Pendants made from woven pop bottles

Basket weaving is one of the oldest known handcrafts. It predates pottery and, for at least 10,000 years, has been a vital means of transforming leaves and grass into vessels for storage and transportation.

These days, even at a time when furniture production has never been more high-tech — it’s possible for a designer to model a chair, light fixture or vase on his laptop, then e-mail the specs to manufacturers all over the world for almost instant 3-D printing — the anachronistic warp and weft still has an important influence.

Part of the appeal is that weaving a product by hand always has a special, made-with-love quality that machines can’t replicate.

Weaving also reflects the unique, cultural heritage of where the product originated. Senegalese crafts people have different methods than those in Ho Chi Minh City, something which gives an object a rich, irreplaceable character.

It’s this deep-seated sense of tradition that is inspiring designers to come up with innovative uses for the ancient technique. Talented young furniture makers are plaiting with unconventional materials like plastic pop bottles, or creating cross cultural mash-ups for unique tables, light fixtures and stools.

Here, five masterfully woven pieces for the home.

Pendants made from woven pop bottles

Pop art: Disturbed by the massive build-up of plastic waste in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón wanted to create a product that would help to prevent single-use pop bottles from going out to sea. The Spaniard worked with artisans in Colombia – a country with a troubling amount of debris drifting from the oceans into its Amazon region – to create the PET lamp. The warp is made from strips of old plastic bottles. The weft is made with dyed papa tetera palm fronds, wool or cotton. Through catalandeocon.com.

Stephen Burks’ Dala lounger

From trash to chair: Stephen Burks’s Dala lounger was inspired by handmade furniture the American saw while visiting artisans in Senegal and the Philippines (dala means “to make” in Senegalese and “to take” in Tagalog). The structure of the chair is a lightweight, aluminum mesh, onto which colourful strands of recycled polyethylene and Tetra Paks are woven. Through dedon.de.

Baskets made from paper yarn

Two for one deal: On a trip to Spain, German designer Sebastian Herkner was intrigued by a technique of curling paper into long, yarn-like strands. With famed Italian manufacturer Moroso, he developed a method of wrapping the natural fibres around a sturdy metal frame. The resulting baskets can be used to store sweaters or magazines, but they can also be flipped over into colourful coffee or end tables. Through moroso.it.

Anthropologie’s handwoven Lita table

Blanket stripes: Anthropologie’s handwoven Lita table looks like an eccentrically coloured pioneer’s blanket that was left on the loom. But rather than soft wool, the strips are made from long-lasting polypropylene, and the frame is iron, so it won’t break down from spilled drinks or too much time in the sun. Through anthropologie.com.

Glimpt Studio’s Nordic-Vietnamese furniture

East meets north: The Superheroes collection is a cross-cultural mash-up of Swedish and Vietnamese influences. Designers Mattias Rask and Tor Palm (who run Glimpt Studio in Stockholm) were inspired by weavers in Ho Chi Minh City to create the bowl-like shape of its lounger, coffee table and stool. The pair worked with Swedish illustrator Malin Koort to create the Nordic-style patterning. Through cappellini.it.

This piece originally appeared in the Globe and Mail on Thursday, May 16, 2013.

Designer Marcel Wanders. Photo by Moe Doiron

As a testament to his longevity, rock-star status and sheer ingenuity, designer Marcel Wanders has been called both the Madonna and the Lady Gaga of the furniture world.

The comparisons seem fair when considering his furniture. The Amsterdamer eschews the minimal aesthetic of peers like Philippe Starck in favour of adding a subversive – sometimes kitschy – touch to the familiar and iconic. In 2008, when designing the interiors of Miami Beach’s Mondrian Hotel, for instance, he paid homage to his Dutch heritage by festooning the rooms with blue-and-white Delft tiles. But instead of windmills and bunnies, his ceramics featured sharks and beach babes.

Marcel Wander’s Knotted chair (produce by Cappellini)

It’s this playful sensibility that has made him so influential over his more than 20-year career. He’s made it cool for designers to incorporate whimsy, irony and romanticism in a profession that for so long seemed dead set against anything but sober functionalism and simplicity. The next time you look at a piece of decor with any kind of wit, you can probably thank Wanders.

His relentless output of products – which covers high-end, low-end and everything in between – has also helped garner a diverse fan base. He works with exclusive manufacturers like Flos and Moroso to create museum-quality pieces (his 1996 Knotted Chair, produced by Cappellini, is in the permanent collections of both the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and New York’s MoMA). He also co-owns Moooi, a mass-market maker of home and office furniture, and has made Christmas ornaments for Target, flip flops for Puma and collaborated on a makeup line with MAC.

Wanders was in Toronto last week for the North American launch of a new line of products for Moooi (including a a floor lamp reminiscent of an oil well). The launch party was hosted by one of the city’s most respected retailers of contemporary furniture, Klaus Nienkamper II, and more than 1,500 people – including luminaries like restaurant impresario Charles Khabouth and fashion designer Amanda Lew Kee – came to pay their respects.

Moooi’s AMAZING Horse lamp

Although Nienkamper’s gallery-like store was lined with Wanders pieces (including one of Moooi’s most ostentatious – a life-sized, PVC horse with a lightbulb coming out of its head), most people were more interested in catching a glimpse of, or better yet, a cell snap with the designer.

Wanders, after all, is famously larger than life. In 2003, he gave a talk to the Industrial Designers Society of America about working without fear. He started the lecture by discussing one his own anxieties: being naked in public. He finished by streaking, in the buff, across the stage.

He’s also renowned for his party antics: In 2005, at an event at the Milan Furniture Fair, he engineered a special chandelier – aptly called the Happy Hour – from which his girlfriend, choreographer Nanine Linning, hung upside down, dispensing champagne to guests while intermittently feeding Wanders fresh grapes.

When I met him before the party, his outfit seemed consistent with his sensibility: a conservative, tailored black suit jacket, paired with flowing Palazzo pants, pink-and-red sneakers and the kind of beaded necklace that skateboarders used to wear in the nineties (except more sparkly).

But he was more soft-spoken and subdued than I expected. He bristled when I asked him if he preferred to be likened to Madge or Lady G (“Those comparisons are really for other people to make”). But his youthful optimism came out when we started talking about his work. Wanders believes that as a designer, it’s not his job to make stuff – it’s to uplift and improve people’s lives through the beauty of his craft.

“I don’t just want to create products,” he said. “I want to reach into people’s hearts and minds. I want to create memories.”

It’s because of this desire to tap into people’s emotions that Wanders often starts with something traditional. His 2006 Crotchet chair, for example, looks like it was stitched together from a bunch of grandma-made doilies. “I want to do things that are, in a way, instantly recognizable,” he explains. Yet he always adds a twist – the Crotchet Chair has a curvy, futuristic shape – that he hopes will surprise and ultimately stick in people’s heads.

Marcel Wanders’s Urban Hike table

But Wanders is careful to point out that even when his work is lighthearted (as it often is – his new Bell lights are topped with bows), he isn’t necessarily trying to be humorous. “A joke is something you can tell only once,” he notes. “And then it isn’t funny any more.”

That’s why he often balances the outlandish with a sense of restraint. His Skygarden Pendant Lights, for example, conceal florid, old-world flower patterning within a sleek, minimalist dome.

Creating this sense of intrigue is an idea that Wanders extends to all areas of his life. He believes his personality is integral to his work. Hence the publicity stunts and the party antics.

“I can’t be boring,” he says. “If people like my designs, then meet me, and find out that I’m boring, they won’t want my stuff.”

This piece originally appeared in the Globe and Mail on Thursday, May 9, 2013.

Tomas Alonso’s silver tea service (photo by Craig Dillon)

Although Art Deco reached its apex of influence during the Interwar period, its rich colours, bold geometries and lavish materials (such as sterling silver and ebony) have never really disappeared from fashion.

It is, essentially, timeless. But every once and a while, our collective fascination with the movement’s decor and architecture reaches a new fever pitch. Like right now. The resurgence is the direct result of Baz Luhrmann’s blockbuster adaption of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby (the sixth such adaption of the 1925 novel, which comes out this Friday). Suddenly, everyone wants an air of the Jazz Age, in their clothes (think shimmering flapper skirts) and in their decor.

Fortunately, contemporary furniture makers are crafting the kind of deco-inspired pieces that capture the essence of the era but with a fresh sensibility. These updates have the sensual lines and strong presence of Deco, but with modern touches like LED lights and laptop-ready work surfaces.

Here, five of-the-moment ways to add some Roaring Twenties glamour to your home.

Colleen McGill’s Hicks coffee table

The opulent furniture of English aristocrat Lady Edwina Mountbatten (who was well know for her social life in the 1920s and ’30s) inspired Toronto designer Colleen McGill to make the Hicks coffee table. McGill updated the Deco-esque fan pattern by cutting it into a modern drum-shaped base. Through myplumdesign.com.

Reed Hansuld’s Roll Top desk

The Roll Top desk by Toronto furniture maker Reed Hansuld is handcrafted from sumptuous woods: Makassar ebony, mahogany and quilted English sycamore. Although its gently curving lines have a nostalgic feel, the work surface is proportioned specifically to accommodate laptops and tablets. Through reedhansuld.com.

La Chance’s Salute table

The Salute Table, by up-and-coming, Munich-based designer Sebastian Herkner, is meant to act like a ’20s-era butler. When the handsome, painted steel column is placed near a lounger or arm chair, its elegant brass tray extends to hold your book, cocktail or iPad. For extra opulence, the cylinder also comes in a black marble and the tray in chrome. Through lachance.fr.

The Henge light by Italian architect Massimo Castagna

Because of the the hand-burnished brass rings, Italian architect Massimo Castagna’s Light Ring chandelier has an antique essence, The warm glow of the sleek, energy saving LED light strip brings the fixture straight into the 21st century. Through henge07.com.

Tomas Alonso’s silver tea service (photo by Craig Dillon)

In the early 20th century, Wiener Silber Manufactur was one of Austria’s top silver manufacturers. In 2009, the company re-launched, hoping to blend its deep traditions with a contemporary aesthetic. Its Tea Set, designed by Spaniard Tomas Alonso, does just that: The Zebra wood handles have a jazz age opulence, the geometry has a paired-down simplicity. Through wienersilbermanufactur.com.

This piece originally appeared in the Globe and Mail on Thursday, May 9, 2013.

Carolyn Cameron’s Ice Pop Molds

In 2006, when Carolyn Cameron was expecting her first child — a girl named Talulla — she decided her baby would only ever be fed with all-natural, non-toxic bottles, plates and utensils. After struggling to find reasonably priced, BPA-free products on the market, the Vancouverite decided to create her own line — Onyx. Cameron had no experience with industrial design. But, as a graduate of Ryerson University’s acclaimed fashion program with years of experience in the film industry (including outfitting both Brad and Angelina for the big screen), she had a well-hone eye for detail and strong sense of craftsmanship. Her Ice Pop Molds are both pretty to look at and ingeniously practical. They are made from food-safe, 18/8 stainless steel, which has higher nickel content for extra rust-resistance. And the re-usable sticks are bamboo — a sustainably harvested wood with anti-microbial properties and child-proof durability. Ice Pop Molds. $40. thetickletrunk.com.

This piece originally appeared in the Globe and Mail on Thursday, May 9, 2013.

Patty Johnson’s Haida Chair

Patty Johnson is a master furniture designer with a deep sense of social responsibility. At her Toronto studio, she crafts the kind of playful-but-sophisticated pieces — neon, rattan-style arm chairs woven from sustainable fibres — that make design editors and critics go goo-goo eyed. She also spends considerable time in places like Haiti and Botswana, helping to promote and develop local artistry and furniture production. Rather than being a sideline effort, her grass roots involvement is what gives character to her higher-end pieces. The recently released Haida chair was inspired by a year Johnson spent working with the First Nations group in the Pacific Northwest. The curved back takes its form from the Haida’s tradition of steam bending cedar; the structure — held together without any fasteners like nails or bolts — has the elegance of a traditional long house. Haida Chair. Price upon request. Mjölk, 2959 Dundas St. W., Toronto, 416-551-9853.

This piece originally appeared in the Globe and Mail on Thursday, May 2, 2013.

Photo by Derek Shapton

Farzad and Connie started thinking about building a house five years ago when they were living in Cambridge, England. Farzad was finishing his doctorate in management and Connie was working for a Dutch bank. Their two kids were young, and the couple wanted to settle in Toronto, where Farzad grew up (Connie is from Hong Kong). They imagined a house that was minimalist but kid-friendly, environmentally conscious but not visibly so, and most importantly, adaptable. They hired the architect Paul Raff, and the resulting space, on a leafy street near Yonge and Eglinton, feels like a swanky yoga studio minus the mirrored walls. The kitchen is flanked by two identically sized spaces, which can be used interchangeably, as the living room or dining room—Farzad and Connie sometimes swap the two by season, eating next to the big backyard window in summer and cozying up by the same window to read in winter. The basement is kitted out with a kitchen in case their kids boom­erang in their 20s and want their own space. And although the main level of the house is, right now, perfectly suited to family life, it was designed to be converted into a one-level retirement suite in the future, with Farzad’s office becoming a master bedroom and the entryway powder room becoming an ensuite.

For the rest of this story, please see the May 2013 issue of Toronto Life magazine.

Six Point Un’s graffiti-covered birdhouses

Quebec City is iconic for its old world architecture and cobble-stoned, urban streets. But that’s just the historic core. Much of the provincial capital is made up of diffuse, car-centric suburbs. To some, the extreme dichotomy underscores the eyesore that is modern city planning. To design group Six Point Un, the contrast between the metropolitan and the mundane is endlessly inspiring. Formed two-and-a-half years ago by Quebec City natives Claudia Després and Jérémy Couture, the studio has turned skate boards into swing sets and picket fences into coat racks. The latest product, a series of birdhouses designed in collaboration with graphic artists Matel and Avive, is a particularly pointed mash-up of the seemingly different worlds: generic, pitched roof houses (or churches, as it were) covered in the type of wild, energetic graffiti one would only expect to find in the middle of a city’s downtown. $150 each.  Through sixpointun.ca.

This piece originally appeared in the Globe and Mail on Thursday, April 25, 2013.

A detail of Marie-José Gustave’s cardboard chair

When designer Marie-josé Gustave moved to Quebec from France 15 years ago, she, not surprisingly, hauled her stuff with a bevy of cardboard boxes. But, unlike most of us, Gustave didn’t give away, store or toss the containers when she got here. She started turning them into art and decor.

“I had lots of boxes,” jokes Gustave.

The Montrealer studied clothing production, was working in textile design and long loved tactile crafts such as sewing and knitting. Like an interesting fabric or yarn, she admired cardboard’s rich, versatile texture. Depending on how it’s cut, layered and woven together, it looks like wool, woven seagrass or clay.

Gustave was also intrigued by the challenge of elevating an everyday, overlooked item into something special. “It’s exciting to change the material,” she notes.

Cardboard has a lot of inherent qualities — it’s dirt cheap (or free when plucked out of a recycling bin), biodegradable and incredibly strong (if thick enough, it has a comparable rigidity to wood). But it’s often hard to admire the beauty in the brown paper packaging when it looks like, well, brown paper packaging.

After years of experimenting with different ways to cut, assemble and transform cardboard, Gustave started her own cardboard decor company, Pas a Papier, in 2006. Her pieces are so startling — lampshades that look like fabric, bowls that look like she made them on a pottery wheel — it’s hard to tell what they are made from.

And Gustave’s not the only designer who is turning beige into bling. Lured by its eco-cred and malleability, many other innovative minds are also playing with paper. Here, seven fun ways to box up your home.

Cheap seats (photo by Simon Duhamel)

Ottopapax’s Pliage No. 1 stool is extremely economical. It’s easily assemble from a single sheet of cardboard and costs about as much as a meal at Jack Astor’s ($30 to be precise). The vibrant pattern conceals the seat’s origin as plain old paper and creates a trompe l’oeil, giving a sense of depth to the flat sitting surface. Through ottopapax.com.

Faux bois, real cardboard

By cutting, layering and gluing together strips of cardboard, Pas à Papier’s Marie-José Gustave shows off the material’s versatile texture. Her Chaise Entre Ciel et t’R has a beguiling grain similar to an exotic hardwood. The chair’s light look belies cardboard’s inherent strength. Through mariejosegustave.ultra-book.org.

Lights and shadows (photo by Bruno Destombes)

Otra – a Quebec-based studio started in 2011 by recent design grads Julie Ferrero and Guillaume Darnajou – upcycles cardboard by incising it with edgy patterns and adding bursts of colour. Its Craft lampshade is held together with brightly hued tacks to avoid using glue. The crisscrossing cutout creates beguiling shadows. Through otra-design.com.

Table marche (photo by Maarten van Houten)

Dutch-based design firm Moooi is known for its ultracontemporary, high-concept furniture, but its Paper Family of products plays with the type of craft that even a grade schooler would recognize – using papier mâché to transform paper and cardboard. A polyurethane lacquer seals the dining table so that you can eat without fear of melting the surface with a spill. Through moooi.com.

Cardboard’s soft-yet-rough, organic texture stands out in the slick, hard-edged lobby of International House, a high-end London office building. British designer Giles Miller sculpted the corrugation to give it a flowing, liquid look. gilesmiller.com.

Butterfly effect

Philadelphia-based firm Mio believes that ethically produced, aesthetically pleasing design should also be accessible. Its Butterfly Nomad system, which has 24 modular blocks that can be arranged into a charming room divider, is not only affordable – it costs $60 – it’s also virtuous. The cardboard is made from a mix of sustainably harvested wood chips and recycled paper. Through mioculture.com.

Sound design

Chris McNicholl’s Environmentally Sound radio looks like a retro prop from Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and displays an ingenuity any Boy Scout would admire. No glue is used so, aside from the speaker and knobs, it’s entirely recyclable. And although assembly is DIY, all the components come from a single sheet of cardboard and slide together with minimal effort. Through chrismcnicholl.com.

This piece originally appeared in the Globe and Mail on Thursday, April 18, 2013.

Hand-crafted ceramic garden markers

Garden markers are a must for green thumbs who can’t remember where they’ve seeded the beets versus the radishes. They’re particularly necessary before the buds start to grow in the early spring, when one, dirt-filled pot in the windowsill is indistinguishable from the next. JustPotters makes an especially handsome version — slender, ceramic stems with that perfectly-imperfect, rough-edged quality that only comes when something is hand spun. But the Vancouver-based pottery shop is laudable for more than its unique nameplates. It was started in 2006 to give people who face traditional barriers to work — mental or physical disabilities, for example, or problems with addiction — a way to make money and learn new skills. Most don’t come into the studio with a background in clay, but under the training of expert potter Jasmine Wallace — she has a Master’s degree in ceramics from the University of Minnesota and has exhibited across North America — they learn the nuances of the craft and take great pride in creating such beautiful objects. From $21. justpotters.com.

This piece originally appeared in the Globe and Mail on Thursday, April 18, 2013.

A big basket made of crocheted nylons

At the Cumulus Project ­— the online concept store of B.C.-based artist Carey Ann Schaefer — only one, one-of-a-kind item is posted at a time, and it doesn’t get replaced until it’s sold. A ridiculous business model for an e-commerce site? Maybe. It is, in effect, the anti-Etsy. But there’s something refreshingly simple about having only a single, serenely crafted option to consider at every visit. Past pieces include a slug-shaped, ceramic salt container and a circular mirror subtly etched to mimic the mottled surface of the moon. The latest — the Cross Legged Basket — is no less whimsical. At a glance, the hamper looks like a stack of water worn river stones. But the pile is actually quite plush — Schaefer crocheted it out of colourful, baton-stuffed nylons that were sewn end-to-end into a giant-sized piece of yarn. 24” h x 36 dia. $220. cumulusproject.com.

This piece originally appeared in the Globe and Mail on Thursday, April 11, 2013.