Raw materials and natural and organic shapes along with a lot of bold, whimsical looks peppered the show floor at ICFF this week. The show ends today.

Umbra Shift's Trophy Jigger

Now two years old, Umbra Shift added several items: the Stonewood bowl, an organic display bowl; a three-piece mortar and pestle set, which offers several ways to grind spices, herbs and teas; and the Trophy Jigger, a brass-plated bar accessory with three shot measurements. It also expanded its lighting and storage options.

Kikkerland and The Container Store showcased some of the student entries of their “Rethink the Organized Home” competition, in partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design. Students were tasked to create a product appropriate for The Container Store that focused on the connected home, healthy eating or storage and organization for makeup and jewelry. The winner was the Cable Loft, a slim power-strip holder from student Jane Ni that unobtrusively hangs from a table edge. Ni’s Cable Loft is now being sold by the retailer.

A wood turner and furniture maker, Jason Schneider started working with cardboard 10 years ago, he told HFN. His new line includes glass-topped tables, with the bases made of cardboard shaped by wood turning equipment, accent tables, as well as the Blue Lamp, a 69-inch-tall sculpture that has LED embedded near the top and bottom for interesting effects.

Schneider's Drum table, left, and Studio Marfa's Lunar table

Other furniture items included Ethan Abramson’s Cross Hatch collection, featuring tables with a stitch-like wood effect and made in New York, and the Lunar table from Studio Marfa, made of layered, tinted glass and referring to the NASA Lunar Orbiter program of 1966.

Anglepoise's outdoor lamps and a design from Jan Kath's Space Crafted line

The lighting category showed feminine, soft shapes, as well as raw, simple ones. Designs continued to become more creative with the use of LEDs, such as the lit tubing from Luke Lamp Co. and the gravy wall sconce, Mr. Go portable lantern and Mr. N lamp (in the shape of an “n”) from Koncept. Anglepoise showed huge “desk” floor lamps for the outdoors, and Wever & Ducré from Belgium highlighted its simple pendent shapes with natural rust and other finishes.

New lighting from Wever & Ducre

Among the rug offerings at the show was one silk rug from Doris Leslie Blau that had 20,000 Swarovski crystals fastened to it, which can be vacuumed and cleaned, the company said. It takes about three to four months to apply the crystals. Jan Kath got spacy with his new Space Crafted collection, handknotted in Nepal, and which offers designs influenced by images from the Hubble telescope.

(Source: hfndigital.com  Author: Andrea Lillo)