Claire de Lavallée Ceramics

by CH Contributor

by Zeva Bellel

Photos by Fabrice Fortin

French ceramic artist Claire de Lavallée draws on her skills from her former life as a baker to works her clay into brightly-hued organic shapes.

Surrounded by wall-to-wall cupboards, cutting boards and rolling pins galore, her wonderfully-cluttered Left Bank atelier has the look and feel of an industrial kitchen. But instead of turning out batches of rustic tarts or bulbous baguettes, she fills her ovens with handmade vases, plates, cups and bowls with gorgeously rough-hewn forms and earthy saturated colors.

“I would wake up in the middle of the night and take out my rolling pin and cutting board and instead of making pastries, I found myself creating objects,” says de Lavallée who worked at a Parisian tea salon before making a full-time move to ceramics in 1989.

The artisan couldn't have had better training—both jobs transform simple natural ingredients into something nourishing for the senses via massive amounts of heat.

While most artists specialize in one type of clay (earthenware, stoneware or porcelain), de Lavallée loves and works with them all.

“Even though I experiment with a lot of different materials, people have no problem recognizing my work,” says de Lavallée, whose naturalistic designs with their handmade electrifying enamels, metallic finishes and ambiguous textures are not only striking, but highly collectible.

See more images and continue reading after the jump.

Nudo Adopt-an-Olive-Tree Giveaway

by Ami Kealoha

Making the farm-to-table connection all the more real, Nudo's "adopt-an-olive-tree" program delivers their delicious certified organic olive oil to your door along with the pride of ownership that comes from calling one of their trees yours. In addition to four 500mL tins of the tree's first cold press extra virgin oil in mid-April and three half-size tins of infused (lemon, chile and orange) oil in the fall, adopters also receive a personalized certificate, information about their tree and an open invite to "visit, hug or water the tree in person."

The clever idea comes from two former British television producers, Jason Gibb and Cathy Rogers who moved to the La Marche region of Italy in 2005 seeking a different lifestyle. From their initial 20 acres, the duo's enterprise now includes thousands of trees and nine small artisinal producers in the region and nearby Abruzzo, a strategy that not only helps keep up with demand but sustains smaller farms. It also means that, while most commercial olive oils use blends of questionable origin (read more here), Nudo oil comes from 100% Italian, hand-picked olives that go straight from the grove to pressing.

Nudo's high standards for quality make for an addictively tasty product. When I got a chance to try their orange oil recently, its delicate blossom-like sweetness won me over from first baguette dip. Drizzling it over baby Brussels sprouts with hazelnuts, I felt like the consummate home chef that I'm not. Fortunately, for the many days of the year that I don't cook, the Nudo tin, patterned with plump little olives, looks great sitting displayed on a kitchen shelf.

The tin itself (made from recycled materials as a more eco-chic alternative to glass bottles) is just one part of the brand's commitment to the environment, which includes a portion of the estate set aside as forest to offset their carbon footprint and their organic farming practices.

Adopting a tree costs $150 (shipping included) for a year, and through midnight tomorrow (Wednesday, 2 December 2009), they're offering Cool Hunting readers 10% off by entering the code "cybernudo09." (Check out all of the other goodies they peddle too!)

For those feeling lucky, we're giving an adoption package away to a person who follows @coolhunting and tweets their best recipe idea using Nudo olive oil before 11:59pm EST this Friday, 4 December 2009.

Inbox Posters

by Karen Day

London-based design studio Brighten the Corners makes light of the messaging system now ingrained in our daily lives with their new set of posters aptly titled "Inbox." From funny to feisty, the posters visualize 10 years of the design firm's collection of "good emails" deserving special attention for their expressive (or lack thereof) merits.

Creators of the clever typographic children's tales (geared for adults), Brighten The Corners again skillfully taps data for a compelling bit of eye-candy. In this case reimagining digital technology's detritus makes for a candid reminder of life's ups and downs and a cheeky way to jazz up some office wall space.

Quotes on the posters include blunders like, "Please let me know if you don't get this," the disheartening, "I regret that I cannot accept much of what you say and, unfortunately, we are miles apart in relation to an acceptable termination charge" and the inspirational, "We're delighted to be working with you!"

For an in-depth look at the posters and insight from Brighten the Corners co-founders Frank Philippin and Billy Kiosoglou, see the article on Creative Review's blog.

The posters sell from the Brighten the Corners online shop at £10 for the set of three.

Arcadia: Cross-Country Style, Architecture and Design

by CH Contributor

by Anna Carnick

The new book "Arcadia: Cross-Country Style, Architecture and Design" interprets its namesake (the remote mountain region of Greek mythology) for the modern age, surveying contemporary alpine and back-country architecture, bespoke furniture and interior design projects that take their inspiration from the beauty of their natural surroundings.

Demonstrating an awesome range of possibilities for integrating of-the-moment aesthetics with breathtaking environments, the book's traditional and progressive architecture ranges from pristine, private mountaintop homes and forest-set hotel lodges to temporary or professional spaces and ski jumps. (Click above image for detail.)

Throughout, a sense of respect for specific location—both aesthetically and logistically—drives the project. Simple but dramatic spaces reveal shapes and colors informed by surrounding terrain—the land, the sky and the water—celebrating the full impact of their surroundings. Meanwhile, abundantly large windows and rustic materials like wood, clay and natural stone help bridge the separation between inside and out.

Circling the globe, Arcadia’s chapters include “Off Shore,” “Cross-Country,” “Deep in the Woods” and “The Mountain Calls.” Each entry—spanning Taiwan, The Netherlands, Chile and New York—is beautifully photographed and accompanied by elegantly descriptive text.

By showing how these stunning solutions work with the elements instead of against them, Arcadia hints at a reinvented back-to-the-land movement that harmoniously integrates contemporary living with nature. (Click above images for detail view.)

Arcadia sells from Gestalten or Amazon. (Click above image for expanded view.)

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In Every Tree

by CH Contributor

by Richard Prime

Working between the boundaries of art and design under the label In Every Tree, Swedish designers Maria Larsson and Maria Olevik focus on sculptural bone china objects, as well as light in its spatial context.

The designers investigate the use of modern technology and the role it plays in transforming physical objects into immaterial articles, creating all of their beautifully captivating work by hand in their studio.

With a number of exhibitions, installations and projects already completed, In Every Tree has a wide-ranging portfolio of designs. Functional pieces like the Porcelain Factory salt and pepper shakers pay homage to the small number of porcelain factories still operating in Sweden, while the Phonohorn speaker highlights forward-thinking technology with a nod to the past.

"It's important that our objects tell a story and create a sense of atmosphere," explains Larsson. "In our working process we create a space where memories and dreams transform to become a physical object," continues Olevik.

The duo's talent really shines when working with the various elements of light, truly capturing the beauty of their chosen "material." Inspired by the Japanese tissue tree Davidia Involucrate, Larsson and Olevik delicately cast their bone china Hanging Leaves from real leaves. The sculptural objects produce a haunting effect when strung in a cluster.

For the coming winter, the pair came out with their latest project, called Art of Writing, which remakes books as objects. Cast in bone china from molds made of real books, the level of detail in these luminescent sculptures creates a tactile light experience that works on a bookshelf or as a nice twist to intellectual coffee-table fodder.