DENYSE SCHMIDT
Modern quilter Denyse Schmidt employs traditional techniques with a more improvisational style. Her mother taught her to sew when she was young, and that skill, along with a background in graphic design, has served her well. “I like to believe that my style is not just one note, that it has evolved over time.” The process begins by putting pen to paper to sketch out ideas, then grouping fabrics and playing with scale and texture. Color is the last component and is a “trial-and error “process. Schmidt teaches others the craft and says, “It’s really something that requires you to be in the moment, to let go of learned ideas, to respond to the materials on hand.”
J.D. STARON
Jakub Staron works alongside the weavers and craftspeople who create his eponymous rugs. “We strive to bring to the world of contemporary interior design, the vanishing art of hand weaving,” says Staron. “I travel to the most remote places to find the finest materials and work with local artisans to weave rugs of unparalleled beauty and sophistication.” Staron began weaving as a teenager and had a job during college restoring antique carpets. He compares his rugs to “a painting in three dimensions.” Staron’s latest assemblage, the Modern Antiques Collection, is an homage to ancient masters. “I have great respect for old masterpieces. As an artist and weaver, connecting modernity with history is one of the most thrilling aspects of my work,” says Staron.
IAN LOVE DESIGN
Ian Love enjoys working with his hands, both as a musician and as a self-taught woodworker. He sources wood from local arborists—which would otherwise be discarded or used as firewood—to create sculptural furniture and art pieces. Letting the wood direct his design, he employs chainsaws, angle grinders and carving tools. “It becomes an intuituive process,” notes Love. “There’s a synergy that happens.
I love woodworking because the material I work with is so organic and has so much personality that it’s different every time I work on a new piece. I never know if something is going to work out, and it’s my job to work through any frustrations and difficulties in the process and make something beautiful out of something that was going to be thrown away.” Available through Fair.
HELEN PRIOR
Helen Prior worked in fashion for many years, developing prints for Emanuel Ungaro and Anne Klein, before embarking on her ceramic career. That knowledge, along with an archive of textile patterns, is used to create her ceramics, and now—translating clay to cloth to paper—fabrics and wallpapers. Her work is deeply rooted in the landscape of her Hudson Valley, NY, studio. Found objects are pressed into clay, leaving impressions of leaves, wildflowers and seeds, as well as stylized flower patterns from her historical textile collection. “I am motivated each day to create something original and unique,” says Prior. “I love the transformative power of clay and use it to create original textile and wallpaper designs, as well as making sculptural vessels.”
JOHN POMP
Designer, artist and glassblower, John Pomp creates abstracted furniture and lighting. He experiments with elemental materials in transitory states like molten glass and warped metal. Each piece is made in his Philadelphia studio using a combination of modern techniques and Old-World craftsmanship. Pomp’s latest work, Rift, combines polished and aged metals. “In designing the Rift collection,” says Pomp, “my process was based heavily on the movements of otherworldly objects through space—a sense of existing in a timeless space somewhere between an ancient past and distant future.”
DARIO BURATTO/STORIES OF ITALY
Born near Venice and now based in Milan, creative director of Stories of Italy design studio Dario Buratto wished to preserve the heritage of Murano blown glass, but with a more modern twist. He works with the Murano glassblowers to execute his complex designs. “I had no prior experience with blown glass,” says Buratto. “I entered a furnace and began experimenting from scratch with the help of several patient and supportive Maestros. After some time, I began to understand what could be ‘my style of glass,’ and slowly, the aesthetic of Stories of Italy started to take shape and become clearer–a colorful reinterpretation of understated and playful luxury.”
DAVID HARBER
David Harber’s unique garden sculptures, sundials and water features were recently showcased at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in London. He and his team of skilled craftspeople have produced commission pieces for clients all over the world. Fashioned in bronze, stainless steel and stone, his sculptures play with light and reflection, adding an interesting element to the garden that invites interaction and interpretation. “I absolutely love what we do,” says Harber. “I am fascinated by the optical quality of reflective surfaces, a mirrored sculpture in a beautiful garden becomes part of the garden. The sculpture has no ego, it is merely reflecting its environment.”
ANDREW DOMINIC
With workshops in the UK and South Africa, Andrew Dominic is a designer and maker of fine furniture. He discovered woodworking while working on classic wooden yachts in the Mediterranean and honed his skills at Rowden Atelier. “The purpose of carefully made furniture is to achieve a level of handcrafted care that will leave a lasting mark and bring pleasure to the owner,” says Dominic. “Handmade is appreciated; factory made is expected. As a result, what inspires me is wanting to deliver carefully designed and made furniture that captures the time and handwork needed to produce it.” Available through Sarza.
ASSEMBLAGE
After many years of working in textiles and art in New York City, the husband-and-wife founders of Assemblage, Heidi and Christian Batteau, moved to the Ozark mountains of Arkansas. They set out “to craft the most exquisitely handcrafted wallpaper.” Working in a converted seed mill with a team of talented artisans, they use all-natural materials, employing a combination of proprietary methods and age-old techniques, from hand-troweling to hand-carving to silk screen printing. “It truly is art for the walls,” says Heidi. The newest collection of fine art design, Euclid, is informed by nature and inspired by limestone formations, birch bark and fossilized coral. The papers include marble plaster, ground mica, metal leaf and inks finished with wax or resin. Available through Holly Hunt.
HERA FORD
Schumacher has partnered with textile and apparel artist Hera Ford. A 2020 graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, her college thesis—a series of botanical studies—has been developed into a poetic offering of fabrics and wallpapers. The designs, drawn in charcoal and graphite, speak to Ford’s connection to the earth and her grandmother’s Mississippi home. “I feel inspired by the songs and stories of those who came before me,” says Ford. “It feels important to know that there is a lineage of ancestors and artists who’ve been speaking to the land. My process is about honoring that lineage.”
