Monika Patuszynska has been working in porcelain ceramics for over ten years now. A Polish artist, she has begun experimenting with the timeline of her process; namely, working backwards for form. Instead of beginning with casting and molding, she’s leaving that as one of the last acts. In her latest line, Transformy, you can see that Patuszynska has created something entirely new and exciting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it and I surely have never posted about ceramics – it usually doesn’t make my head turn like this has.
Patuszynska, after many years of creating sleekly functional pieces (that you might find at an upscale retail store in Helsinki, maybe?) has decided to embrace the jagged imperfections of the unknown. It looks natural, like eroding caverns, evokes time and history in one bowl. I really like exploring her work on her site – to see how far she’s come from simpler bowls and plates. It’s exciting to see the progression. Perhaps it’s not the ideal tea time mug, but isn’t it a hell of a lot more interesting than that?
Ok. Remember when you got all excited because you assembled that Ikea computer desk without having any leftover pieces lying around when you were finished. Yea, Kagen Schafer would have made an MC Escher-esque sculpture out of your Ikea parts and had it sing romantic Portuguese lovesongs to you.
Schafer creates furniture, boxes and other curious devices, all of which have some kind of puzzle twist that, when solved, allow secret compartments to open. For example, the Lotus Table has a surface with 10 concentric rings of inlaid wood, that when twisted into certain combinations and patterns, allow one of the six compartments below to become unlocked.
Another recent creation, the Pipe Organ Desk, is quite a curious piece of furniture. Each of its drawers are connected to a different note of a full octave pipe organ. When you close a drawer, the air is directed into one of the pipes and it creates the sound. The entire thing, down to every single screw, is completely fashioned by hand out of wood. Now that would be pretty damn cool in its own right, but of course, here comes the twist. Inside of that desk is what Schafer calls a pneumatic logic board which allows the desk to remember the pattern of notes you’ve played. If you play the right jingle in the right pattern, a secret compartment unlocks. You can even adjust the logic board to allow a custom tune to be used to open it up.
Seriously, take a few minutes to poke around his site.
Goddamn, I love Faile. They’ve done it again with a collection of screen-printed wood puzzle blocks that come in a handy, not to mention, ridiculously sick looking case. It’s kind of the ultimate in art meets art lover collaboration. Each puzzle has 3 original Faile designs, but as they say themselves, “in your hands, the real number is infinite. Just swap, flip, and rotate the blocks to juxtapose the imagery and create new compositions. Or, simply have fun solving the puzzle.”
I love it. So how much does it cost? Oh, $15,000.00? Coooooooool.
Thank you, Faile, for at least making an interactive website where I can enjoy the puzzles for free.
Recent graduate of Carnegie Mellon, Josh Finkle knows his way around the woodshop.
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Grycja Erde is an amazing artist/furniture designer from the Ukraine. I love the quirkiness and the mood she establishes in each of her pieces. I’m always really blown away by designers that can work well in both 2-D and 3-D, and I think it’s really interesting to see Grycja’s style carried out in different forms.
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So, apparently I have too much time on my hands. But that also means that I get to find new things to be obsessed with, and bring them to you, so you can love them too, or just like them.
1. Graphic Exchange
The blog of Fabien Barral, showcasing inspirations and favorite design work. I could spend forever looking through the archives here, and I almost did.
More things I love after the jump!
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A few custom lampshades reinvented using vintage wallpapers. Oversized=yes. Color schmorgazbord=yes.
Via When in Doubt Draw Flowers‘ Flickr.
Raleigh artist Casey Marie has made it all the way to the semi-finals of Apartment Therapy’s Small Cool 2009 contest. Show some support and help vote her through to the finals.
I think I could make do with 565 square feet too, if I could spend my afternoons sitting on that couch.
Oh yeah, my good friend Rebecca Necessary is responsible for all of the beautiful photos.
