CasaSugar

Weird Furniture: Where There's Smoke by Maarten Baas

CasaSugar — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:15:20 -0800

Dutch designer Maarten Baas's "Smoke" is a series of a charred furniture finished with an epoxy resin so that the pieces are preserved instead of destroyed. A 2004 exhibition called "Where There's Smoke" at Moss in New York showcased the collection of 25 one-off pieces, including iconic designs by Gaudi, Eames, Rietveld, Sottsass, and the Campana Brothers among others, which had each been burned with a blow torch and then salvaged with the translucent sealant. At the exhibit, the pieces were put in a timeline from antique to modern, grouping pieces like a grandfather clock and chaise lounge together, and a second stage of pieces like an Eames LCW chair and Noguchi coffee table from 1900-1950 together.

Three of the "Smoke" works were picked up by Marcel Wanders for reproduction by his international design company, MOOOI, and important designers and collectors like Lidewij Edelkoort and Philippe Starck have also personally acquired the pieces. Select pieces have been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. What's really beautiful about the series is that the furniture retains that charred texture, it's quite haunting, and appropriate for Halloween. To see more photos and close-ups, read more.

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Scenes From the Milan International Furniture Fair

CasaSugar — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:00:59 -0700

What I wouldn't give to be in Milan right now! For the next week, if you're lucky enough to be traveling in the area, you should stop by the 48th Milan Furniture Fair, which features the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the Milan Lighting Fair, and the SaloneSatellite, which features creative new talent in the design world. Many designs that I've featured here are featured in the fair, including one of my favorites, Maarten Baas. You can download and print a map of the fair here, or take a virtual tour when you read more.

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This Just In: Moss Store Opens in Los Angeles

CasaSugar — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 10:15:35 -0700

Moss is a swanky store in New York that toes the line between design mall and museum. Products by various designers are often displayed behind glass, and the mix of limited-edition creations is often quite bizarre. (The online store even has a section entitled Extreme Other.)

Now, founder Murray Moss is taking his sleek and cheeky aesthetic to Los Angeles. The store's second-ever showroom opens today at 8444 Melrose Avenue, and it sounds like quite a place. Consider this description from the Moss web site:

Moss-starved Angelinos will have their design needs fulfilled come August 3 when the large glass door in our ivy covered front pushes open to an astounding Swarovski Crystal Palace installation (of eighteen 8-foot high Vertical Glitterbox chandeliers by Georg Baldele) surrounding a 1938 Steinway Baby Grand fire-sculpted by Maarten Baas.

Like so many things in LA, this sounds like a place to see and be seen as much as a place to shop. Even if I can't afford anything in Moss, I'm dying to check it out.

via Dwell blog