The Ainu village of about 120 people consists of many artists and artisans, who still practice ancient techniques like hand-carving traditional motifs into wooden plates. To translate the project to ceramic, the artisans carved wood blocks that press the patterns into the plates before they’re fired. The result is a beautiful twist on “Arita ware,” the name for porcelain produced in Arita, which has a history of ceramics dating back to the early 1600s, when porcelain stone was discovered in the area. This porcelain became a well-known luxury product within Japan and around the world, where it was often called “Imari.”

The project was initiated by Akan Ainu Consuln, an organization founded in a small Ainu settlement. The Ainu are the indigenous people of Japan, who now mostly live on the northernmost island of Hokkaido. “We have an accent culture, born from a lifestyle of harmony with nature,” they explain. “Among traditional Ainu culture lives a rich tradition of crafts, including wood carving, textiles, embroidery, and more featuring unique patterns and designs. Akan Ainu Consuln works to disseminate Ainu culture and protect Ainu intellectual property related to Ainu performance arts, the Ainu language, Ainu cooking, and traditional Ainu designs.”

The group works directly with artists and creators in Ainu to facilitate collaborations with other creative traditions of Japan. In this case, it’s two potteries in Arita called Kyuemon and Yamaheigama. They hope to draw attention to the Akanko Ainu Kotan village and its unique culture, bringing in tourism revenue that can help keep its traditions alive.

“Since the pandemic hit, tourism to Akanko Ainu Kotan has dropped dramatically, especially among foreign tourists who aren’t allowed in the country right now,” says Akan Ainu Consuln. “This project serves as a chance to bring in some much-needed revenue to our artists, as well as deliver a piece of Ankanko Ainu Kotan to people who can’t visit in person right now.”

The plates include designs by five Ainu artisans: Fukiko Goukon, Erika Katsuya, Masaki Saito, Kiyosho Hikawa, and Hideharu Taira. “I came up with my designs while hoping that Ainu culture will become better known throughout the world,” says Goukon. “I made designs that incorporate traditional lucky Japanese patterns in order to reflect the collaboration with Arita ware, while still staying true to classic Ainu patterns.”

A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign raised over $25,000 to bring the project to life, offering backers the choice between each artist’s collections as rewards. Once the campaign is fulfilled, the creators hope to offer the plates to the wider public. If you missed it, keep an eye on the page for future updates.

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To understand how this is possible, it helps to know a little bit about how records work. To put it in simple terms, sound waves are always moving through some sort of medium, whether it be air, water, or a solid material. When sound waves are directed toward a membrane called a diaphragm attached to a needle, the needle vibrates accordingly and etches the waves into a flat disc. When you run a stylus attached to a tone arm through those grooves, the original sound is reproduced.

Though we can’t typically see them, the patterns of sound waves can be surprisingly beautiful, with every recording bearing its own unique look. The different pitches and rhythms on a recording produce squiggles and waves that might undulate gently in softer recordings or become a bit chaotic in more intense ones. A new project called “Plate Recorder” by the Tel Aviv-based artists Liat Segal and Roy Maayan not only lets us view these patterns as visual art, but captures them in a highly unusual way.

Displayed earlier this year at Jerusalem Design Week, “Plate Recorder” pays tribute to the human voice while exploring the boundaries between retro nostalgia and modern experimental art. Engaging multiple senses at once, the project involves a special instrument that etches live performances into black ceramic plates, often in front of a live audience. Onlookers not only experience the sounds as they’re created — they also watch as they’re recorded in real time.

“At times of information overload, we are constantly exposed to visual, auditory, and textual inputs,” says Segal. “Social networks and news feeds create new expression channels, yet, at the same time, challenge our ability to genuinely hear, see, and touch. Plate Recorder is a digital era homage to analog, connecting sound, visual, and matter in the physical domain. Ready-made ceramic plates are used as a medium for recording sounds. A custom-built painting machine is etching sound waves, creating ‘ceramic plate records.’”

“The sounds have been donated by various sources and people. They have then been collected, tagged, and categorized by the artists, along with the stories underlying them, into a physical archive of sound and being.”

The creators solicited sounds from supporters on Facebook prior to actually starting on the project. They also recorded additional performances at special events like the Cluj Ceramics Biennale in 2017 and the Latvia International Ceramics Biennale in 2018. If you weren’t able to see the etchings as they were produced, don’t worry: you can still experience them in another way.

Check out the Plate Recorder Facebook page for videos of the recordings in action, and view the entire catalogue of etched ceramic plates on Liat Segal’s website. Though the audio isn’t attached, the descriptions do tell us a little about why the sound waves look the way they do, as seen in things like a speech about nuclear weapons by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the songs of children.

The post Plate Recorder: Custom Machine Etches Sound Waves into Ordinary Dishware first appeared on Dornob.

Here are four brilliant sustainable alternatives to plastic cutlery that’ll bring about positive change in the world and start a ton of interesting conversations!

VerTerra

VerTerra Dinnerware is the originator of palm leaf plates. Made from 100-percent renewable resources and officially recognized by the Smithsonian as being the first of its kind in the USA, VerTerra’s “Fallen Leaves” collection offers some great sustainable alternatives to disposable paper and plastic plates. The designs have been described as stylish and chic whilst remaining true to their functionality with environmental impact. Made of only two simple products, fallen palm leaves and water, these plates will naturally biodegrade around two months after their disposal.

This dinnerware collection is versatile in terms of options, sizes, and styles, so no matter what you’re cooking, you can do it with a clean conscience!

Bare by Solo

This well known dinnerware company offers a compostable product line that’s made entirely from renewable sugar cane. Their PLA-lined hot cup has been specially designed to biodegrade quickly and fully. With its secure lid, the cup is ideal for hot drinks and life on the go!

Veneerware

Made from 100-percent organic bamboo, these biodegradable products from bambu will disintegrate four to six months after disposal and are sturdy enough to handle even the heartiest of meals. Available in bulk for big events like weddings and parties or smaller packs for dinner dates and family gatherings, these plates can even be reused a few times before being disposed of. Chemical and pesticide free, FDA approved and USDA Biobased certified, this dinnerware should be your go-to eco-friendly catering companion.

World Centric

The World Centric collection is made from wheat straw and leftover agricultural fibers, making it a completely renewable resource. The products in it are all microwave and freezer safe, allowing them to be used to carry both hot and cold food without any wax lining or plastic. The plates are also compostable and soak proof, so you can always reuse them if you want. Available in four different styles, these are the ideal dishes to help you host a huge party!

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Shaking hands is a shaky proposition when you are carrying around both food and drink at a gathering, and stems generally make things all the more complicated because you cannot set your beverage down on your plate.

Katarzyna Borkowska and Tomasz Pydo of KABO&PYDO have a rather elegant solution to this timeless problem, in the form of a folded ceramic plate with a hole to accommodate tapered-neck glassware.

Even tipping the combination will not send your drink flying – sure, it could still spill, but that is a risk, regardless. One complaint, though: the plate has an elegant curve and looks a bit like a painter’s palette, but the glasses are a bit clunky by comparison.

“The dishes are intended for cocktail banquets, where people are standing, changing places often and chatting. The set consists of a plate and two glasses (for wine or for water and juice). The advantage of this project is the ability to hold a plate and a glass in one hand. The user has a free other hand, which he can put on attachments without any difficulty, hold a fork or shake the interlocutor’s hand.”

About the designers:

“KABO & PYDO is a proprietary, interdisciplinary design studio with extensive experience, founded by design designers Katarzyna Borkowska and Tomasz Pydo.”

“We design products and visual communications in many industries, mainly for industrial producers. We are looking for innovative solutions in every design process. We treat design as a tool to achieve the business goals of enterprises and meet the needs of users. We support companies in creating design strategies. We use the Design Thinking methodology.”

“Sustainable development, relationships with people, intangible assets and social aspects of products are important to us. With our work, we want to improve the environment of humans, animals and plants. Respect and harmony are the values ​​that guide us as designers and as people.”

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One would think that for something so universally beloved all good design ideas would have been long-since exhausted … but one would be wrong.

The process of pizza eating can be messy at best, involving the movement of slices directly to the hand (or handheld napkin) or to a plate from which one then picks up each slice again.

Skipping redundant steps and making things a lot cleaner all around, these combination plates, hand-grips and pizza bases should really come with every major chain delivery. Design by Yu Kyung Ha, Won Min Jung & Kwon Young Hee

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From napkins, bowls and plates down to a range of spatulas, spoons, forks and knives representing a range of sizes, this series of bread-based tableware is nothing if not comprehensive (but definitely has a limited shelf life).

Created by artist Andere Monjo, each carefully hand-crafted piece was clearly a labor of love, somewhere at the brittle-but-soft intersection of two classic crafts: dinnerware construction and meal preparation. Edible dishware is not a new concept, as anyone who has eaten out of a bread bowl can attest to, but this is definitely a unique extreme when it comes to making things from simple flour and water.

Unfortunately, the ingredients and process clearly require a bit more work before you could imagine seeing these on store shelves – getting bread to be as sharp as a knife or a serving spoon able to carry heavy loads … well, these still have a ways to go. Still, isn’t it kind of satisfying to imagine eating a whole meal with these and then snapping into them like crackers afterward? It’s a clever way to reduce waste.

Via MocoLoco:

“Flour and water were the mixed media that made up Baked Table, an unusual installation by Andere Monjo at Designersblock’s Bargehouse during the recent London Design Festival. Drawing upon the tradition of baking bread as a craft, Monjo created a complete set of tableware, including linens out of flour and water that formed dough that hardened to a more brittle state. Various seeds were used to highlight details in the ’embroidery’ or “ceramics.'”

Flour and water were an unusual choice of artistic media for artist Andere Monjo, who usually works with more conventional materials like textile, paints and canvases. But it’s interesting to see how that artistic skill translates to totally different objects, maintaining a similar organic, improvisational feel.

You can keep up with what Andere Monjo is doing these days on Instagram @anderemonjo.

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Suspend your disbelief for the purposes of this design, and assume for a moment it were within the realm of possibility – or might be someday soon. The idea, if nothing else, is a thing of beauty.

A simple, slightly-curved dish holds fresh fruits – a pillar in the middle ensures freshness by deploying a film of water around it in all directions, protecting what is inside. It locks in moisture and freshness but keeps out the flies and dust. Even if it could be produced as such, making it remotely energy efficient may be a big challenge.

And now for the real stretch: a sensor ‘sees’ your hand coming and parts the flow of water around it, letting you access an apple, orange or banana as needed, then closes around you as your limb retreats. Designer Yitu Wang does not yet have a method for manufacturing this (no surprise there) but who knows what may be possible with new technologies down the line.

The post Fresh & Futuristic: H20 Force-Field Shields Fruit with Water first appeared on Dornob.

Pockmarked, scarred and rusted from years spent traveling through the planet’s vast oceans, fused metal plates make for an ominous inhabitable structure … but perhaps one that would blend in well with a post-apocalyptic industrial landscape. End of the world? No biggie. Just get inside this thing.

Benches, a toilet, a stove and a single industrial-style light complete the picture on the interior using rusticated wood and metal pieces, joints and fasteners .. the kinds of components someone might scrounge for and find after the world ends.

Heavy paint-stripped steel doors hang on giant industrial refrigerator hinges, swinging outward when the padlock and chain are removed. How one would actually move this supposedly-portable monstrosity in a true emergency is another question.

Welded connections and attachments are barely noticeable against the existing wear and tear, but if one looks close there is a surprising attention to detail, form and structure underlying the apparent chaos.

Atelier Van Lieshout designed this as a statement about the current state of society – a (perhaps bleak) reflection of some contemporary condition. Regardless of the objectives, however, the space is compelling in its own right – albeit dark and dreary too.

More from the designers

“Huge change is no longer in the past or future but in the present. Our society as we know it and have known to be safe is fast-changing. Value systems of yesterday are no longer relevant. A new civilization is ahead of us. This ideological society offers choice; are we able to find alternate ways of living, another model or are our days counted? The changing climate, growing poverty, wars an more are only expanding. This movable nomadic dwelling unit provides shelter from this disconcerting situation.”

The post Indestructible Steel Cabin to Withstand the End of the World first appeared on Dornob.

Architects envision perfect decorative spaces, but sometimes forget about the design details that all homes have – such as electrical outlet plates and light switch covers. This clever camouflage idea requires no magic cloak, just a transparent material and some stealth technology, which (in some models) even hides the switch screws and other associated hardware tucked invisibly inside the walls themselves.

Conventional outlet covers are simple devices that operate on elemental principles of balance: they have two prominent holes that allow you to fasten them to a stable surface via three points of connections. The optical illusion of these defies structural logic: how can they possibly stay attached without screws or glue?

Some of these Lomax switch plates still work that traditional way aside from the translucent plastic covers, but others have hidden washers, secret shims, spacers and an inner plate allowing them to disappear from view once installed. The apparent parts (switchers and dimmers) are available in standard steel, silver, bronze and brass.

Rather than acting as a screen in front of a wall, the idea with these variants is to let the decorative (or decor-free) properties of the surface stand out, whether that be a wallpaper pattern or one-color painted surface. The effect is less profound with the combination electrical-outlet-and-switch covers though (below).

And for those do-it-yourself drywalling types: you still do not have to be particularly careful when you cut the hole in which to slot the switch plates – like the normal variety, there is room for errors that will later be covered up by whatever you use to decorate around the light (which will sit on the secondary plate behind the clear surface).

You might not usually think twice about a small, functional element in your home like a light switch, but this clearly cool design demonstrates how much of a difference paying attention to detail can make.

The post Power of Invisibility: 7 See-Through Electrical Cover Plates first appeared on Dornob.

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As wireless as our world has become, there are still many cords snaking along the floors and walls of most of our homes. This designer has taken a fresh look at the issue of storing cables, hiding cords and turning conventional electric accessories into artistic decorative elements.

Oboiler designs ask basic questions about our use of conventional outlet objects, such as the near-universal two-screw white cover plate we see everywhere. Could these be used more broadly as electric outlet wallpaper or other decor? Could we remind ourselves of the value of energy by turning a socket into a hidden wall coin bank?

Here’s what they have to say about the Plaited Cord, above:

“In an effort to keep the fantastic art of ropework alive and to solve the problem of overwhelming electronic entanglement, I am attempting to link the two as a repurposed technology solution.”

“The tall clipper ships of yesterday are hard to find now. The men who sailed them are slowly disappearing along with their arts and very specialized skills. One of the most tragic victems of this trend is ropework.”

“The simple act of securing two bits of string is enough to confound most people. In the heyday of sailing, there was a knot for every part of the ship. This old world technology that has been placed by the way side may find the perfect place in todays electronics industry.”

Wall socket plates come in all shapes and sizes but their designs tend to involve layering a new aesthetic on a standardized fixture. These unique electrical socket peripherals and accessories by Oboiler challenge the very basic ideas we have about plugs, cables, cords and sockets. Some of these are functional – providing new ways to wrap and store cords – while others are more conceptual, twisting cables into unusual or unique configurations. What do you wish your wall socket could do?

The post 5 Offbeat Outlets & Cord-Hiding Solutions first appeared on Dornob.

Who ever thought that the best way to get healthy might be through buying tableware designed with staying fit in mind? These simple portion control plates, bowls and cups have a plus sign on the one side and a minus on the other, with correspondingly regular and small volumes depending on your portion needs for a particular meal.

Not quite clever enough for you? This offbeat tableware by Soo Kwon also stacks in two different ways to reflect its functions: stacked with the plus side up the set forms a short and fat stack but stacked with the minus side up the set becomes tall and skinny, a conceptual reflection of your fitness (or rather, weight control) goals.

While the specific portions might not be custom-catered to each diet and other design issues could be cited, this minimalist tableware seems a fair bit more aesthetically acceptable than the plastic-clad weight loss foods found in your local grocery store freezer isle.

The design, naturally, isn’t fool-proof. There’s nothing to stop you from filling as many of the vessels as you feel like at any given time. It’s not like one of those dog portion control dishes that make it hard to eat around, slowing you down. Would those work for humans? A question to ponder, we guess.

More from the designer

“Dining today is all about self-management. The plus minus(±) system introduces both a simple and inexpensive solution to lower the diner’s stress while helping them to attain better health. Each bowls and dishes provide two different portions, small portion on one side or flip the bowl for regular portion on the other side. It also plays gesture with stacking, with the small portions, the whole dinnerware become tall and skinny and other side around, the set becomes shorter and fatter.”

About Soo Kwon

“Soo Kwon is a recent graduate from Art Center College of Design with a Bachelor of Sciences in Product Design. Her passions include home accessories, furniture, develop products that build or creates new relationship with people and objects.”

The post Do You Think This Portion Control Plate Can Stop Overeating? first appeared on Dornob.