Japanese designer Taku Omura of oodesign has created Ripple, a simple and stunning vase that overturns everything we ever knew about the art of flower arrangement. The piece, made from PET resin, supports a single flower and floats in water. Any vase, dish, glass, pond can be turned into a beautiful sight of drifting blooms. Designer explains: Normally flower decoration is stationary at one place. In this case, the flower floats nonchalantly on the water, changing its position and appearance in accordance with the movement of the air. I love the optic illusion Ripple creates. Flowers appear to be put directly in the water, frozen in time.

Taizo Kuroda’s pure white Ceramics collection is an inspired by-product of his close relationship with fellow Japanese artisans; architect Tadao Ando, designer Issay Miyake and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. They share the same sure discipline and taste in editing out all that is unnecessary. I am in awe, and filled with jealousy, of this association with such a collective muse. Ando describes Taizo Kuroda’s aesthetic, and dedication to pure white, to reflect the colour of his spirit in the unceasing pursuit of truth. I have an immense appreciation for the subtlety of this truth, and the beauty in the un-ornate. I find this bare-ness creates a sense of illumination in the materiality of the ceramic itself. The colour is described as a warm, milky white – something akin to that of Greek island houses seen in the Cycladic light of late afternoon – a magical colour that makes his ceramic wares seem to softly glow. I couldn’t agree more. The Ceramics collection is a fusion of forms that depart radically from the cold, technically perfect, moulded porcelains associated with Arita, Kakiemon and Nadeshima; the result being an almost accident of perfectly fused shapes and sharp considered lines. These embody the beauty...

Recent Rhode Island School of Design graduate Jiwon Choi created a clean and elegant, conical shaped, vase made of Tyvek. Tyvek, by DuPont, is a great material made of nonwoven high-density polyethylene fibers. The material feels a bit like paper but lends itself to a variety of applications because of its characteristics: durable, light-weight, highly breathable and waterproof. The intent of Choi was to create a package for a couple of flowers that would be simple and light but strong enough to stand upright.

Minimal Vase by Ding 3000, designed for the brand Discipline, is an object, stripped to its function. The piece is nothing but a wooden base and a steel thread that supports the flowers. Any cup, glass, jar, cruet or even a test-tube can be used as a water receptacle.  Designers explain: How far can we go to reduce a vase without limiting its functionality? Thanks to your favourite glass or cup, Minimal Vase not only turns into fully functional vase but also into a very individual and private object.  Minimal Vase is made of ash wood and steel. It comes in black and natural finishes.

Today I would like to highlight the work of Pigeon Toe ceramics studio based in Industrial North Portland, Oregon. Founded four years ago by Lisa Jones, the studio has already gained a following of enthusiasts, who appreciate beauty of a craft and embrace not only the finished product but the story of a maker behind the product as well. Calling themselves a “creative evolution” Pigeon Toe’s refined selection, hand-touch within each piece and genuine passion for the making is obvious by first glance at their site. To see more of the process, watch this video. Pigeon Toeʼs aspiration is simple: to provide mankind with everyday beauty. Highly curated and refined, each piece is culled from skilled hands, trained minds and inspired hearts. Our designs are naturally imperfect, casually irreverent and playfully charming. Each piece is treasured. Beautiful. Authentically hand-crafted. I’m drawn to the simple lines of their collections and appreciate the playful approach to incorporate colors within some. Minimal design with lots of passion and love.

Japanese studio Nendo strikes again: the Block vases are a set of delicate, small and stackable bud vases that form part of the collection of new additions to their 1% products, to be presented in Milan’s Salone del Mobile this coming April. The vases are carefully measured and designed to fit in stackable formations, never disturbing the vase on the bottom. There are four sizes and each can accomodate one flower, but once stacked they can also fit a tall stem through the different combined vases. Only 100 of each vase will be made, as befits the concept of the 1% products. According to Nendo: 100 is the perfect amount: they’re neither one-off “works of art” nor mass-produced products made in the millions. Whether its the skill of the artisans or new technologies, we want to make things that are only possible because there are 100 of them. Not more, not less. To give owners the chance to experience the joy of owing 1%.

Korean product designer Giha Woo is the creator of the Twisted Pencil. The design is a vase comprising of pencils, which form an outline of its shape, albeit appearing as one. The design also conveys aesthetic value with a nuance of amusement by representing the relationship between the pencil structure and utensils stored within it. Available in a range of colours including black, white and blue, Twisted Pencil offers a certain minimal feel in that it is merely a frame, but because of the thickness of the pencils used, that is all it needs to be. Woo explains: In comparison with general products, Twisted Pencil isn’t a vase that can contain a lot more pencils, but it includes new aesthetics and morphological consideration about things. A fun desk accessory, not to be taken too seriously.

Taking inspiration from the game Bou-Toshi, Japanese designer Yukihiro Kaneuchi created a series of minimal vases made of sand and resin. The game is simple, the objective is to keep a pole up that’s been placed in a heap of sand. Each player takes turns removing sand until the pole falls. If you cause the pole to fall, you lose. With its primitive element of creation and destruction, this game has been played for centuries. The vases resemble the heap of sand and the flowers placed in a glass tube would be the pole – time stopped with resin. The shape nears collapse, bringing a tension and delicate beauty to the flower.

Thai designer Decha Archjananun of Thinkk Studio has created Weight Vases – a collection of vases with concrete bases to hold water, and laser cut steel wire frames to support flower stems. The collection comprises various shapes and sizes to accommodate specific flower arrangements. The vases, developed while Archjananun was studying at the University of Art and Design Lausanne, portray an interesting supportive relationship between the heaviness of the concrete base and the lightness of the wire top working together to effectively hold its natural contents.

The couple vases, made of porcelain, are designed by Germany-based Christine Ruff. Ruff, who studied ceramic design after an education in ceramics decorating, sees her work at the intersection of art and craft. However clean and neutral it is, the form play of vases attracts your eye. Reflecting their form on the opposite, a bound is created between the two vases despite their outward differences. “For a time like ours, when people’s taste seems to return to baroque, no-frills is rather refreshing, I think” The pairs are available in either white or black matte glaze, or black and white.

This beautiful bone china coffee cup was designed by Hannah Morrow, an English designer living in LA. The bone china is super thin – almost see-through. The cup is part of her Hedy collection, which consists of just three items: a coffee cup, a small vase, and a medium-sized bowl. Morrow herself calls the collection: [...] a celebration of the ceramic tradition of handmade fine bone china. It brings a beauty to each piece that is deceptively simple.