#blue-and-white

#blue-and-white

The Shakers embraced the concept of radical simplicity in everyday life, as well as mandatory celibacy, pacifism, and gender equality, which continue to resonate today.

Glass demands immediacy. Working at temperatures above 2,000°F leaves little room for overthinking, so the process becomes a kind of live dialogue between material, colour and chance. That same immediacy informs what I'm drawn to as a collector: works that carry a decisive gesture, a tactile presence, and the feeling that they could only exist in one form.

Looking at old art gives me a sense of craftsmanship, of what can be achieved with paint. There is nothing comparable with Tefaf. The atmosphere of quality is unmatched. Contemporary art collectors are discovering value in historical works and the fair's curatorial standards, representing a potential shift in how different collector demographics engage with art across temporal boundaries.

The heavy brick mass of the early twentieth century warehouse stands steady at the corner, its facades still marked by decorative lintels and deep-set openings. Above, two added floors sit within a perforated aluminum veil that glows softly at dusk. The metal skin reads as a light canopy hovering over the old masonry, a precise intervention that contrasts the museum's new public life with its working past. See designboom's previous coverage here.

Since 1918, TONI Copenhagen has balanced tradition with innovation, creating faucets that can be passed down from generation to generation.

Moooi expands its imaginative universe beyond lighting and furniture with the launch of its first-ever ceramic surfaces collection, The Nesting Room. Developed in collaboration with Italian ceramics innovator ABK Group, the new line translates Moooi's signature blend of fantasy, refinement, and multi-sensory storytelling into architectural form. Crafted in full-body porcelain stoneware, each surface transforms walls and floors into serene landscapes of texture, rhythm, and quiet contemplation.

When was the last time you saw an ashtray filled with stubbed-out Marlboros at a friend's apartment? At a restaurant? For some of us, the answer may very well be "never." Maybe that's the charm of the International Museum of Dinnerware Design's new exhibition on ashtrays - invoking an era before health codes and Mayor Bloomberg. Or reaching back even further, when you might see a Similac-branded ashtray in the office of your OB/GYN.

Sometimes the best designs come from asking a simple question nobody bothered to ask before. For designer Kathleen Reilly, that question was: why does a knife always have to lie flat on the table? The answer came in the form of Oku, a table knife that literally hangs around the edges of your plates and boards thanks to a unique folded handle that defies centuries of Western tableware convention.