I’m excited that Garth decided to revive one of my favorite running series on Cfile. There’s something relaxing about starting out the weekend with a cup of coffee and four or five fun ceramics videos. We’re sitting on a mountain of contemporary ceramics video content, meaning that we can organize these by theme. Let’s breathe some new life into Friday videos with one of my favorite ceramic topics: contemporary design.
Now, let’s see… What’s a relaxing way to start the weekend? I know! Piles and piles of worms!
Marco Balsinha’s Uroboro Vermicompost Vase
Ecology-minded Portuguese designer Marco Balsinha created a handsome terracotta vase that hides a creepy crawly secret: it’s a vessel for vermicomposting! Simply throw your organic waste and a few dozen of your invertebrate friends into the pot and watch the miracle of lower lifeforms care for your favorite houseplants. It’s graded on the side, so you can keep an eye on how far the worms have munched into your leftovers. Perfect for home decor and people who love unorthodox pets.
A Less-Mess Coffee Set
Los Angeles-based industrial designer Hirotaka Matsui worked with Zasso design to create a coffee cup that aims to eliminate coffee-time clutter. The cup is nested within a dish that is just large enough to hold a creamer, napkin and a sugar packet. Not only does this keep one’s breakfast area clinically organized, it also frees the user from juggling a bunch of objects. The text accompanying the video is a dodgy translation, but it reads like a poem, a cautionary tale about coffeetime disasters:
The capacity of traditional saucer is being pushed to its limit; Support the cup, catch the spill, carry condiments, spoon, biscuit, and then collect trash or used tea bags…The result of this? Wet pile of trash on your ceremonial saucer, and now your mug is sitting on a piece of napkin.
Musique Concrete “Céramique”
This is more in the animation/music video camp rather than design, but the song resonates (pardon) with the pieces on the screen. They feed off one another. I make the reference to musique concrete because I’m positive that resonant rhythm section in the back was built from ceramic objects. This video comes to us from Florian Geux, who directed it to highlight pieces made for the school of arts at Vevey. Dig those textures!
Press Espresso Set by KAMP.studio
I feel as though the earlier coffee set in this post was clever. It solved a functional need. KAMP.studio’s set is almost purely aesthetic. I’d love to have this simple, matte black coffee set to start my day. Mornings are confrontational. You wake up from the black void of sleep to the sun invading your living space and a list of tasks demanding your attention. This set seems to commiserate with you. The best friends recognize when you’re in a lousy mood and offer themselves as allies rather than trying to make you feel better. The obelisk-like carafe sets the tone while the indentations in the mug offer the most basic of assists in completing one’s task: funneling coffee into your face before the horror starts. I couldn’t help but notice the carafe dripping onto the table, though. No one’s perfect.
Bill Rodgers is a writer with cfile.daily.
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