According to a recent feature in the Los Angeles Times, local gem shops are being cleaned out of their largest pieces, selling things like organically carved geode loveseats, coffee tables with crystal bases, and gigantic horizontal slices mounted as sculpture.

Cheryl Rey, curator and manager of West Hollywood’s Crystalarium shop, has sold four massive gem chairs over the past few months, each valued at a cool $45,000. An amethyst version went to a famous singer, a matching set was sold to a Bel Air couple for pool furniture, and despite its 900-pound frame, the fourth, made from white quartz, was loaded on to a customer’s luxury yacht. Thanks to customers like these, it’s reported that the “near-gemstone” business has turned into a $1 billion global industry annually.

So why is there such a growing fascination with crystals? “People have always had this fascination with precious stones. But people latched on to crystals partly because they have these contradictory physical qualities: They are both dark and transparent. You can see through them, but not really,” says Stanford professor Marisa Galvez, an expert on crystal history.

“In the Middle Ages, people also thought that crystals would bring a spiritual presence. People had this hunger to have something physical that embodies faith and spirituality. People still have that hunger now, and that’s why crystals are so popular. Crystals, in a way, fulfill a spiritual need for some people. Some people go to church, some do yoga, and others collect and meditate with crystals.”

Many celebrities have championed the mystical properties of crystals in recent years. Singer-designer Victoria Beckham is so enamored of their healing powers that she built them into her fashion creations in 2018. “We clipped crystals onto belt loops and included secret pockets for them on wide leg trousers — so you can carry charms wherever you go,” Beckham explained in an interview with Elle magazine.

Singer Adele divulged that she holds crystals to conquer stage fright, while Kim Kardashian has a crystal-themed perfume line and model Miranda Kerr keeps them in her bathtub.

“Over the years, what I have found with the very wealthy is that they are into alternative methods of everything,” Rayni Williams, a luxury real estate agent in Beverly Hills told the LA Times. And Williams is into the crystal craze as well, placing several enormous pieces in her offices to “bring abundance” and for “accruing good real estate and protecting your assets.”

Of course, the recent COVID-19 lockdowns have likely factored into the more recent surge in crystal decor popularity. Wealthy individuals, bored, depressed, and looking to one-up their neighbors have turned to near-gems as an alternative to fine art. These giant geodes are similarly rare, with every piece being totally unique. They also create immense visual drama and spectacle in a home.

There is a concern, however, that the trend cannot continue forever. “It’s a beautiful thing to know that the stones are catching on, but there’s a finite quantity of them,” said Rey of the Crystalarium, who has done business with well-heeled buyers from all over the globe. “Once it’s collected, it’s all gone.”

The post The Latest Trend Among the Uber-Rich? Giant Crystals as Home Decor first appeared on Dornob.

Intensely Political and Unearthly

Cave was working in his studio back in 2014 when he learned about Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old who was gunned down by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Upon hearing the news, Cave says the question “Is there racism in heaven?” immediately popped into his head, ultimately serving to inspire his new Until project.

At first glance, the exhibition looks like an intricate Christmas-time display you might expect to see in the window of a large department store, consisting of over nine miles of crystals and shiny baubles, millions of pony beads, thousands of colorful fruit miniatures, an array of animals and birds, 24 garish chandeliers, and spinning discs, all surrounded by dreamy lights and sheer fabrics. Upon closer inspection, however, one begins to see the images of guns and bullets hidden among the glitz and bric-a-brac. 17 cast-iron eerily smiling lawn jockeys — the racially insensitive little statues Americans used to install in their yards as decorative hitching posts — are also prominent in the exhibition. Slowly but surely, Cave’s theme of condemning gun violence, specifically the black casualties of police brutality, clearly emerges.

A five-ton, 36-by-nine-foot iridescent crystal cloud reflects the entire spectacle. As it captures an increasing amount of attention among visitors, more images emerge at its core, from cockatoos crafted from cast iron to even more lawn jockeys, these ones clasping handmade dreamcatchers as if attempting to capture their vision for a better world.

The Road to Until

Cave has enjoyed artistic success for many years. Before Until, his 2016 show HEARD.SID was also featured at Carriageworks, that piece centering around dozens of capricious figures depicting horses galloping through the venue.

Cave’s personal journey took him down a number of paths, all of which he attributes to his personal and professional success. The youngest of six children, he recalled his upbringing in an interview as being full of “unconditional love.” He studied performance and dance at the Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri and then at the prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York. When he’s not creating art, Cave serves as a professor at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.

Although he was always too busy for a relationship in his younger days, he met his partner, artist and designer Bob Faust, eight years ago. Besides his relationship with Faust, Cave finds balance by devoting parts of his day to the sounds of silence: no radio, no TV, no music, and no phones. He explains: “I think if we all gave ourselves one hour a day in silence, we would live in a different world.”

The post Nick Cave’s “Until” Installation Poses a Political Question first appeared on Dornob.

Located in the revitalized Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood, which is popular among young families and single professionals alike, La Géode slots into the existing urban landscape without overwhelming its surroundings. The subdued brick helps it blend into a neighboring apartment building on one side and a corner store on the other to avoid changing the architectural character of the community. The architects wanted to work with the concept of “soft densification,” which entails keeping families in major cities during periods of significant growth.

Walk through that geometric corridor, and you’ll not only find that the building’s general aesthetic transforms into something softer and brighter, but you’ll also discover a hidden void that functions as a private, protected courtyard for residents to enjoy. Full of lush greenery, this courtyard feels organic and alive, and it provides a healthy place for children to play in amidst the surrounding urban sprawl. The element of surprise and the feeling of having discovered something unexpected make this space all the more beautiful.

ADHOC incorporated an existing alley into the design to make room for the courtyard without having to sacrifice any space inside the building’s five residential units. Without it, these apartments could easily feel dark and isolated, and they’d only receive natural light from the windows overlooking the heavily trafficked streets below. Not only does the courtyard flood these living spaces with daylight while preserving privacy and offering more serene views, but it also eliminates the need for dim interior hallways.

“A narrative spin has nourished the inspiration of the project while supporting the architectural concept that valued an open central heart and a peripheral organization. This concept is inspired by the geode; a hollowed mineral mass whose interior is covered by crystals.”

“The geode, under an austere and protective external appearance, conceals a true crystalline treasure. It reveals a natural form of staging that stimulates inspiration around the notion of contrast. This concept is exploited through the project at different levels. The exterior of the building is very sober, characterized by a modest materiality.”

“The headers in the brick layer and the openwork masonry in front of the windows and loggias reflect the mineral roughness and protective aspect of the geode. The inner courtyard reflects its crystalline and blazing materiality. The courtyard then became an urban oasis for the inhabitants who can share and talk together, developing a strong social sense of belonging.”

La Géode is expected to become the first multi-unit building to achieve LEED v4 certification in Canada thanks to low impact building strategies, energy efficiency, and the use of sustainable materials. Of course, this standardized measure of sustainability in architecture is performance-based and calls for measurable results throughout a building’s life cycle.

The post Montreal Apartment Facade Hides a Real Gem first appeared on Dornob.

At its core the Polaroid Zip is lightweight, weighing only 6.6 ounces or around the size of a small hard drive. It’s only 2.5 centimeters thick, so users should have no problem throwing it in a bag or pocket when they’re on the go. It has a gloss finish, however, which looks nice but seems like an odd choice for something that’s supposed to be mobile and could get scratched easily.

Set up was very simple; we turned it on and it connected to an app on our phone to walk us through the few steps. The exterior doesn’t have much, just a power button, micro-USB charging port, a reset button, and a spot for your photos to come out. To load the Zink paper, you only need to slide the top back and the pop the panel off. A full charge should last about 25 prints.

The Zink printing technology is really the most interesting part of this portable printer. Zink paper is a special technology that produces instant prints without ink. The paper is made up of several layers: the backing, heat-sensitive layers embedded with colorless cyan, magenta, and yellow dye crystals, and an overcoat. The paper appears white until the printer adds controlled heat that varies in pulse length and intensity, melting the crystals and causing a chemical reaction that allows them to retain color and solidify.

To get technical, the top layer is comprised of yellow colorless crystals, and responds to short high-heat pulses. Magenta makes up the middle and changes based on longer moderate-heat pulses, while cyan lies at the bottom and reacts to long low-heat pulses. They are separated by thin layers that act as heat insulation to moderate the thermal reactions. The end result is smudge-proof, instant prints that don’t need time to develop.

The print itself takes less than a minute to make (we clocked it at about 45 seconds). The printer doesn’t make a lot of noise, but it does make a whirring-type sound when it prints, so don’t use it in the middle of the bride and groom’s wedding vows. We were also impressed with the quality – while it doesn’t create the perfect photos you would expect from an Inkjet or dye-sub printer, the images were crisp and clear. If anything, they felt a little oversaturated.

Zink sheets come in packs of ten, and our Zip printer took the 3 x 2-inch size. It had the typical glossy finish and thickness of a classic developed photo. The paper has a sticky back if you want to display your photos easily. It wasn’t obviously apparent and it’s not the easiest to peel, but the coating works pretty well once you get the backing off. This makes the Zip printer ideal for things like taking and mounting quick ID photos. The adhesive didn’t have a super glue-like grip, but it also didn’t damage any of the surfaces we placed it on. It stuck well to indoor objects and surfaces, but it will fall off of something more textured or placed outdoors after a bit. This is a photo, after all, so it worked well for the items you would use it on, if you choose to use the adhesive feature at all.

Overall, this is a fun device to tote around on a day trip or at a party. Its small design is convenient, there’s no risk of an ink cartridge breaking, and the photos are perfect for playful montages or anything else you need a quick print of. The print won’t match the HD quality you see on your phone, but it gets the job done. At the time of writing, the Polaroid Zip printer hovers above $120 and Zink photo paper refills cost about 25 cents per sheet. It’s not the cheapest of options, but it’s priced far below similar transportable printers.

Zink paper provides a creative solution in an area that has seemed to stagnate after the digital boom. We’re excited to see where this technology goes in the future and how it will be repurposed in other fields.

The post Product Review: Polaroid Zink & Zip first appeared on Dornob.

The post Crystal Houses: MVRDV Puts a Modern Spin on Traditional Design first appeared on Dornob.

No matter how much you try to spruce them up, game tables always manage to look incredibly retro. The fuzzy green surfaces of pool tables are often comforting and nostalgic, and for many of us, the classic game room is more than enough to satisfy our personal recreation needs. Still, where does one turn when shopping for a game table to place among all the mid-century modern furniture in their $10 million estate?

The answer is Calma e Gesso, a new luxury design brand headed by Italian brothers Davide and Gabriele Adriano and American architect Gregg Brodarick. A quick glance through their catalog reveals a lot about the company. The brand offers a series of luxury lifestyle products, including a set of high-class game tables that would fit in with any modern décor. From the outset of the project, the designers knew they wanted to create a sleek alternative to the bulky design of conventional pool tables. The “Filotto” Pool Table is the culmination of their vision.

“The first challenge of Calma e Gesso has been in recreating a product with such a long history but so little evolution,” says the company. “The billiards, or pool table has always been a work of artisan carpentry, even up until the present day, but it is a design ‘frozen in time.’ Taking the strongest traditional elements from the table designs of established artisans and re-interpreting them with a series of innovative, patented solutions, Calma e Gesso has succeeded in recreating the familiar green wool suspended in an ethereal crystal structure.”

The Lungolinea table, which features a transparent glass surface and a minimalist mesh net, brings the same aesthetic considerations to ping-pong. Designed to meet professional specifications, Lungolinea offers all the functionality of a standard ping-pong table. The only difference is, the Calma e Gesso model looks a million times better.

Adriano Design, Calma e Gesso’s parent company, also offers a variety of foosball tables under the brand name TECKELL, including the “Contropiede.” “It was definitely challenging to completely bend the rules through a ‘game furniture item,’ turning a football table from a plain bar furnishing into a refined furniture piece which could feature heavily in a sitting room, and we were successful beyond imagination,” explain the designers. TECKELL also manufactures “Angolo” and “90 Degree Minuto” models, which sport polished wooden legs, and a smaller “Intervallo” model for children. The “Cristallino” is available in the company’s iconic crystal or in “Cristallino Gold,” complete with 24-karat-gold plated players for those who really feel like flaunting their wealth.

Sure, there’s something almost cartoonishly ostentatious about a gold-plated foosball table, and the Adriano brothers mince no words when discussing the “bourgeois” origins of game tables in the palaces of old. If, like most of us, you can only dream about ordering one of these sparkling crystal tables for your home, take comfort in the fact that Calma e Gesso’s innovative designs are sure to inspire some lower-priced (but still completely modern and minimalist) options in the near future.

The post Game Tables as Art: Luxury Billiards, Pingpong, & Foosball first appeared on Dornob.

Crystals seeded onto discarded French chandeliers and candelabras literally bloom like flowers over time, growing as if they’re alive. For his ‘Overgrown’ collection, artist Mark Sturkenboom accumulated unwanted objects and utterly transformed them, taking ‘trash to treasure’ to a whole new level. The chunky, irregular crystals are reminiscent of ice or salt and have a wild, uncontrollable appearance, mimicking what much of the Earth might look like if humans disappeared and it were left to its own devices.

That’s the idea behind the series, says Sturkenboom, who envisions “relics from a desolate flooded world.” After poring through junk shops and curbside toss-aways for antique brass chandeliers in Paris, the designer plated them in 14 karat gold and coated them in a crystal growing fluid he brewed himself, creating “the perfect conditions to set a hyperevolution in motion.”

The pieces in the Overgrown collection are presented in their finished state, but it would have been cool to see the whole process as the crystals developed, changing the shape of each object over time. They definitely look like they could have been pulled from the frozen sea a few thousand years from now, as the artist intended. They’re available via Sturkenboom’s website, ranging from 850-1200 euros.

More from the artist

“Our world is cluttered with stuff, how would the world look like a few thousand years from now? Overgrown is a series of chandeliers and candelabra that appear to be relics from that desolate flooded world where the influence of time is key. A theme that’s intertwined with Sturkenboom’s oeuvre. Atelier Mark Sturkenboom designed a fluid, based on minerals, which allows objects to grow crystals over a period of time.”

“He reclaimed antique French chandeliers and candelabra and created the perfect conditions to set a hyper-evolution in motion where every object grows out to be a unique piece, a modern interpretation of a crystal chandelier. These pieces are part of Sturkenboom’s ongoing fascination of the influence that hyper-deterioration has on modern life, glimpsing in the future. It is also possible for us to transform museum pieces, inheritance pieces or special objects to your liking.”

The post Old French Chandeliers Become Living Lights When Seeded with Crystals first appeared on Dornob.

Ever pause and hold the handle, wondering what you might find waiting for you on the other side of the door? Like a little real-life snow globe, interior scenes are captured in real time and reflected as a miniature world for you to view before you decide to turn and enter.

Hideyuki Nakayama designed these unique openers with?UNION, currently on display but soon to be manufactured and sold at retail outlets. ?The catch, of course, is that you would not want to replace every entry lever with such a device: privacy being a primary concern for front doors, bedrooms and the like.

Still, for safety reasons it might be helpful to know ahead of time what might be happening in a shared hallway or public space – essentially, these may prove to be more useful as a new form of peep hole that lets residents look out rather than giving invited (or uninvited) guests the chance to look in.

The post Real Crystal Ball: Luminous Interior Sneak-Peak Door Knob first appeared on Dornob.