I try to add effects of being buried, sunken, even destroyed through sculpting, aging, and firing processes. Sculpting helps to create a sense of past, aging beauty in this modern world where we want things to stay new and young forever. However, as we grow we become like sculptures: things happen to us good or bad, trauma or happiness, and I see similarly for my work. 

ID: How about your idea of collaboration? You work with many people in your studio—how is the distribution of tasks?

CZ: I work solo in my studio right now. My crew comes up to make their own work, but I create my work solo at the moment. After this year, I will start hiring people again. Working with a team creates its own rhythm. I have to sketch everything out and make plans for them to build, and then I sculpt. This process creates opportunities for exploration into other paths. Now though, I have my sketchbook; I start making the work; and that piece leads to another piece. I haven’t been collaborating much since COVID hit. I hunkered down into the studio with 5,000 pounds of clay, and I had fir wood firing already lined up. We fire outside anyway so when COVID first happened, I got a small crew together to fire the kiln. This felt like going back to my old roots.

ID: Could you talk about the alchemist aspect of your practice? Mixing wood, ash, clay, fire, all sounds like an experiment of alchemy as these materials evolve out of your control with their own chemical characteristics?

CZ: Clay at 1,200 degrees is not ceramics yet—at that point, it goes through force inversion and we put it into a reduction. The fires looks for oxygen and starts pulling things out of the clay body to create colors. So I get oranges, whites, and peachy colors. If we don’t fire in the reduction atmosphere but rather an oxidation atmosphere, we tend to have really light whites and lush peaches. I prefer heavier oranges, amber and darker colors in general. Also, in my clay body, I use solar feldspars which flux at lower temperatures. Over the years, I’ve developed probably 30-40 to clay bodies. 

A large portion of my work has glaze dripping down. When you hold a high temperature, the ash eats the clay body to get into the surface. If I just shut down, I’d have shiny transparent-looking drips on there. Cooling the kiln creates crystal growths. If I didn’t cool the kiln, you would be seeing a very shiny glaze, but I prefer the darker almost a little pink lavender color.

ID: How do you maneuver around the concept of sculpture while creating utilitarian objects?

CZ: I went into furniture for the idea of creating a relationship with the viewer through form of function. I started out as a potter many years ago, and I always liked the idea of people eating or drinking from my art, because it is a form of relationship. Furniture came out of a search to scale up that relationship. After focusing on just making furniture for a long time, I started feeling that my furniture was getting a little away from sculpture and more into function. Now I see it shifting back more towards the sculptural realm.