copperindesign exploring the potential of copper in design world www.copperindesign.org issue 39 November 2012

Hollywood Chandelier3

objects Me-Far Bowls 43

lighting Mandalight5 5

objects Sunset Camera 6

objects Takumi 7 art Bronze 8

objects Eclectic Collection 9

art Tea Caddies 10

objects Epaulette Frame 11

objects Copper Ipad Stand 12

www.copperindesign.org is a meeting space for contemporary designers and their followers. This international platform provides a comprehensive source of information on the crafting of the red metal: copper creations, first-hand accounts from designers, exhibitions, competitions and many others. The website is aimed at creators, design professionals, journalists and all copper-loving netsurfers, offering them an invitation to (re)discover this material whose natural properties have established it over the past few years as an essential feature of the design scene. Sponsor: European Copper Institute www.eurocopper.org lighting 3 Samuel Wilkinson Hollywood

London design brand Hulger has contributed a chandelier made from its new Baby Plumen light bulbs to the Stepney Green Design Collection curated by design magazine Dezeen. Hollywood Chandelier, which was produced in collaboration with design consultancy Haptic Thought, features 40 Baby Plumen 001 energy saving light bulbs suspended in rows from copper fixings. Baby Plumen is a miniature version of Hulger’s award- winning Plumen 001 fluorescent light bulb, which was designed in collaboration with Samuel Wilkinson and won the Brit Insurance Design of the Year Award in 2011.

Link: www.hulger.com objects 4 CoWorks Me-Far Bowls

The English duo of CoWorks combined their architecture (Tom Brooksbank) and art (Allan Collins) backgrounds to create the DoReyMeFarSoLaaTiDoe collection of four geometric objects, one being the Me-Far Bowls. All eight of the bowls can be nested together into a single decorative piece. Alternatively they can be playfully combined in a variety of different ways, each of which creates different geometrical patterns and reflections. Each bowl starts with the same triangular base and they gradually begin to close up. The smaller the bowls go in sequence, the smaller they get in size. Each piece is made of copper and reflects the others to beautiful effect.

Link: www.coworkscreative.co.uk lighting 5 Michou van Gennip Mandalight

Michou van Gennip’s Mandalight can flex into various shapes and fold flat for shipping. Mandalight emerged from the idea of creating a floating light, so lightweight that it looks as if it is suspended in the air, virtually weightless. Inspired by the ethereal of Thai floating and fireflies, the result is Mandalight, a radiant sculpture dotted with tiny, brilliant LED lights. The lamp’s adjustable wire structure is made of bronze, stainless steel and copper and can expand to 1.30 metres or shrink to less than 20 centimetres. The entire design weighs only a few kilos. “The shape is based on Buddhist Mandala circles,” Dutch designer Van Gennip explains. “The 60 fixtures are also hinges in the structure and this makes them into essential elements in the design. The intensity of light can be determined by changing the assumed form and/or by dimming the light with a remote.”

Link: www.mocoloco.com objects 6 Leo Lindroos Sunset Camera

This installation by Leo Lindroos from Finnish architecture firm Mook mimics the warm orange glow of a sunset to send viewers into a relaxed and sleepy state by boosting their melatonin levels. Sunset Camera was inspired by Lindroos’ research into the effects of different types of light on the human body. He found out that while bright light from computers and TV screens has an invigorating effect, light with a longer wavelength, such as the orange glow of a sunset, encourages the production of the hormone melatonin which relaxes the body for sleep. Visitors to the installation sit on a bench facing a wall of copper tiles. Behind them is a tank filled with soapy liquid that simulates the soft light of a sunset and converts a blueish beam of light into a soft orange light. The orange light is projected onto the tiles to produce a warm glow in front of the viewer, while a gentle breeze from a fan under the bench moves the tiles and creates the atmosphere of a summer evening. Sunset Camera was the winner of the annual Habitare Design Competition for architecture, art and design students. The brief for this year’s competition was to design a private space for relaxation in a public area.

Link: www.mook.fi objects 7 Junji Tanigawa Takumi

For over twenty years, Krug and Japan have enjoyed a passionate and sincere love affair. In 1989, Olivier Krug discovered the Land of the Rising Sun and soaked in its culture and mentality, marked by tradition and authenticity. Sharing the same ancestral values, the House of Krug made Japan its country of predilection. For several decades, the Japanese have been counted among some of the biggest fans of Krug Champagne (true “Krug Lovers”, as they are often dubbed). This year, a Japanese artist created a piece as surprising as it is beautiful: a sophisticated champagne cooler, forged by a master Japanese coppersmith. When visiting the Champagne House in Reims, Junji Tanigawa – an extremely inventive and renowned designer – came up with the idea to design a unique cooler that would preserve the aromas and finesse of Krug. To achieve this, he chose the company Gyokusendo, which has specialised in working with copper for 200 years. Motoyuki Tamagawa, the company’s manager and master coppersmith, made this unique work of art by hand…and the copper cooler was born.

Link: www.krug.com art 8 Royal Academy of Arts Bronze

The Bronze exhibition is a celebration of bronze on a scale never attempted before. It offers visitors the opportunity to discover the compelling stories behind some of the world’s greatest masterpieces, from Ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan bronzes, to era-defining Medieval and Renaissance treasures and works by iconic figures such as Rodin, Picasso, Jasper Johns, Henry Moore and Louise Bourgeois. Bronze has been organised by the Royal Academy of Arts. The exhibition is curated by Professor David Ekserdjian, of the University of Leicester’s Department of the History of Art and Film, and Cecilia Treves, Exhibitions Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, with an advisory committee of experts in the relevant fields.

Link: www.royalacademy.org.uk

objects 9 Tom Dixon Eclectic Collection

Tom Dixon has always been heralded for his iconic lighting design and he’s been slowly expanding into furniture and accessories for the home. Elevating commonplace heritage items from UK life to pop art status, Eclectic by Tom Dixon collects and amplifies familiar (or once familiar) things – home accessories, giftware and design objects – by recasting them in substantial and lasting materials like copper, cast iron, marble, and wood. The collection is described by the Tunisian-born Englishman as “everyday home accessories, giftware and design objects.” The initial showing of these objects proves that Tom Dixon is a master of his typical natural materials: copper, cast iron, brass, wood and marble. The collection includes various bowls, and holders, a marble pestle and mortar, a cast shoe and more.

Link: www.tomdixon.net art 10 Hazel Reeves Dance

“There is a real freshness and freedom that comes from working loosely in clay or wax as a sculptor.” Hazel Reeves is inspired by the rough wax maquettes (or sculptural sketches) found in Degas’ studio on his death. Sculpting with warmed wax allows her to achieve a sense of movement and looseness in her dancing figures. “Bronze is the perfect medium to capture this,” she notes. “The casting process is where the alchemy begins. Yes, bronze is a practical choice as it is durable. It is considered a precious metal, and as such has an intrinsic value all of its own.” However, Hazel also loves working with bronze for artistic reasons. The molten bronze picks up every detail of Hazel’s original handiwork, right down to her very fingerprints. Using bronze enables her to freeze a moment of a gravity- defying dance pose, communicating the joy of dance, but it is something about the look and feel of bronze that has captivated her. “There is nothing quite like the feel of bronze and the incredible colours that emerge in the patination or colouring process” she says. “There is something timeless about bronze, yet you can sense the connection with artists of the past like Degas, Rodin and Matisse, who used exactly the same bronze-casting techniques as we use today: the lost-wax process”.

Link: www.hazelreeves.com objects 11 Noemi + Olsson Epaulette Frame

Norwegian designer Ida Noemi has teamed up with Caroline Olsson and designed the Epaulette frame system. With Epaulette, they wanted to create a frame system with a greater flexibility than traditional frames, focusing on the corners. The corners of a frame are what define the silhouette and could be looked upon as the shoulders of a picture. Epaulette is the French word for a shoulder piece, which can be used as decoration, or to show rank on a uniform. The sides of the frame are held together by L-shaped corner profiles in copper, liberating the frame from any screws and fixed formats. The copper profiles are slid on to the corners as epaulettes and enhance the expression of the frame in a subtle, but characteristic way.

Links: www.idanoemi.no www.carolineolsson.no objects 12 Justin Elkow Copper iPad Stand

The miFrame Copper Edition combines a lightweight and durable aluminium core with a striking natural copper exterior. “Copper has a long and rich history as a metal of choice in the kitchen and is frequently used to make picture frames too, so it was an obvious choice to us that the next style we release would be made of copper,” says lead designer Justin Elkow. Like every other miFrame Striped Sail has released, the new product can charge an iPad with its built-in dock connector in both portrait and landscape orientations and it comes with an extended 5’ USB cable so miFrame can be positioned in just the right place and still reach an outlet.

Link: www.stripedsail.com