All that is broken is not lost!

FRAGILE Salt & Pepper Shaker 

This elegant sculpture is a ceramic salt and pepper shaker that comes in one piece and only by breaking it, you turn it into a useful product. The action of breaking leaves its mark on the shaker and you create your own, unique piece. It is very easy, and also very exciting!

The FRAGILE salt & pepper shaker is manufactured by StudioKahn in their small studio in Jerusalem. It was the first prize winner of Designboom's "dining in 2015" competition, competing against 5000 designers!

Mey and Boaz Kahn were born in Israel and live in Jerusalem. They met during their studies at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem and got married after their second year. “Fragile” was the first project they were working on together.  They manufacture most of their products in-house in their studio and develop them through a process that begins with a practical research of the materials.

'Design, for us, is a field that lay on the border of art. We don’t believe that all of the products should be designed with the purpose to make our life easier or more comfortable. We want our design to surround its users with stories and emotions, hope and fantasies, questions and fairy tales. We believe that good design must reveal cultural issues and ask questions about our way of living.'

It's the Little Things that count

People so often are obsessed with size, the bigger the better, that they often overlook the importance of little things.

Pictured above are the first prototypes that I am developing as a project to help people living with HIV to create means of an income. Living in a country with the highest rate of HIV infections in the world, we are all in daily contact with people living with the virus. Although the public health care dispense free anti-retroviral medication, people still need to maintain a healthy diet to ensure their wellbeing.

These ceramic components will end up in pieces of jewellery, and will teach people a variety of skills, from making the various components to assembling (using traditional skills like beading) to eventually selling the product to both the formal and informal markets.

By owning one or more of these beautiful pieces, you will also contribute to empowering people to support themselves and their families. Follow this blog for images of finished pieces. Inquire about owning a piece or to buy a range at wholesale prices.

People that inspire me - Marc Newson

Felt chair by Marc Newson

Marc Newson is the most acclaimed and influential designer of his generation. He has worked across a wide range of disciplines, creating everything from furniture and household objects, to bicycles and cars, private and commercial aircraft, yachts, various architectural commissions, and signature sculptural pieces for clients across the globe.

Born in Sydney, Newson spent much of his childhood travelling in Europe and Asia. He started experimenting with furniture design as a student and, after graduation, was awarded a grant from the Australian Crafts Council with which he staged his first exhibition - featuring the Lockheed Lounge - a piece that has now, twenty years later, set three consecutive world records at auction.

Newson has lived and worked in Tokyo, Paris, and London where he is now based, and he continues to travel widely. His clients include a broad range of the best known and most prestigious brands in the world - from manufacturing and technology to transportation, fashion and the luxury goods sector. Many of his designs have been a runaway success for his clients and have achieved the status of modern design icons. Marc Newson was included in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, has received numerous awards and distinctions; he was appointed The Royal Designer for Industry in the UK, awarded an honorary doctorate from Sydney University, and holds Adjunct Professorships at Sydney College of the Arts and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

His work is present in many major museum collections, including the MoMA in New York, London’s Design Museum and V&A, the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Vitra Design Museum. Having set numerous records at auction, Newson’s work now accounts for almost 25% of the total contemporary design market.

The Zvezdochka shoes for Nike is one of my prized possessions. It is the most I have ever spent on a pair of shoes and I wear it whenever I need to reward myself.

Under the Hammer

A porcelain tile with gold luster detail 580 x 580mm by Esias Bosch(1923 - 2010) recently sold on auction for ZAR 18 000

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We will remember them

Sometimes we have to face reality, however hard it may be. For World Aids Day on 1 December 2010 I would like to pay tribute to people that somehow or another touched my life. Some I have known personally, others were an inspiration to me, and your legacy will always remain with me.

Sadly the ceramic world have lost many great talented people to HIV and AIDS.  Their untimely deaths left us with a sad loss of talent, but we will always remember them by the great work they produced.

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.4 million people living with HIV, including 2.1 million children. During 2008 some 2.7 million people became newly infected with the virus and an estimated 2 million people died from AIDS. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.

Angus Suttie

United Kingdom

1946 - 1993

Ian Godfrey

United Kingdom

1942 - 1992

Matthias Osterman

Canada

1951 - 2009

Bonnie Ntshalintshali

South Africa

1967 - 1999

Read more about artists from Ardmore that died of AIDS

Barry Douglas
South Africa
1949 - 2008

Unfortunately I could not trace any ceramists from the USA that was lost to AIDS. If you perhaps know of anyone that I have omitted, please feel free to add their names in the comment box.

Under the Hammer

I found some interesting ceramics that is going on auction this month

 

Stoneware Bowl by Tim Morris

Earthenware Vase by John Newdigate

Preview Wednesday 1 December 2010

Auction Saturday 4 December 2010

Get more information here.