Cutting-Edge Furniture that Feels as Cool as It Looks
Sarah Medford | Photography by Adrien Dubost for WSJ. Magazine | Styling By Alicia Sciberras April 15, 2023 8:30 am ET Inner landscapes evolve into outward expressions—humorous, affectionate, sparring—in the ceramics of Swiss-born designer Carmen D’Apollonio. “Each lamp becomes its own character and seems like a little human,” she says. “Have you ever been lonely” pair of lamps, by Carmen D’Apollonio, price upon request, FriedmanBenda.com. “Chipping and chiseling away, it felt like an archaeological dig,” says British designer Faye Toogood of the subtractive process used to mold her softly slumping Barrow side table—starting with a block of clay (for t
Sarah Medford | Photography by Adrien Dubost for WSJ. Magazine | Styling By Alicia Sciberras
Inner landscapes evolve into outward expressions—humorous, affectionate, sparring—in the ceramics of Swiss-born designer Carmen D’Apollonio. “Each lamp becomes its own character and seems like a little human,” she says. “Have you ever been lonely” pair of lamps, by Carmen D’Apollonio, price upon request, FriedmanBenda.com.
“Chipping and chiseling away, it felt like an archaeological dig,” says British designer Faye Toogood of the subtractive process used to mold her softly slumping Barrow side table—starting with a block of clay (for the prototype), then moving to reticent European oak (for the finished piece). The deft handwork reflects time and effort, but also the lost-and-found nature of making things. Barrow side table, by Faye Toogood, edition of 20, price upon request, FriedmanBenda.com.
For Jinyeong Yeon, the design process often starts with repurposing castoffs of our ever-expanding material culture. Here it’s deadstock puffer jackets, which the South Korean designer has stitched into snuggly golden padding for a wood bench with the lankiness of a teenager. Padded bench, by Jinyeong Yeon, $9,200, TheFuturePerfect.com.
Handblown glass and vanadinite, a blood-red mineral in the phosphate group, would seem to have little in common. For Lindsey Adelman, that’s been the impetus behind a new lighting series that finds possibilities in difference. “It’s the tension between what is there and what is not that is full of opportunity and experimentation,” says the Manhattan-based designer. Rock light #7 (vanadinite), by Lindsey Adelman, price upon request, LindseyAdelman.com.
Over a decade into experimentation with a technology known as metal electrodeposition, the British designer Max Lamb is still entranced by its potential. His multistep production process yields the simplest of results: lightweight copper furniture as hollow as a balloon and as pleasingly simple. Nanocrystalline copper chair, by Max Lamb, price upon request, Salon94Design.com.
From left: Pushing the delicate art of glazing to new heights, Tomoyuki Hoshino creates a candied surface across his hand-carved stoneware vessels. Kodai Ujiie washes colored lacquer over meticulously formed and glazed porcelain. Sugar-glazed tea bowl, by Tomoyuki Hoshino, $1,650, IppodoGallery.com; Celadon lacquer tea bowl, by Kodai Ujiie, $2,000, IppodoGallery.com.
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