J Schatz Hatches A Lot More Than Egg Designs. Great Modern Home Decor.

If you are familiar with the name J Schatz at all, it's most likely in conjunction with his beautifully designed, seen everywhere that's hip, Egg Birdfeeders. (seen below).

His own site states:
Using instinct and inspiration, J Schatz creates objects that bring wonder and joy to life through the creative and innovative use of the materials at hand. We are dreamers and explorers. Clay is the primary material that inspires us to create. We mold and sculpt clay into shapes that are pierced, scratched, carved, drilled, glazed and fired into beautifully finished products.

If you shop at DWR or shop at museum stores, then you may also be familiar with his Egg lamp:



If you actually read blogs like mocoloco or design*sponge then you may even know his Buff Humpty (seen below).



But did you know that he's hatched (forgive me, I couldn't resist)....

Egg Banks?


Egg Planters?



Egg Birdhouses?



Designing Color
The J Schatz Collection features ceramic ware that is finished in one of our 24 glossy colors. They hand apply the colors using method based techniques to ensure that each product has a dazzling surface. They do not retouch our product photography. What you see is what you get.

Are you aware of his Egg Table Lamps?


Tall Egg Table Lamps?


Egg Floor Lamps?


How about his Single Stem Egg Table Lamp?


Or the Triple Stem one?


How about Vases?



Okay, so eggs don't rock your boat?... keep reading....

2000
It began humbly in 2000 when Jim Schatz made the first prototype Egg Lamp in his East Village apartment in Manhattan. The kiln was the size of a hat box and the apartment was cramped. He sought refuge in the woods three hours from the city and purchased a kiln large enough to fire thirteen products at a time.

2007
J Schatz now has four kilns and employs four hard working artists who work hand in hand with Jim to create beautiful, glossy finished ceramic ware. Thousands of products have been sold to satisfied customers located throughout all fifty states and in 13 countries around the world. The company has eleven product lines: Buff Humpty, Cilindro Pendants, Egg Banks, Egg Bird Feeders, Egg Bird Houses, Egg Lamps, Egg Planters, Happening Curtains, Night Flight To Venus, Poodle Butts and Vases.

Then what about his "Night Flight To Venus" table lamps?


Or his Solid & Pierced Cilindro Pendant Lamps?




Or his "Happening Curtains"?



Certainly his Poodle Butts will make you giggle:



As a hands on ceramic manufacturer, J Schatz promises that each product that leaves thier studio is beautifully finished and offer each customer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. They design, create, assemble and ship all products from our studio in New York.



Want to learn more or to buy a J Schatz of your own?
The click here for a list of retailers

Alice Mara combines Photography & Ceramics

Alice Mara creates earthenware or slip cast porcelain that then has digitally printed images upon it, making it both beautiful and functional.




Above: Blue Skyscraper Plate

In her own words:

My work is about the urban landscape.
Having lived in London most of my life I enjoy walking around the place and taking pictures of buildings that interest me. I recently completed a body of work depicting my local environment, Walthamstow, which involved cataloguing a nostalgic journey of familiar landmarks.

Using a computer, I enhanced the photographs to give them a fantastical, surreal appeal. I like the viewer to be able to recognise the environment that I choose to decorate the plates with, either through a sense of having visited the place or a general recognition of the London theme.

By placing these images onto plates, I transform the identity, function and value of the plate into a decorative work of art which becomes readable for the viewer.

Here are just a few of her pieces:



Above: Her "Hanging People" Bowls

Above: Purple Bridge Plate




Alice Mara's contact details:
Archway Ceramics, 410 Haven Mews, 23 St Paul's Way, London E3 4AG
T: 020 8925 1706 M: 07841 574 699 E: alicemara@hotmail.com

So Much Global, Don't Forget Local: Trends In Mass Production

STILL MADE HERE (reprinted from trendwatching.com)


Last month, Trendwatching discussed TRANSPARENCY TYRANNY. The month before that, it was all about CROWD CLOUT. Two trends firmly rooted in the online revolution, offering further proof that the most disruptive innovations are now to be found online.

However, that’s not to say the bricks-and-mortar world has become an innovation backwater. Two mega-trends of our time, the greening of consumption and the proliferation of alternative status symbols, hold the promise of vast new riches for real-world entrepreneurs, while wreaking havoc on those that lag behind. Which brings us to the (STILL) MADE HERE trend: the comeback of all things local, all things with a sense of place, and how they're surfacing in a world dominated by globalization.

“(STILL) MADE HERE encompasses new and enduring manufacturers and purveyors of the local. In a world that is seemingly ruled by globalization, mass production and ‘cheapest of the cheapest’, a growing number of consumers are seeking out the local, and thereby the authentic, the storied, the eco-friendly and the obscure.”

In this briefing, they (trendwatching) focus on three big drivers behind this trend — social responsibility, status and support. There are more, but we'll save those for a future update. Oh, and don’t worry, we’re not going to wax on for hours and hours about farmers' markets ;-)

Now, let’s start with everyone's favorite 800-pound gorilla: social responsibility, from eco to ethics.

Eco and ethics


Global vs. local
THE story of 2006, 2007, 2008 and many years to come? Consumers, governments and business leaders are finally feeling the pressure to confront and act upon the fact that unbridled production and consumption comes with mounting pollution and at a significant human/animal/earth cost. Now, since virtually every think tank, trend firm, eco-blog, former US presidential candidate and oil company has chimed in on the issue, we'll refrain from rehashing endless studies and scenarios on the globe's future. Instead, we'll focus on one sub-trend — locality — that is still emerging and as such can offer brands additional inspiration to come up with new goods, services and experiences that are part of the solution, not the problem.

Let's start with 'eco'. Now that carbon footprinting has become a household term in mature consumer societies, expect consumers' desire to find out about the origins of a product to become a given. Questions no one ever asked a few years ago will become an integral part of the purchasing process. How was the product made? By whom? How did it get to its point of sale? What effects on the environment will it have after purchasing?

Increasingly, this transparency will pit distant production against local production. Above all, local production holds the promise of less pollution due to less transport. And, in prosperous and regulated nations, chances of inhumane labor practices are smaller, too.

A slew of projects and publications are fanning the current debate on local versus global production. Not too surprising, it’s the food and beverage sector — which can be both closest to, and most removed from nature — that finds itself at the forefront of the eco-meets-local debate, while the apparel industry (sweatshop, anyone?) is feeling the impact of ethics-meets-local more than any other industry.

To stick with our promise to not repeat too much that others have already effectively investigated, we'll gladly refer you to the books and projects below: they all deal with the specifics of how local consumption may (or may not!) trump more wasteful global activities.



Life story labels
Now, to stick to our usual approach, let's look at some brands that are already experimenting with attaching ‘life story labels' to their products, satisfying consumers who are ready to spend their dollars, euros, pounds and yens on whatever does the least harm:


UK supermarket Tesco plans to introduce carbon footprint labels on all 70,000 products it sells to allow shoppers to compare carbon impacts. Implementation will take a while: the company is currently investigating how to develop a “universally accepted and commonly understood” measuring system.


Last year, footwear manufacturer Timberland started placing a "nutritional label" on each shoe box, educating consumers about the product they are purchasing, including where it was manufactured, how it was produced and what effect it has on the environment. Nice touch: messaging inside the box asks customers "what kind of footprint will you leave?" and provides a call to action for them after purchase. Hey, it takes two to tango!


Dole Organic lets consumers “travel to the origin of each organic product”. By typing in a fruit sticker's three-digit Farm Code on Dole Organic's website, customers can read background info, view photos of the farm and workers and learn more about the origin of Dole products.


What works for bananas, works for eggs. Aptly naming their site wheresyoursfrom, UK-based Chippindale Foods was the first company to offer customers full egg traceability. Also check out intermediary MyFreshEgg, which aims to be bringing the same services to a host of farms and egg producers.


And the examples keep rolling in: from Nature and More to Lloyd Maunder West Country to Aceites Borges Olive Oil.

The latter gives each bottle of olive oil a Numero de Lote (batch number), informing customers about the geographic origin of the olives, the pressing date, oil producer, place of pressing, liters bottled under the same batch number, date of bottling, degree of acidity, tasting score and tasting notes.



Next for these 'life story' labels? Integration with ‘supply-chain’ codes like barcodes, QR codes and RFID, of course. Which will really take flight when, as is already the case in Japan, millions of consumers have code reading software on their camera-phones. Which means that infinite amounts of information (including images and videos) can be 'attached' to products, satisfying even the most seriously INFOLUSTY consumers. To be continued, though probably not a bad idea to start mapping out your product life stories strategy as soon as possible?

Taking back production
Now, books and labels are fun, but how about setting up entirely new (STILL) MADE HERE ventures? Expect local companies to take back production that's currently based in regions less concerned with eco and ethics. Some examples:


American Apparel The most famous advocate of (STILL) MADE HERE deals with ethical concerns in a radical way: by manufacturing its garments in… high-cost LA. American Apparel now operates the country's largest garment factory, employs more than 5,000 people and operates 145 retail locations in 11 countries. Workers are paid (on average) USD 12 an hour, almost twice as much as California's minimum wage.



American Apparel isn't the only brand to do so: NoSweatApparel calls itself the pioneer of fair trade fashion and footwear, setting (in their own words) an empowered, unionized workforce as the gold standard for fair trade clothing.


And for those of you needing more proof that (STILL) MADE HERE can be profitable and sexy: Ujena offers one of the largest selections of swimwear in the world, yet still manufactures its products in the United States.

Back to edibles: Dutch start-up Happy Shrimp is Europe’s first tropical shrimp farm, located in the very non-tropical port of Rotterdam. Promising fresh (‘superfresh’) shrimp, aimed at local restaurants, the business is taking on low cost shrimp farming in Asia. It does so by smartly capitalizing on trends that the competition may find hard to latch on to.

First of all, Happy Shrimp is thoroughly eco-friendly. Its farm is located next to a power plant and benefits from a heat-exchange system, using waste heat that would otherwise be released into the air. Farm waste, meanwhile, is used in a biological filter bed (many existing shrimp farms in the southern hemisphere pollute coastal wetlands).

Secondly, Happy Shrimp promises demanding consumers that the food on their plate is safe and unpolluted. An ISO 22,000 system is implemented throughout the whole process, while the farm is a closed recirculation system, which means nothing can enter or exit.

Thirdly, as the current trend in food and beverage is all about freshness, with supermarkets increasingly shifting from packed and canned goods to fresh, if not produced on the premises offerings (STILL MADE HERE indeed!), Happy Shrimps prides itself on being able to deliver shrimp to local restaurants within hours after ‘harvesting’, without freezing or month-long travels on mega-freighters. To feast on Happy Shrimp, locals will have to wait until the end of this year: the first baby shrimps arrived at the farm early May, and they’ll be ready for consumption this Christmas.


To completely eliminate transit between source and table — and the need for egg traceability labels — British Omlet brings hens to consumers' gardens and fresh eggs to their table every morning. The company designed a hen kit for urban and suburban gardens, aimed at first-time chicken owners, families and eco-savvy individuals. How it works? Omlet supplies organically reared and fully vaccinated female chickens (no early morning cock-a-doodle-doo), at a cost of GBP 365 (USD 700 / EUR 550). The two-hen service comes complete with an Eglu, an eye-catching, 21st century version of the henhouse. In its first three years of business, the company sold 10,500 Eglus and is now also offering a larger version, the Eglu Cube, capable of housing up to 10 chickens.

Read the rest of this interesting article here .

Now You Can Mine Debeers Diamonds Online

It's June. The month of marriage and weddings. Therefore, this month, there will be posts occasionally dedicated to those who are tying the knot. So, let's start at the beginning, shall we? With the traditional purchase of the rock/stone/bling/ice/diamond......



DeBeers Enters The World of E-Commerce


Last week Luxist mentioned the expansion of Blue Nile's diamonds for sale online, now the diamond behemoth DeBeers is finally joining the internet jewelry business. WWD reports that DeBeers is launching e-commerce on their website. The company will let you spend up to $30,000 for a diamond engagement ring (1.5 carat center stone with two side stones) so far, with plans to let people spend more in the future. The website doesn't include everything that is available in their brick-and-mortar stores, focusing instead on products that are easier to buy without seeing in person such as diamond earrings or tennis bracelets.

For pieces from the High Jewelry collection, such as the Grey and Orange Diamond Ring shown above (11.5 carats of white and fancy-colored diamonds set in platinum) you will still need to make an appointment to see the goods in person. For DeBeers, the good news is that unlike opening a brick-and-mortar store, no one shows up to protest when you open up online.



Article from Women's Wear Daily By Sophia Chabbott below

De Beers and its diamonds are entering cyberspace.

This month, De Beers Diamond Jewelers, the joint venture between South African mining firm De Beers SA and luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is launching e-commerce on its Web site at debeers.com.


E-commerce will be exclusive to the U.S. market and will offer diamond jewelry ranging from a $500 gold pendant detailed with diamonds to a $30,000 engagement ring with a 1.5-carat center stone flanked by two side stones. Prices will climb higher than $30,000 in the future.

The launch comes at a time when luxury goods, namely designer apparel, fine jewelry and handbags, are selling strongly on the Internet on sites such as neimanmarcus.com, Net-a-porter.com and eBay.

The jewelry Web site Bluenile.com has gotten lots of attention and considers itself the largest online retailer of certified diamonds, while smaller Web sites such as Angara.com specialize in novelty diamond jewelry, such as a bib necklace featuring fancy yellow and white diamonds, that climbs well over the $100,000 mark.

Many such sites say engagement rings are top sellers and that consumers can save up to 40 percent shopping online rather than purchasing in a brick-and-mortar store.



De Beers' site offers no such discount incentive, but rather access to the firm's branded jewelry in cities where it doesn't have stores.

The six-year-old brand opened its first store in the U.S. in 2005, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Stores in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas soon followed. Additional units are on deck, including a 1,353-square-foot shop in Houston set to open in August, and a 4,700-square-foot store in San Francisco and a 2,082-square-foot location in Washington, both planned for November. The firm has 14 stores outside the U.S., including locations in London, Paris and Dubai and expects to have 28 to 30 stores internationally by the year's end. But it's the middle of the country that chief executive Guy Leymarie anticipates will drive the site's sales thanks to the brand's cachet.

"Today, e-commerce is clearly the new route [for selling], including goods like diamonds," said Leymarie. "It suits a new concept, a new behavior. [We're] not only [offering] entry prices, but also the very high end."

While competitors like Tiffany & Co. and Cartier have extensive Web sites where consumers can view anything from watches to jewelry, diamond engagement rings are only sold in-store. Cartier doesn't sell online, but Tiffany does.

Leymarie said the firm started its e-commerce effort with the U.S. because the country consumes the most diamonds of any other place on the planet.

De Beers' designer collections, Talisman and Radiance, will also be sold on the site, in addition to classic styles like tennis bracelets and studs.


Above: Necklace from the Talisman Collection available online


"The products that we put on the site are what we consider products that are easy to buy," he added. "For more complex stones or pieces that require more explanation, we'll invite [consumers] to the store for a more complete retail experience so they can benefit from the knowledge of our staff."

All diamonds on the site include De Beers Passport, guaranteeing the provenance of the diamond.


Above: Guy Leymarie

Leymarie declined to give sales projections for the e-commerce business, but said branding is key to the initiative.

"When you think diamonds, you think of De Beers," he said. "Our heritage is not denied. We have a brand name with a very high level of awareness."

Some industry watchers said offering its goods online could take brand awareness to an even higher level.

"Obviously, e-commerce has exploded in a variety of different areas. Some had strong fits and starts," said Andrew Jassin, managing director of Jassin & O'Rourke Group, a New York industry consulting firm. "Being that De Beers is a cornerstone of the diamond business and the luxury business, there's a possibility that they may be more successful than others. [However], the fact is that most customers accustomed to buying luxury jewelry purchases need to feel [the products] and see them to complete the purchase. To a large degree, De Beers in this country is not so well-known. The Web-based business can improve the knowledge of who De Beers is."

Arnold Aronson, managing director of retail strategies at Kurt Salmon Associates, said by democratizing diamond engagement rings via selling online, De Beers has the opportunity to grow its business significantly.


above: Rings from the Talisman Collection available online

The company has been trying to expand so that it is not only known for diamond stud earrings and engagement rings, but as a diamond jewelry house. Hollywood jeweler Neil Lane designs a collection for the firm and British jeweler Stephen Webster, who is known for his sense of rock 'n' roll and bedecking Madonna in his Gothic-inspired pieces, has just signed on to do a men's line.

In October, De Beers is slated to introduce a watch line in conjunction with a Swiss manufacturer. The watches will be within the Talisman collection, which focuses on rough, uncut diamonds.

The Newest Office Chair:Worknest. Available Any Day Now

First it was The Aeron Chair. Then the Mirra. And now, the... Worknest.

Worknest by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, 2006
Worknest is quite the opposite to technical in appearance, deliberately stressing as it does homely features. In the consistency of its design, and its calm, yet emotional shape, it exudes sheer comfort and ingeniously conceals the technical features. Even the armrests are covered with knitted fabric, its extreme elasticity ensuring that the functions are fully maintained. As such Worknest’s invisible, cutting-edge mechanism ensures the harmonious operation of all moving parts while offering maximum ergonomic quality. Available as of summer 2007.

More info:
With the office furniture system Joyn, which was launched in the year 2002, Vitra presented an innovative concept for the contemporary office interior. The marketing success of the Joyn system, developed in collaboration with Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec, has proven its validity as a forward-looking response to the ongoing transformation of working methods and organisation.

At Orgatec 2006, Vitra is now introducing Worknest, an ideal companion chair for the Joyn desking system that was likewise developed in collaboration with the Bouroullec brothers. The office swivel chair Worknest facilitates teamwork, easy communication and interaction, on the one hand. On the other hand – and herein lies its special quality – Worknest reflects a fundamental commitment to the "Nesting" concept. It accommodates the need of employees for a semi-private space, for individuality and a sense of personal well-being – a need that has been previously neglected in the open plan office.

Especially in an open space work environment, the desire for privacy and a touch of domesticity is not merely legitimate: its fulfilment is extremely important for the inspiration and motivation of individuals. This awareness was the impetus for the development of Worknest.

For this reason, special consideration was given to emotional aspects of the chair's design. With its curving, enveloping shape and comparatively soft upholstery, the chair gives an immediate impression of calm invitation. The armrests, which seem to grow naturally out of the seat cushion, are not just a uniquely recognisable design element of Worknest: Together with the actual seat cushion and backrest, they define an interior space that gives the user a pleasant feeling of cosy comfort, like an armchair.



Colour is a fundamental design element of Worknest. The psychological effect of colours and their influence on people's sense of well-being is long established, having been substantiated by many scientific studies. While working on this chair, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec took the aptly articulated observation of Verner Panton to heart: "One sits more comfortably on a colour that one likes."
For the upholstery cover, they assembled a palette of seven different hues, whose earthy warmth has an effect that is both calming and invigorating. The carefully chosen colours not only emphasise the homelike character of Worknest; they also contribute to a positive identification with the office environment.



State-of-the-art knitting technology has been used to produce the precisely fitted upholstery covers for Worknest. This robust knit enhances the quality of the chair and contributes to its functional longevity. Because of its extraordinary elasticity, the knitted cover fabric adapts effortlessly to the height adjustment of the armrests. Thanks to its special characteristics, this knit offers further advantages: the cover is custom fit to the shape of the chair, thereby eliminating the need for seams or folds, which can be irritating. In addition, the high breathability of the knit cover, in comparison to denser woven fabrics, enhances seating comfort.



Worknest naturally incorporates all of the technical features that are expected of an office swivel chair in the modern work environment: a synchronised mechanism, adaptable backrest resistance, height-adjustable armrests and an individually adjustable lumbar support. However, this hidden technology plays a subordinate role in the chair's appearance. For the exemplary degree to which Worknest fulfils the demands placed on a contemporary office chair is not evidenced in its technical features, but in the calming, homelike touches it brings to the highly standardised, even sterile world of the office.

Click here for more information and /or to order