5
34
56
exploring the potential of copper in design world
issue 10 June 10www.copperindesign.org
copperindesign
7
3
5
Spun Chair
Handle Calvet
Faraway
furnishing
Ice Ball Machine
Plastic Underpantsart
bathroom
objects
furnishing
8
9
10
11
12
www.copperdesign.org is a meeting space for contemporary designers and their followers. This in-ternational platform provides a comprehensive source of information on the crafting of the red metal: copper creations, first-hand accounts from designers, exhibitions, competitions and many others. The website is aimed at creators, design professionals, journalists and all copper-loving netsurfers, offering them an invitation to (re)discover this material whose natural properties have established it over the past few years as an essential feature of the design scene.Sponsor: European Copper Institute www.eurocopper.org
Chitai Collection
Liquid
Vauxhall Collective
objects
bathroom
art
objects
objects
The Bricoleur
Hotpot
3
Thomas HeatherwickSpun Chair
British designer Thomas Heatherwick recently launched a chair shaped like a spinning top made of spun steel and copper. The Spun Chair - produced for London gallery Haunch of Venison - looks formally similar to Heatherwick’s rotation-moulded plastic chair for Magis that was launched during the last Milan Furniture Fair. Spun came out of research into the geometric simplification of a familiar object type. Developed through full size test pieces an ergonomic was established where seat, back and arms were all the same profile. The result is not immediately apparent as a chair, and when upright looks more like a sculptural vessel. When lent on its side, it forms a comfortable and functional chair that the sitter can rock from side to side in, or even spin round in a complete circle.In October 2009, a series of pieces were produced using the craft of large-scale metal spinning, traditionally used to make objects such as Timpani drums. The chairs are handmade by pressing sheets of copper against a rotating cast iron form using a paddle.
furniture
Designed by the Spanish master Antonio Gaudí in 1906 for the ground floor offices of Casa Calvet in Barcelona, these handles are made in solid cast brass with polished finish. The collection has been developed by the local design firm Bd Ediciones, a company that has always attributed major importance to the author of the designs and never forgets history’s great figures. That is why the Bd catalogue of contemporary creations has always included those by admired classical masters. Antoni Gaudí is the most internationally well-known Spanish architect. His integrated conception of architecture led him to pay attention not only to structural calculations, but also to all the decorative elements, including furniture, that would form part of the building. The admiration felt by modern designers for the furniture designed by Gaudí has not gone unnoticed by Bd, which was the first company to rescue them from history by embarking on their serial production using traditional art and craft techniques and the same materials in order to reproduce all the rich detail displayed by the originals when they were first produced.
4
Antoni GaudìHandle Calvet
furnishing
Faraway is a new collection of taps and bathroom accessories by the Italian design duo Roberto and Ludovica Palomba for the Italian firm Zucchetti. The project focuses on the relationship between the verticality of the body and the softness of the edge-radius joint. A solid base, an elongated rectangular stem, the special angle that allows the spout to generate a carefully studied jet of water: a cascade whose form - far from being casual - is the iconographic representation of a natural spring. The main parts of the collection, as handles and bodies, are made of solid brass. Other components are made of corrosion and scaling-resistant material.
5
Roberto & Ludovica PalombaFaraway
bathroom
Toronto artist Lynn Jackson calls on old photographs, her mother’s recollections and her own childhood memories to provide much of the inspiration for her prize-winning sculptures. Using textile techniques taught to her by her mother many years ago, coupled with her experience of goldsmithing and costume design, Lynn knits copper wire which, for some works, she combines with felted and dyed wool to meticulously recreate the birthday dresses, nightgowns, bonnets and booties she wore as a little girl. From recreating her childhood clothing it was a natural progression to the toys she played with and, working in her studio in downtown Toronto, she has used the same methods to produce intricately detailed sculptures of Tabitha Twitchit, Peter Rabbit, the Mopsey Bunnies, Raggedy Anne and other friends from her childhood. Although the work is nostalgically evocative, the appearance of fragility is deceptive, and her technique has won her awards at the Sculptors’ Society of Canada and at the Toronto Outdoor Art Show, while winning critics’ acclaim at exhibitions across Canada.
6
Lynn JacksonPlastic Underpants
art
Beverage purists argue that ice should never be introduced to a quality Scotch whiskey. Such thinking rests on the theory that when holding a glass, your body heat will melt the ice, resulting in a diluted spirit and sub-par drinking experience.In order to make a Scotch cold without diluting it, Scottish whiskey purveyors The Macallan created a clever ice ball maker. The machine creates a ball of ice precisely sized to fit into an average tumbler. The spherical nature slows the melting process making it less susceptible to hand warmth, preserving the li-quor while keeping it refreshingly cool.In addition to being practical, the machine is notewor-thy as an artifact unto itself. Inspired by Japanese bar-tenders who hand carve their ice balls, the machine uses two heavy copper plates while gravity slowly presses blocks of ice into perfectly spherical shapes. Watching it at work is almost as enjoyable as drinking the scotch, but not quite.
7
Macallan DesignIce Ball Machine
objects
Making beautiful objects is certainly a high-priority objective for the design industry but even more, it is necessary and inherent in the DNA of whoever takes on design as a mission to discover new talents and give them a strong and autonomous voice. At a time of total standardisation such as this, Italian firm Driade reasserts its respect for this founding idea. Mann Singh, a young designer from India, recently developed for Driade a new collection of fruit bowls, concentrating not on generic internationalist-style design, but rather on his far-off and ancient land to rediscover its forms and materials, and consequently its rituals and customs. The young Mann Singh shows a different world of non globalised design: silvered baskets like interwoven branches, bowls made of stiffened leaves to be raised in the palms of one’s hands in sacred gestures. Finally, there is another beautiful series of shallow or deep bowls in brass or nickel, where the openwork foliage eats into the continuity of the bowl, expressing the transformation of matter, and the victory of nature over geometry.
8
Mann SinghChitai Collection
objects
Italian architect and designer Piero Lissoni has designed a new family of taps for the well renowed brand Boffi Bagno.The bathroom tap range is integrated with the introduction of new exclusive technical solutions. The main characteristics of this collection are the mixer on top, separated from the spout, the new mixing and temperature regulation in the built-in thermostatic tap, the resistant and perfect insertion of the spout and, not least importantly, the parallel knob levers in the 3-holed tap. All products are produced in brass with a polished chrome finish.
9
Piero LissoniLiquid
bathroom
Ricky Swallow is a young Australian sculptor who lives and works in Los Angeles. He creates painstakingly detailed pieces and installations in a variety of media, often utilising objects of everyday life as well as the body. Swallow is well-known for his careful craftsmanship and conceptual ideas in his works in relation to contemporary society. His works are described as models, miniatures, replicas, copies, dioramas, homages, mementos, monuments and simulacra.An absolutely wonderful collection of sculptural and watercolour works by this Australian artist was recently organized at The Ian Potter Centre in Victoria, Australia.Using bronzes such as human skeletons, skulls, balloons encrusted with barnacles, dead animals and pseudo death masks that address issues of materials and memory, time and space, discontinuity and death Swallow’s sculptures are finely made. The craftsmanship is superb, the attention to detail magnificent and there is a feeling of almost obsessional perfectionism to the pieces.
10
Ricky SwallowThe Bricoleur
art
Simon Hasan, one of the UK’s most promising designers, completes his Vauxhall Collective commission, capturing the lost crafts of Britain. Hasan combines ancient craft techniques with industrial design language to create a unique range of design pieces.Commissioned by Vauxhall Motors to create a series of products in the craft and design category under the theme of The Great British Road Trip, Simon Hasan took to the open road in a Vauxhall Astra to delve into the lost craft techniques unique to the British Isles.Comprising three distinct designs, Hasan’s fascination with obscure and ancient craft techniques comes to the fore with a stunning collection. A set of three beautifully crafted stoneware vases, with upper sections of cast iron, brass or bronze, echo the distinctive beer flagons once so widely used across the UK and now an extinct part of its rural and urban past. Each vase has a corresponding decorative tag inspired by the humble horse-brass.
11
Simon Hasan Vauxhall Collective
objects
Hotpot is the mobile fireplace for the table or sideboard, indoors or outdoors, produced by Conmoto. The fireplace is available in a range of finishes, in brass and steel. It is perfect for a wide variety of ambiances and settings, and is also suitable for group use.Conmoto’s modern and contemporary design bio-alcohol stoves require no chimney or flue connection, making them ideal for interior city living, or alternatively out in the garden where a real flame becomes a focal point for an evening outdoors, with no complications. The height of the flame can be adjusted by opening or closing the doors of the bio-alcohol burning chamber. Ethanol bio-alcohol produces a beautiful and long-lasting, yellowish-red flame, and no additives and is odourless.Bio-fuel stoves are portable, and suitable for both exterior and interior use. Instantly recognisable as a portable device, the travelmate automatically conveys the notion that it is not bound to one place.Dots modern design bio-fuel fireplace becomes a piece of furniture with its accompanying seat dots, again suitable for exterior or interior use.
12
Studio VertijetHotpot
objects
