S n i p p e t  *  9       B U T T O N    M A S A L A

Text: Divya Agrawal

Image:  republicofchic.in

Clothes without a stitch! 

By designer Anuj Sharma 

Anuj uses only buttons, rubber bands & at times button straps to create wearable garments. Reinvention, experimentation & giving in to the creative side are the bywords here.

See a very inventive undertaking by the Designer here: 1 piece of fabric & its 20 facets

http://www.pinterest.com/buttonmasala/button-masala-one-hour-trial/

C L O T H E S      W i t h    a     D I F F E R E N C E

Text: Divya Agrawal

Indian Summers are varied & colorful. The plains are sweltering hot, hill stations cool. Some places have added humidity. North witnesses dust storms. Roads burn & its a luxury to be indoors during afternoons. All await Monsoons - a four month long play with rains in India!

Despite the heat and humidity, I am enjoying Summer for its fruits - Mangoes & Litchi :) This is the ideal time to drown oneself in cool fruit drinks. Check out Paperboat for some amazing Indian flavors.

And now for those of us rummaging for comfortable cottons to beat the summer heat, clothes with a difference, all the way from Thailand, by Cocoricooo. 

A team of six manages this label, that uses only natural fabrics - cotton, rayon, linen, silk. Working out of Chiang Mai, a beautiful mountain city in Thailand, the team derives inspiration from nature around it. 

Cocoricooo, to me is "Out of the box Designs". 

Be it Dresses, Tops or Bottoms (especially) one can see a new take on garment design & construction.

I particularly liked this shrug for its many 'avataars'!

Bottoms - neither a trouser nor a skirt! 

What shall we call this but pure Ingenuity..

Easy silhouettes and fine detailing are the hallmarks of this label. 

I love the flow & fall of these garments.

Don't you love their color palette - earthy in line with the natural fabrics they use. 

Again, a different take on winter coats. Still a few months away for those of us in the midst of summers to consider :)

Cocoricooo sells online through sites like Etsy & Dwanda.  

A great advantage is you get to choose from their fabric swatches, the color you would like the garment made in!

Go summer shopping here from Cocoricooo

All images: Cocoricooo

You may leave comments on our facebook page here

 

Text & creative layout copyrights: Onthedesignboat  

 

"Like" our facebook page & stay connected with On the Design Boat   

Also stand a chance to win a fabulous Giveaway!

P L A Y F U L N E S S    P E R S O N I F I E D

Text: Hina Nitesh

If I said crochet and playgrounds in the same breath, I would probably get a blank expression from you. 

But just keep this is mind while I take you back to the time in design school when one of the creativity exercises involved magnifying and minimizing elements around us in order to find a hidden pattern and then applying it to a practical product. The results were amazing and till date I feel it is the best way to find a design solution. It is a great way to nurture the left side of the brain. 

Image - www.mnm.com

Image - www.crochetconcupiscence.com

Now coming back to my opening sentence and linking it with the design exercise and I have for you a craft form that had been adopted similarly in a very ingenious way. Crochet is a knitting process that involves a small hook like needle that helps in knotting the thread to make a mesh pattern.

Image - www.mnm.com

Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam, a Japanese textile designer knots the threads but only to end in creating play areas for children. It all started with a sculpture that she had knitted and exhibited in an art gallery. This attracted the children and they started playing in it – after all it all about perception and perspectives.

 

Image - www.huffingtonpost.com

From here on there was no looking back. Toshiko had always looked at ways in which her work could add value and these children had helped her discover that. She started knitting large crochet structures to be used as play spaces for children.

Image - www.play-scapes.com

Toshiko along with her husband Charles MacAdam established Interplay Design and Manufacturing Inc in Canada to develop and manufacture these crochet sculptures for play areas. These brightly coloured structures are a big hit with the children. 

Image - www.crochetconcupiscence.com

Complete with voids, loops and gently curving surfaces these structures do not have a fixed algorithm for playing. It is probably because of the encouragement that children get to discover their own way of playing and also bring their imagination into play. 

 

Image - www.afflante.com

To add to this is the fact that these structures are absolutely safe – the fibres stretch and are strong enough to accommodate a large gang of kids. Norihide Imagawa, a prominent structural designer from Japan engineers each project ensuring the safety of the sculpture.

Image - www.afflante.com

 

Image - www.babyology.com

Toshiko has come a long way since her first project in 1979 but the concept continues to enthrall children even today.

Image - www.afflante.com

You may leave comments on our facebook page here

 

Text & creative layout copyrights: Onthedesignboat

"Like" our facebook page & stay connected with On the Design Boat 
Also stand a chance to win a fabulous Giveaway! 

S n i p p e t  *  8      U N D E R    W A T E R

Text: Divya Agrawal

An awe inducing illustration (and rib tickling in places) that I bet all of us will enjoy spending 5 minutes over!

Note the depths that James Cameroon reached in DS Challeger and really how deep our deepest lakes look when put in perspective with the world's oceans..

Click here for a larger image 

S n i p p e t * 7        S T O R Y T E L L E R S

Text: Divya Agrawal

Some of the fondest childhood memories 

for most of us would be of listening to stories lying in the comforting lap of our parents/ grandparents. 

The Pueblo People from New Mexico have given an endearing shape to this tradition, in Clay. Called the 'Storytellers', these Clay figurines portray a gaggle of kids, sprawled around and listening in utter joy to stories from their favorite adult. One of my most precious memories is of my Nana* singing portions from the Ramcharitmanas** to us during the summer breaks. 

 What about yours?!

*   Maternal Grandfather

** Also called the Ramayana of Tulsidas, an epic poem in 'Awadhi', that poetically retells events from the 'Sanskrit' Ramayana.

A R C H I T E C T U R E    to    i n s p i r e    ALL

 Text: Divya Agrawal

City life is challenging & invigorating yet chaotic and mechanical to an extent. After a recent daybreak to the outskirts for a trek, I felt rejuvenated. As I lay gazing at the night sky teeming with stars, far away from city lights, curiosity struck & technology came to aid. ‘Google sky maps’ helped out with the names of some brightly glowing stars & formations :)

Though the post that follows is about architecture, talking about stars I can’t resist sharing this bit about the Universe from Stephen Hawking’s 'The Universe in a Nutshell'. A 'Snippet' ;) that I’m sure all of us have observed, but perhaps rarely questioned.

“The observation…that the night sky is dark, is very important. It implies that the Universe cannot have existed forever in the state we see today. Something must have happened in the past to make stars light up a finite time ago, which means that the light from very distant stars has not had time to reach us yet.”   

Simply put, the night sky, by virtue of it being dark, is evidence that the Universe was created, a finite time ago..

With this prelude to Nature & Technology, I bring to you today a masterpiece by acclaimed London based architect, Zaha Hadid. Located in Baku, Ajerbaijan and designed to be used as a Cultural Centre, the Heydar Aliyev Centre is a captivating amalgam of these two elements.

Image: DesignBoom

Image: Hufton + Crow

  

With curving forms & ornamental patterns of traditional Islamic Architecture as design inspiration, the architect has chosen to interpret the same in a firmly contemporary vocabulary – one that aspires to “express the sensibilities of Azeri culture and the optimism of a nation that looks to the future” Project Architect Saffet Kaya Bekiroglu

Image: Iwan Baan 

Reminiscent of forms from nature,  the building curves gracefully, rising from a beautifully landscaped plaza.

  

Image: DesignBoom

The spaces ensconced within are equally eclectic – an auditorium fashioned out of back lit ribs, seemingly suspended viewing balconies, gravity defying curves, to point a few…

Image: Interior Rendering of the Heydar Aliyev Centre

 

The building seamlessly integrates function, form & aesthetics. A concrete structure combines with space frames to create the skeleton. This is clad with plastic materials that allow for an effortless flow of the exterior form.

Image: DesignBoom

A masterpiece that will inspire many of us, for sure!

You may leave comments on our facebook page here

 

Text & creative layout copyrights: Onthedesignboat  

"Like" our facebook page & stay connected with On the Design Boat   

Also stand a chance to win a fabulous Giveaway!

S n i p p e t * 6           F O R     t h e    C H I L D    i n    M E

Text: Divya Agrawal

Some wood block play for the child in all of us :)  Shape makers, Face makers & others by MillerGoodman. 

Each cube has a different pattern on the six faces, making for endless design possibility.

David Goodman and Zoe Miller, the creators, are interested in "exploring the intersection between art and toys, and inspirational play is at the cornerstone of their practice".  David Goodman

 Indulge the child in you at their shop here.