Ceramic Paint / Collection Cornwall by Kirstie van Noort | Eindhoven (NL) | By Emma Harrison

Up until the early 1990s, Cornwall was home to many mines rich in copper, tin and silver. After the mines were forced to close and all sign of industrial extraction had long departed, the landscape was left stained with a faded yet colourful palette of natural resources.

In 2011, Dutch ceramicist Kirstie van Noort set out to explore this trail of deposits strung across the county. The two week search eventually lead to the development of the 108 different colours now found in her impressive collection, with the base of every shade originating from just one of the twelve materials that are scattered across the now largely disused and filled Cornwall mines.

Once dried, ground and diluted with water, the paints were developed and applied to earthenware and china and the end results can be found in Van Noort’s work entitled ‘Ceramic Paint/Collection Cornwall’. The three objects in the collection, Bugle, Geevor and Nanpean have been named after the places where the materials were found and developed to ‘give an impression of the impact their respective footprints have left on the landscape’.

Kirstie van Noort has documented her journey and the process of ceramic paint development in a book and photojournal, available on her website.

Paper artist: Tahiti Pehrson | Nevada City (US) | By Lee Fleming

Tahiti Pehrson is a visual artist based in Nevada City who creates mesmerising two and three-dimensional tapestries. Growing up in an artistic family in Northern California, Pehrson first found himself painting on the street and experimenting by cutting out stencils on sticker paper. This experimentation lead to further development and fifteen years later, Pehrson creates large-scale artworks inspired by architectural forms and motifs inspired by nature.

The patterns in Pehrson’s work are intricate and draw upon history and the natural world; when cutting patterns out of money Tahiti discovered Guilloche, a system of ancient architectural patterns that date back to the Greek and Roman eras. Pehrson found this discovery to be ‘a motif of universality in currency’ and those patterns weave in and out of his work.

With only 11 blades and a white cotton rag paper, Pehrson creates beautiful geometric paper masterpieces that have been exhibited all over the world, from San Francisco to Portland, New York and Paris. His most recent solo exhibition ‘New Works’ can be found at Mouki Mou in Marylebone, West London alongside an upcoming exhibition at the K.Imperial Fine Art Gallery, San Francisco in October.

To read more about Pehrson and his paper art visit his website.

Approaching Whiteness by Rinko Kawauchi | Tokyo (JAP) | By Emma Harrison

Japanese born photographer Rinko Kawauchi shot to worldwide acclaim in 2002 after the release of three photographic books, Utatane, Hanabi and Hanako. Her work explores the minutiae of everyday life and brings the mundane into sharp focus through pastel-hued and light-infused images. Kawauchi’s keen eye for detail and desire to ‘draw senses’ is perfectly encapsulated in Approaching Whiteness, a visually arresting photobook published by Tokyo based photography press, Goliga, on traditional Japanese scrolls.

Each scroll is presented as a sequence of frames and the images appear from right to left in order to reenact the passage of time and the interconnectedness of still life. Kawauchi’s images unnerve and delight; they feel so familiar in subject yet are forcibly obscured by their ambitious intimacy. In this series the known becomes the unknown and the observer is forced to reassess and look again.

Printed on Japanese paper by Awagami, each scroll wraps around a Katsura pole and is encased in a Paulownia wood box with laser-cut lettering. Approaching Whiteness is presented under nine themes that centre around a single word: Candle, Deer, Boasts, Eclipse, Stairs, Goldfish, Sakura, Diamond Dust and Lotus with each scroll stamped by the artist herself.

To order Approaching Whiteness, visit Goliga’s website.

Book of BORO by Yukiko Koide and Hyoichi Tsuzuki | Aomori (JAP) | By Lee Fleming

‘Boro: Rags and Tatters from the Far North of Japan' by Yukiko Koide and Hyoichi Tsuzuki, documents the Japanese ‘boro’ textiles and rag patchworks that grew out of the Aomori Prefecture. Located on the northernmost tip of Honshu, poverty stricken Tohoku (snow country) in Aomori was home to poor farmers who grew and wore hemp clothes out of necessity when the landscape was too cold to grow cotton. This book presents the boro collection of Chuzaburo Tanaka, who roamed the farming and fishing villages of Aomori during the mid 1960s in search of boro.

Available from Tortoise General Store online.

Kit Bike by Lucid Design | Bangalore (IND) | By Emma Harrison

Designed by Bangalore-based design company Lucid Design, the Kit Bike is a ‘bike in a bag’. Assembled from 21 parts, the bike design is constructed from aluminium hollow tubes that lock with twist joints using a custom-made key with all pieces fitting neatly into a stylish leather pouch.

Lucid Design Creative Director, Amit Mirchandani explained ‘we like to do pro-active projects here at Lucid, where we can think about ideas without any restrictions. We wanted to design a bike, and brainstormed around issues that we faced with our own bikes, or bikes we’ve had in the past.’ With an aim to overcome the ‘awkwardness’ of conventional bikes, Lucid created the Kit Bike ideal for urban dwellers on the move to provide a minimal yet comfortable ride composed from a few parts.

At present Lucid have no plans to produce the bike but haven’t ruled it out in the future.