Steven Withycombe

Steven Withycombe is a furniture designer-maker from Seattle, USA. He sees furniture as interactive art, and as he says, the most enjoyable part of the process of creating furniture is the reaction of the people to its presence. He likes to incorporate found and discarded material in his work, and his designs blend different styles, often adding a touch of humour as in the "Queen of Spades" bench.

swithycofurniture.com

John Cederquist

I want to share these 2 videos from John Cederquist. He is a californian furniture artist whose work is highly recognizable. By combining 2D images with 3D objects, he creates visual illusions, where the reality is not what you see. It often looks like there is some object on the furniture, though it is all flat wood and you can actually use the furniture.
The first video shows him explaining his work during an exhibition, and the second one shows the Kosode serie, which are some of his last works. I found it particularly interesting to see how he uses the different wood species to get the colours and aspects he wants. I like his way to "go crazy" with the wood, too often designers don't really care about the wood, and woodworkers don't dare to go off the track. John Cederquist is very personal and innovative in his designs, but shows a great respect for the material at the same time.
The best would be to see the artworks in real but it is not easy on this side of the atlantic, so have a look at the pictures on his website: johncederquist.com.

Furniture artist Erwan Boulloud

I was in Paris last weekend, and it is a great pleasure to discover each time I am there new galleries showing and selling unique pieces of art furniture.
I visited the Acabas gallery on the Boulevard des Filles du Calvaire, and they had an impressive cabinet, 2,60 meters high, called "Fracture verticale", made by Erwan Boulloud. It is made of burned and waxed wood on a steel structure and it looks like it has been crushed by a big bloc of concrete. Eye-catching and humorous at the same time. Erwan Boulloud works with wood, metal, concrete, and some nice lights were also on display at the gallery.
Here are some of his previous works, find out more on acabas.fr

Sustainism

I have been very interested by “Sustainism is the New Modernism: A Cultural Manifesto for the Sustainist Era”, by Michiel Schwarz and Joost Elffers. (Distribution Art Publisher, New York).

Sustainism includes what makes, or what could make, the world sustainable, but it is much more than that. It is about a world where everything is connected, interdependent, local and globalized, ecological and digital. 

This is the culture of networks, sharing, borrowing, and open exchange.

It is about being in phase with time and places. 

“Sustainity is not intent on making everything global but recognizes that all locals are globally connected”.

It favors selective slowness and appropriate speeds, which replace the modernist fascination for the “Beauty of Speed”.

“Sustainist design connects with our life-world, focusing not just on function and form but on the meanings we create and the experiences we produce”. 

Modernism:  Form follow Function. Sustainism: Meanings follow Connections.

Sustainist design is responsible design, it is socially and environmentally conscious”.

“Smart consumerism equals socially and environmentally conscious consumption”.

Being myself socially and environmentally conscious, this book made me think about how I could evolve my work in a more sustainist way. We designers-makers are already part of this cultural movement, in the way that we oppose mass production of short-life products. My reflexion is now how to do more, producing locally with local artists and makers, sourcing materials locally, recycling, though inventing new ways, new designs, always looking forward to the future and not turning back to the past.

Oslo Lifestyle Luxury Fair

I just come back from the Oslo Lifestyle luxury fair. That was great, with many different nice products. Due to the variety of products, of course not everybody was interested in everything, but I got many good reactions, both to the designs themselves and to the fact that the furnitures are handmade in Norway. Many people who asked if I was an importer, were pleased to learn that I designed and made the furniture myself in Norway.
Something I heard several times: "Cool furniture, but it doesn't fit in every interior". Of course, and that's what means Bespoke Furniture, I can make something that will be original, unique, and that will fit your interior.

Pictures

As the website I am working on takes a bit more time than I expected, I thought it might be good to publish here some pictures of the latest furnitures I have created.

More pictures can be seen on my Picasa albums. If you are interested by one of these pieces, or if you want to discuss any project or wishes of bespoke furniture, I will be happy to get in contact. Just send an e-mail.

Oslo Lifestyle

Only a few days to be ready for the Oslo Lifestyle trade show, saturday 5th and sunday 6th february, at the Telenor Arena, Oslo. It is a luxury fair, with exhibitors showing very different but all high quality products, from Harley-Davidson to cruises, and of course some furniture. I will be there with 3 pieces created in limited edition: "Diffraction", "Temple of Love", and the latest one "Not Everybody has Children". Some pictures later...