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By Alissa Walker | 04-13-2010 | 4:59 PM
Puzzle Collection: Nendo with Gaia & Gino
Paper Planes: Doshi Levien with Moroso
The Un-Wired Collection: Neri & Hu with Meritalia
Fake Wood: Francois Azambourg with Gaia & Gino
Floe Tables: Tomoko Azumi with lapalma
Crystaline Collection: Konstantin Grcic and Abet Laminati
Lotus Plate: Studio Pei-Zhu and When Objects Work
Quarry and Soft Crystal Series: Gitta Gschwendtner with Quinze & Milan
Novalin Irrbloss, Perla, Blenda, Spraka: Fanny Aronsen with Kvadrat
A 10-centimeter cube puzzle is created by repeatedly making linear cuts into a cube of clear crystal glass. Just visible inside the resulting blocks is a single Swarovski crystal that further reveals itself as the user takes the puzzle apart.
For the Milan show Swarovski Elements at Work, ten leading international designers were paired with nine industrial design and furniture producers and handed the equivalent of the crystal company's Bedazzler.
For the Milan show Swarovski Elements at Work, ten leading international designers were paired with nine industrial design and furniture producers and handed the equivalent of the crystal company's Bedazzler.
A new small armchair made for for reading or relaxing is upholstered in a geometric checked Jacquard fabric where the crystal forms one of the lines.
Coffee and side tables are made with blackened stainless steel wires, the base of each forming a thin lacing structure on which crystal beads are threaded. In a dark room, the wires disappear completely, making the tabletops appear as glass planes floating on a heap of airborne crystals.
Swarovski can integrate crystal "chatons" or studs into leather so perfectly that a flat surface results. Choosing two products most often made in wood--a desk box and a tray in two sizes--Azambourg used the chatons to simulate the pattern of wood grain.
From within a set of three sheet metal tables topped with translucent glass, light emanates from LEDs, bouncing off a series of suspended crystals. This gives an added level of interaction--when the tables are touched, the crystals tremble, creating a play of shadows and light.
Grcic created three patterns using crystals on laminate, something not previously attempted by the manufacturer. To create the material, paper impregnated with resin was compressed with a a special compression system in order to integrate, but not crush, the crystal.
Crystals are lightly scattered on an undulating, polished-glass surface, meant to evoke water droplets based on the Chinese name for crystal--shui jing--which translates as ‘"water stone."
A plaster and resin mix is cast as a series of stools and a low table, with a broken away, but crystal-sprinkled corner. The plaster/resin used has the
name Keramic, which has a soft, matte finish.
The Swedish textile designer produced three fabrics, one of which is flocked with very small crystals to create a three-dimensional texture. Another introduces hand-embroidery using large-size crystals.
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