ONE OF A KIND B Y E R I N C U L L E R T O N

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It is a simple truth the world over: we all love the beauty of handmadeobjects. Whether it is the feel of a certain texture on our fingertips, theexpressiveness of a pattern, the luxurious quality of a material, or theknowledge that they are only available in limited quantities, handmadeobjects speak to us on an inexplicable level, moving us in ways both profound and intangible.

Even with today’s confluence of mass produced, easily accessible designobjects and product lines, there is a craving to get back to basics, and athriving market for artisans who have dedicated themselves to perfectingcenturies’ old techniques. A new consciousness, in pace with the growingenthusiasm for sustainability, has created a new economy in whichsupporting domestic and local artists and products matters more thanever. According to Paul J. Smith, former director of the American CraftMuseum and author of the 2001 book Objects for Use: Handmade byDesign, handmade objects are “tangible, sensual, and personal... theysuggest that craft and design are ultimately about the relationship established between makers of things and the individuals who, by selecting and using those things, complete the creative process.”

In an effort to uncover the essence of handmade, 3D spoke to more thana dozen artisans and designers to understand their design philosophy andthe spirit behind their practice.

Randy Tuell of Tuell + Reynolds is a former architect specializing in metalart and architectural solutions with partner Victoria Reynolds. For him,when something is handmade it has a degree of embedded energy that cannever be found in an injection-molded, mass produced piece. “Handmadepieces are imbued with a personal energy evident in their creation, andcelebrate not only the tiny flaws, but also what the designer was thinkingand feeling on a particular day,” says Tuell. The studio’s exquisitelytextured lighting, furniture, and sculptural works are transitional, classic,and meant to last for generations. Pieces are developed with proportion inmind, often referencing the Fibonacci series, and utilize materials asvaried as petrified wood and Silicon bronze. The Cloverdale-based studioproduces everything locally with a small team of artisans.

San Francisco-based designer Ted Boerner maintains intimate relation-ships with the craftspeople he works with and feels strongly about thestory behind every product, although he does not produce pieces locally.Drawn by hand to perfect scale, his pieces delicately respond to thehuman body. Although he works mostly with Japanese and Los Angeles-based artisans, he recently began working with the Amish in Pennsylvania.The community is creating his Harvest and Block tables—solid piecesthat are irregular in shape and require a fine handmade finish. The qualityof craftsmanship, Boerner says, is on par with Japanese studios, both froma material astuteness and quality perspective. And a few years ago, his studio began a “Hands and Faces” campaign to reveal the story behindeach piece. Clients were encouraged to learn the name of the individualwho built the wood frame of a sofa or wrapped its cushions.

Bridget Teleo and Kelly Porter of Porter Teleo produce their bespoke wall-papers entirely by hand in their Kansas City studio, and they oversee everystep of the process, including producing their own inks and dyes. Takingcues from nature rather than the latest market trends, their wallpapers arein high demand because of the level of craft and fine detailing eachreflects. They produce both hand painted and hand printed lines thatutilize fine Japanese papers and intensely saturated inks. For Porter, it’s anintuitive process much like painting, which reflects her fine art back-ground, since each paper’s composition, design, and color blossomsorganically out of the creation process. Many of the techniques the duouses are hundreds of years old and, most importantly, Porter says, “Thereis always something left behind in each design, a mark or the way it wastouched by some part of the hand.”

PHOTOS:Above: Table by Tuell + ReynoldsRight: Harvest Table by Ted BoernerOmni Side Table, by Hellman-ChangCustom Z Side Table by Hellman-Chang

Burning Bush by Tuell + Reynolds in collaboration with The Wiseman Group.

The Beauty of Handmade

Anything handcrafted

is theultimate luxury.

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Marin-based fabric designer Michelle Pereira considers herself an artisttrapped in a designer’s profession. Specializing in surface design onfabrics, she has three collections of ground cloths: Belgium linen andcotton velvet lines for upholstery, and a silk-and-rayon-blend velvet linesuitable for drapery, bed clothes, throws, and pillows. Though her style isnontraditional, she is inspired by Japanese Shibori, which originated in8th century Japan, and the style of Arashi Shibori in particular. In thisprocess, cloth is wrapped diagonally around a pole, resulting in acylindrical patterning. Pereira appreciates the many ways the process can be interpreted in the fabrics, which often mimic organic shapes and patterns found in nature. By keeping all of her production local and handmade, Pereira considers herself a revivalist of an esoteric art form, thelimited availability of which renders it luxurious.

Rug designer Alicia D. Keshishian of ADK Carpets has rug making in herblood. Her grandfather was a rug trader, and after years of working in various capacities within the design field, most recently as an art directorat Papyrus, Keshishian tired of the high minimums and lack of intimacywith the final product. Now distinguished for her plush, contemporarycarpets, Keshishian works exclusively in the Tibetan style of rug making,using Himalayan wools with long fibers that result in a soft and suppletexture. Designed to last for generations, her rugs are made with vegetableand azo-free dyes, and are made by traditional weavers in Nepal, who canproduce four inches a day for a one-hundred-knot rug. Because she workswith artisans abroad, many of whom are Tibetan refugees, her rugs areaffiliated with GoodWeave, an organization that ensures no child labor isused, among other vital criteria.

Brooklyn-based design duo Eric Chang and Daniel Hellman of Hellman-Chang began making furniture as a hobby in their parents’ garages. Afterpursuing degrees in business and classical music, respectively, the desire to

Circuitous by Alicia D. Keshishian of ADK

work with their hands again brought them full circle. Working primarilywith domestic, FSC-certified hardwoods, including American walnut,they produce sophisticated forms through an organic process that resultsin an intuitive piece shaped significantly during prototyping. For them,their work is imbued with the spirit of its makers, since they learned howto design furniture by building it. According to Hellman, “A lot of thingscan be called homemade if they come off a machine and someone touchesit. When it comes to furniture, buying the wood from the lumberyard andhandpicking it is a different definition. High-end furniture is very hard toproduce, but having a human being behind the process is important.”

In San Francisco, several architects and designers are specializing incustom, handmade pieces that complement their primary designpractices. Architect Larissa Sand of Sand Studios and South ParkFabricators, well-known for Universal Café, utilizes her metal shop tocreate jaw-dropping custom doors, cabinets, handles and more—none ofwhich would be possible without the freedom, experimentation, andmaterial empathy that the shop affords her design studio. Designer LoringSagan of Sagan Piechota Architecture–though responsible for large-scalereconstruction projects, Linden Alley among them—is first and foremosta ceramicist and furniture designer. Most recently he designed a line offlatware for the restaurant Piccino, and his custom tables, made fromdomestically felled trees, are highly sought after. Designer Brett Terpelukof Studio Terpeluk says there is an old Italian adage that the architectshould be able to design everything from the spoon to the city, and he isfascinated with the idea of recycling history through industrial design.With his wife Monica Viarengo, the designer and restaurateur behindFarina recycled the original building’s signage to create tables, and importedold Genovese sinks found in Italian salvage yards to produce the stackedand assembled marble bar, reminiscent of a stone wall.

Whether the result of a fine arts background, design education, or thesheer desire to work with their hands, the artisans profiled here remind usof the importance of revitalizing traditional artistry and the quiet beautythat well-crafted pieces bring to our lives. In a world where digitaltechnology and virtual reality are ubiquitous, one-of-a-kind objects allowus to slow down and appreciate the finer things—and, as Randy Tuellsays, “Anything handcrafted is the ultimate luxury.”

Erin Cullerton is the Assistant Director of AIA San Francisco and the Center forArchitecture + Design and curator of the annual Architecture and the City festival.Her writing on architecture and design has appeared in ARTnews, Metropolis, Surfaceand Wired, among other publications. Erin currently sits on the advisory board of The Architect’s Newspaper, California edition, and is the editor of Young ArchitectsAmericas (Daab) and Contemporary Prefab Houses (Daab). She is currently workingon a third book by Mondadori Publishers due out this fall.

RESOURCES AND UPCOMING SHOWS

American Craft Councilwww.craftcouncil.org

The American Craft Council and its Craft Magazine promotes understanding and appreciation of contemporaryAmerican craft.

Museum of Craft and Folk Artwww.mocfa.org

Founded in 1982, the Museum of Craft and Folk Art showcasesunique exhibitions on traditional and contemporary folk artand craft from around the world.

San Francisco Museum of Craft & Designwww.sfmcd.com

Founded in 2004, this new museum exhibits contemporarywork in craft and design and encourages an understandingof the process.

Maker’s Fairewww.makerfaire.com

With the theme of “Re-Make America,” this popular weekendcelebrates the convergence of the arts, crafts, engineering, food,green design, music, science and technology.

Handmade Nationwww.handmadenationmovie.com

This movie by Faythe Levine documents the DIY movementof art, craft and design and is currently touring the country.

Table by Loring Sagan

Signage Table by Brett Terpeluk

J A P A N E S E A N T I Q U E S

IN

C

Specializingin

Screen & Scroll Paintings

since 1975

40 FILBERT AVENUE

SAUSALITO, CA 94965

415.332.0245

imarigallery.com

18th Century Scroll641/8" H x 151/2" W overall

More Designers to Watch

• Berkeley-based ceramic artist Erin McGuiness, whose pieces are muchsought after, makes almost all of her one-of-a-kind pieces from locallyproduced clay.

• Based in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Gary Hutton produces custommade, bespoke pieces from bronze, stainless steel, and crystals.

• Former architect Jonathan Browning’s beautiful and simple lightingdesigns take inspiration from the French Industrial and Decorative Artsera of the 1920s, ’30, and ’40s.

• Melina Raissnia’s rugs for Peace Industry are contemporary reflectionson the traditional felt rug making tradition of Iran.

• Santa Barbara-based Sally McQuillan of Raoul Textiles produces color-saturated, handprinted fabrics that have a painterly effect and intoxicating textural richness.

SFDC Showroom Resources

De Sousa Hughes Ted Boerner, Tuell + Reynolds, Raoul Textiles, Erin McGuiness, Jonathan Browning

Sloan Miyasato Michelle Pereira, Alicia D. Keshishian

A. Rudin Hellman-Chang

Kneedler I Fauchère Porter Teleo

Forms by Erin McGuiness

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