DesignBreak

frill furniture | textile like furniture

designbreak — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 16:05:30 +0000

i’m not too sure where i first stumbled upon gila babich and her textile like furniture. it might have been on timeout tel aviv’s apartment to meet.
the minute i saw gila’s cutout surfaces, all i could think about is that it reminded me of a modern day disco ball. the way the shadows come to life, the minute the sun hits the surface makes the room feel like a layered wonderland.
i guess i wasn’t too far fetched… “my cutout collection is about the dialogue between what’s seen and what’s hidden. between light and shadows. when a ray of light hits the cutouts it creates a shadow pattern that adds another dimension to the space. i’m kind of obsessed with see-through furniture and the shadows it makes.”
in gila’s wooden wonder world, all you really need are two thin layers of maple wood and abstract yet geometric holes. and then? well, the magic will follow. or should i say, a constant game of light and shadows throughout the day will lead the way.
fan fact: gila used to be a journalist up until 7 years ago when she decided to take an upholstery course and the rest is history. a history that even lad her to salonesatellite in 2022.
fyi, gila just launched her brand new collection, biscotti, at the latest freshpaint art and design fair, but it deserves its own spot, so stay tuned.
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www.frillfurniture.com

dorit provizor | calling all you ritual lovers

designbreak — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 16:42:28 +0000

i just realized that it’s been more than a year since my last post. so much has happened during that year but at the same time it feels like so little actually changed.
anyhow, i’ve been thinking about coming back to my little slice of heaven. i guess there is no time like now to start sharing with you all the amazingness i’ve discovered in my gap year.
and so, without any further ado, let me introduce you to dorit provizor. my first encounter with dorit’s sandy journey was courtesy of keren shavit’s “island” (aka her annual lifestyle event that took place last summer at the design terminal). i immediately was eyeing one of dorit’s plates (i have a weakness for all things line art and ceramics. duh.) and of course i regretted not buying it on the spot. BUT nothing will never come between me and my desired ceramics. i texted dorit and that’s when our transatlantic love story began. since then, i never miss any of her daily updates on her vibrating instagram account from her jaffa studio. and who doesn’t like to get an inside ticket to the process behind the scenes? dorit has a way with words and stories which connect so seamlessly with her practice. and to think that she began her ceramic journey as an industrial designer who took a nightly ceramics class is what led her to her rolling pin objects.
“my work revolves around playing with clay and examining the interaction between its different earth tones. i celebrate the simplicity of the material, preserving its natural colors and mixing various shades of clay together without the addition of synthetic pigments.”
it is safe to say that dorit is the one making me be more forgiving or dare i say loving of all these earthy tones out there. this post is getting a bit longer than i was intending so let me leave you with dorit’s debut collection (don’t miss the story that documents it all) which is all about everyday rituals. she invites you to adopt a mindset that values the here and now. she is urging you to make time for leisure, no matter what time of day it is. she is asking you to take a moment to enjoy a cup of coffee with a side of cake. at the moment i’m obsessing over her ceramic utensils and only time will tell if i’ll go with the spoons or knives first.
oh and just one last thing, the one behind all these calm as a clam pictures is the mighty tal brushel. a photographer that i’ve fallen for and i can’t get over his effortless talent.
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www.dprovizor.com

ga studio | holistic sand and then some

designbreak — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 14:48:45 +0000

the first time i laid my eyes on a ga studio archaeological’s creation was on meira sitton‘s earthy instagram feed (shout out to the wicked art directors craft & bloom and mr. photographer extraordinaire, tal brushel).
anyways, back to nitzan shalev and michal elzur, the duo behind ga.
at the beginning of this year, the two started working on their NOT IN MOLD.
the first two questions they asked themselves were: what if our everyday products were more alive and constantly evolving? and what if each one was a bit different with its own unique characteristics? with that mysterious mindset they started working on their ever evolving creations.
“we are used to buying standardized identical products that are created in a mold. we buy them when they are in their best shape. we take them home and from that point they start to deteriorate.
in nature there is no point in time that is final or “finished”. there is a constant movement and an infinite change.
NOT IN MOLD puts the spotlight on the process. the objects are born from ever changing sand molds that give each object a unique personality.”
the thing that really got me was the realization that nitzan and michal’s sandy journey started out of a desire to create practical but unique objects for their own home. they had a sketchbook filled with sketches and while trying to think of accessible materials to start with, working with sand seemed like a logic idea.
“sand is an amazing material in that way that it allows for a relatively accurate copy of a shape (like a foot print on a sandy beach) and it can be used time and time again by creating complex patterns. sand castings are usually used for production of aluminum parts. we loved the fact that with all the qualities of copying form, it also allows us to get out of the mold and outside the box”. they realized that without really thinking about it, they created a low-tech 3D printer.
so… they draw the shape of an object in the sand, then they deepen it. after that, they pour white cement inside it and voila!
nitzan and michal never really know what will be the end result but the rush that goes through their bodies the minute they “rescue” the cement, is always an exciting one.
i don’t know what about you, but i sure am excited to see where this “playing with sand” phenomenon is headed.
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instagram.com/ga.holistic

tamar dgani | the rust warrior

designbreak — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 18:39:34 +0000

rustic rugs aren’t something you usually want to have in your possession. on the contrary, you probably would throw them away. amirite?
but then there is tamar dgani and her very own rust. rust is a collection of handwoven home textiles, infused with rust, which serves as a natural dye. and when i say handwoven, i mean that tamar’s textiles are handwoven on a traditional manual loom, whose slow and laborious process tells a story about not only materiality, but also about the human behind it.
it all began with carpets. but not your average carpets.tamar weaves her carpets by hand, using rusted iron rods that she incorporates into the weave’s structure. yeah, you got it right. she stains her carpets with real rust. that’s how confident she is with her master dying skills. but tamar didn’t stop there. now she also stains pillows and floor cushions for a living.
“using rust as a pigment, the textiles are dyed in a controlled manner, resulting in a unique pattern that toes a fine line between planned and random.
inspired by the interaction of humankind and nature, the collection is rooted in the establishment of a new element – one that is natural, yet also artificially created.”
like a true sustainable warrior, tamar decided to use rust stems from a personal tendency to engage with readily available, everyday materials, giving them new life through design.
and as tamar points out beautifully, “the rust dye demonstrates how the flaws left by time are a source of beauty and vitality, while simultaneously a testimonial to temporality.”
i’m especially drawn to tamar’s fierce intentions, when it comes to hand weave, hand dye and hand love for each and every textile.
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www.tamardgani.com

ayn ceramics | fifty shades of mother earth

designbreak — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 17:19:38 +0000

there is something unapologetic about the way einav price, the one behind ayn ceramics, photographs her creations.
it’s all there, front and center, in all its carved glory. these ceramics don’t call for slick or refined styling. it’s just einav’s bare hands and fifty shades of mother earth.
the fact that einav carves each and every vessels by hand makes sure that you won’t find two objects alike.
i found myself mesmerized by the strokes and textures that come up under einav’s hands and it was damn hard to pick just a handful of pictures.
on a side note, the fact that einav’s background is in industrial design makes me admire her even more. i mean, the second life hustle is real. it’s only been a couple of years since she decided to turn her side project into her main practice and i’m sure we all agree that the world needs a lot more of where all this raw beauty is coming from.
einav’s instagram feed is the place for all the behind the scenes action, and if i’m being completely honest, i’ve been watching this video a lot more than i’d like to admit.
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www.ayn-ceramics.com

dana cohen | recycled textile that makes me feel

designbreak — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 17:11:35 +0000

it’s been a year. i mean… a month. and. what. a. month. it. was.
this past month, life has been all over the place, back home in israel and inside my heart and soul. BUT it’s time to get a grip and get back to my design break.
when i first stumbled upon dana cohen’s magical pillows, i think it was on saga’s addictive website, it felt like her creations were familiar. only when i dug deep, i realized that it reminded me of one of my all time favorite textile posts by maya dekel and her field rugs, back in 2010.
anyways, back to dana cohen and her city growth collection. the collection was first debuted back in 2018 but lately dana expanded it to home textiles. be it covid-19, who made us all stay put and explore every inch in our homes, or be it being a fashion designer who needs to venture out of her comfort zone. and yeah, dana is an award winning fashion designer, who graduated from shenkar collage back in 2015. in her graduate collection, worn again, she introduced an innovative environment-friendly approach to textile manufacturing. dana developed a method in which discarded knits are shredded into fibers that are then felted into new recycled textiles. this ecological revelation came to be after realizing the scale of unused textiles in her studio during her studies. she decided she wanted to challenge the perception of recycled products as unattractive. dana understood through the process that she touched people’s past with their past garments and at the same time she turned it into someone’s future.
back to dana’s city growth. the collection was inspired by global urban development and the diminution of agriculture by city growth, something she had seen first-hand as the daughter of a farmer.
dana’s latest venture, her city growth’s pillows make me feel like i’m staring at blossoming fields that turn me into a calm and dreamy mush. even the names that dana chose for each and every pillow makes me believe that we are both on the same page. and yeah, i’m team blossom all the way. 100% recycled textile made of textile waste never looked so blooming and beautiful!
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www.cohendana.com