"If you search for Max Lamb's Pewter Stool on Google Images you don't find the studio-quality product shots you might expect. Instead you get dozens of photos of a beach in Cornwall. That's where Lamb cast the stool, using the sand as his mould. The beach is a place Lamb remembers from his childhood and the material and casting method were once a proud local industry," says Fairs.

"The making of the stool and the narrative behind it are what makes this product special and it could be argued that the evocative time-lapse movie Lamb filmed of the casting performance (and uploaded to YouTube) is a more robust cultural artefact than the stool itself."

"For me this product represents the way the ease with which projects can be digitally documented plus the distributive power of the internet is changing the way designers work, and the way their work is perceived," he adds.

Pewter Stool by Max Lamb

Rebuffed by sand-casting foundries that laughed at his request to produce a single stool, British designer Max Lamb instead decided to make it himself.

Lamb returned to a favourite childhood beach in Cornwall and sculpted the mould for his stool directly into the wet sand.

The furniture designer melted pewter – a malleable alloy consisting mainly of tin with small amounts of copper and other metals – in a saucepan placed on a camping stove and poured the liquid metal into the mould. Once it had cooled, he dug away the sand to reveal the finished product.

Despite being a comparatively simple object, Pewter Stool is rich in narrative. Tin mining was once the main industry in Cornwall and sand from local beaches was used in the casting foundries. The mould can only be used once, making each piece unique, and the unpredictabil- ity of working on a beach means that imperfections become an inevitable part of each object’s charm.

The manufacturing process is imprecise and labour-intensive, yet practical considerations have driven the stool’s design. The three-legged form ensures that it will not wobble even if, as often happens, the molten metal fails to flow to the bottom of the sand mould. The seat is a grid of tessellating triangles and allows the maximum sitting area from the minimum amount of pewter.

The stool is inseparable from the seaside performance that created it. Lamb produced a time-lapse movie of it being made. While the finished object has become a collectable rarity, the video documentary, disseminated on YouTube and Vimeo, is available to everyone.

Read more about this project on Dezeen | Buy Dezeen Book of Ideas

Dezeen Book of Ideas features over 100 fascinating ideas for buildings, products and interiors from the world’s most creative brains. The book’s A5 format makes it highly accessible and the £12 price tag makes it the ideal impulse purchase or Christmas gift.Buy the Dezeen Book of Ideas now for just £12.

Reviews of Dezeen Book of Ideas

“From flip-flop art to a mirrored retreat in the sky” – Wall Street Journal

“The Sliding House and The Book of Ideas: Radical Thinking Required” – Forbes.com

“Fairs personally guides readers through the wonders of innovations like a balancing barn, a textile-skinned car, and the first aesthetically pleasing CFL — all of which share an ‘I wish I’d thought of that’ awe factor” – Sight Unseen

“Fabulous” – It’s Nice That

“Totally wonderful!” – Naomi Cleaver

“Handsomely repackages Dezeen’s coverage of the best in architectural, interior and design ideas” – Glasgow Herald

“Teeming with innovative projects handpicked by the people behind Dezeen … readers will be hard-pressed not to find something to gawk over in this intriguing new compendium of beautifully articulated concepts” – Dwell Asia

“Beautifully laid-out, to suit the content, and straight-shooting, non-convoluted descriptions make it user-friendly as well as eye-catching” – Lifestyle Magazine

The post Dezeen Book of Ideas: Pewter Stool
by Max Lamb appeared first on Dezeen.

The resulting forms were used to make plaster moulds from which jugs, bowls and mugs were slip-cast by Staffordshire ceramics company 1882 Ltd.

While the exterior surfaces have been left raw, the interiors are glazed for practical use.

The collection will be launched at an exhibition hosted by 1882 Ltd. during the London Design Festival next month.

Bone China will be open from 14 to 22 September at 169 Draycott Avenue, London SW3 3AJ.

Other products by Lamb we've featured on Dezeen include a bronze chair cast from hand-carved polystyrene and furniture cut from solid rock.

See all our stories about Max Lamb »
See all our stories about ceramics »

Here's some more information from 1882 Ltd.:

Crockery by Max Lamb for 1882 Ltd.
Fine bone china tableware, made in Staffordshire, England.

A collection of fine bone china tableware slip-cast from plaster models carved by hand, with glazed interior for functionality and raw exterior reflecting the modest surface texture of the plaster original.

The process of slip-casting begins with the creation of a three-dimensional model of the design known as a 'master' by a professional model-maker, from which the production mould is cast. Crockery bypasses this process by placing the responsibility of both designer and model-maker in the hands of Max Lamb. Using the tools of a stone mason Lamb chips and carves a solid block of plaster to make a jug, bowl or mug, the design of each formed quite simply out of their own making.

1882

In 1882 the Johnson Brothers began producing ceramics in the heart of the Stoke-on-Trent Potteries. 130 years later 1882 Ltd. continues the Johnson legacy with the company name evoking the deep routes of the family heritage. 1882 Ltd. was formed in 2011 by fifth generation Emily Johnson and her father, Christopher, who has worked in the industry since 1958. The first collection for 1882 Ltd. were the much heralded lights entitled ‘Bone’ - bisque and rumbled white bone china vessels offering a diffused illumination which celebrate the translucency of the fine bone china.

1882 Ltd’s mission is to champion inventively designed ceramic products from lighting to domestic ware whilst employing the manufacturing heritage of North Staffordshire and promoting the British ceramic industry. In collaborating with exceptionally talented designers to realise their interpretation of a very traditional material and craft, 1882 Ltd. will bring innovative ceramics to a wider audience while supporting a valuable UK resource.

Max Lamb

London-based Max Lamb was born in Cornwall, England, an upbringing that imbued him with a love of nature and a creative spirit which have manifested in his practice as designer and maker. He graduated from the Royal College of Art, London in 2006, was named Designer of the Future at Design Miami/Basel in 2008 and continues to both produce and exhibit his work internationally.

Lamb is known for creating beautifully crafted pieces that have materials and traditional processes at their core. He looks to design products that stimulate dialogue between maker, product and user through a visual simplicity that effectively communicates the obvious.

The post Crockery by Max Lamb
for 1882 Ltd. appeared first on Dezeen.

London Design Festival 2011: designer Max Lamb has created a series of furniture made entirely from standard wooden dowels.

The collection comprises a lounge chair, dining chair, daybed, bed, coffee table and console made from a selection of hardwoods including ash, maple, beech, birch and oak.

Lamb's intention was to design a range of furniture so simple that any artisan would be able to recreate it should he wish to expand production.

The pieces reference traditional English furniture in their simple construction.

Woodware is part of a presentation entitled Studio Ware at Gallery Fumi.

The show also features work by Studio Glithero and Johannes Nagel and is part of the Shoreditch Design Triangle.

See all of our stories on Max Lamb here and all our stories about this year's London Design Festival here.

Here is some more information from Gallery Fumi, written by Caroline Roux:

Woodware

Called Woodware, Max Lamb’s new collection comprises a series of apparently utilitarian furniture made entirely out of standard dowels in a variety of hard woods including ash, maple, beech, cherry and oak.

“I wanted to get a feel for all the woods used in traditional English timber chairs,” says Max.

The collection includes a lounge chair, dining chair, daybed, coffee table and console, all made by Lamb in his Tottenham studio, but such is the simplicity and clarity of their design could also be recreated by other artisans should he wish to expand production.

“I set out to create a formula for constructing the furniture using dowels of varying diameters and exploring the way they interconnect. All holes are drilled with a forstner cutter perpendicular to the dowel but being round offer natural pivots for the angled seat and back-rest.”

Although the lounge chair can be used without any form of upholstery, cushioning and warmth can be provided by simply draping a blanket, sheepskin or even pillows, for example, over the dowel frame, offering unlimited fabric options and flexibility without the need for conventional upholstered cushions or a seat-pad.

The lounge chair and day-bed are presented with blankets hand-woven by Travis Meinolf.

The pieces make a nod to the long-standing tradition of British furniture, such as ladder- and spindle-back chairs and simple shelving of rod-construction, that has served in the country’s houses for centuries, while making a nod to contemporary preoccupations of lightness, both physically and aesthetically.

“The use of different wood types references the way the ends of industrial dowels are painted different colours for easy identification,” says Max. “Each size of dowel in Woodware is cut from a different wood - eight in total, from 16mm maple to 110mm lime.”

The resulting pieces are physically and visually light, their density, both real and visual, dramatically reduced by the small amount of material necessary for their construction.

Max is considering producing this series as an edition limited not by numbers, but by the time-honoured skills inherent to working with wood by hand.

“To make these pieces in an edition of, say, 8 would seem unsuitably precious,” he says. “Adopting Bernard Leach’s approach to making ‘Standard Ware’ my Woodware collection is intended to be affordable and function well within the home, whilst offering the warmth of hand-crafted furniture made by me within my London studio.”

Limited, then, but in a different way.

The diameters and woods used are:

16mm = Maple
20mm = Walnut
30mm = Ash
40mm = Beech
50mm = Cherry
60mm = Tulip
70mm = Oak
90mm = Sapele
110mm = Lime

Studioware

Early in 2011, the directors of Gallery FUMI, Valerio Capo and Sam Pratt, were discussing the possibility of putting on a show with the London designer Max Lamb.

Lamb, a recent convert to the joys of ceramic, was particularly taken up at the time with the role of the workplace in a maker’s life.

His native Cornwall, he explained, had been littered with pottery studios in the mid-twentieth century (and to an extent still is), and one of the best practitioners, Bernard Leach, had used his own studio to create a range of beautiful but utilitarian pieces that he called Standard Ware.

Soon, due to Leach’s ability to turn out this work in decent quantities, it appeared in homes all over Britain. And if not the real thing, something very like it did.

What Max Lamb was really thinking about was how designers and artists can fulfill the potential of their own studios, making it into a space of personal expression and self-production – in either quantity or quality or both.

Taking Leach’s own coinage of Standard Ware, Lamb suggested that an exhibition, under the heading Studioware, would be a very fine exhibition indeed.

Gallery FUMI went on to invite two other studios to join the event. In north London, they spoke to Glithero, who have completed several collaborations with the gallery.

Tim Simpson and Sarah van Gameren, who make up Glithero, transform their studio with every project, turning it from a plaster workshop to a papier maché production line, depending on their needs.

In Germany, they approached Johannes Nagel, another artist familiar to them, who from a workspace in an apartment building in Halle, creates extraordinary groupings of highly individualistic ceramic pieces. His studio literally frames his practice, which at one point happens to coincide with that of Max Lamb: both use sand moulds to make pieces.

Glithero and Lamb, on the other hand, share an unusual ability to take the exploration of individual materials and processes to their absolute limit in the pursuit of exciting design.

Once the show was agreed, the designers retired to their respective spaces to fine-tune ideas they had previously considered but never brought to life. Setting the interior of the studio as the limit within which they could work, they have all achieved results that will now go on to have repercussions and respect far outside those four walls.

The post Woodware by Max Lamb
at Gallery Fumi appeared first on Dezeen.

Competition: we've teamed up with London designer Max Lamb to give readers the chance to win one of five signed copies of his new book China Granite Project II.

The 112-page book documents the making of his second collection of furniture that's cut from granite in a Chinese quarry.

Read our privacy policy here.

This competition is now closed. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter and at the bottom of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

Subscribe to our newsletter, get our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter for details of future competitions.

Here are some more details from publishers Everyday Life Books by Apartamento magazine:

China Granite Project II

This book documents the making of China Granite Project II – a collection of furniture by Max Lamb realised in October 2010 using an igneous granite known as Sesame Black native to Fujian Province, China.

A book published by Everyday Life Books by Apartamento Magazine launched during Design Miami/Basel in June 2011 to accompany Max’s solo exhibition with Johnson Trading Gallery.

ISBN: 978-84-615-1140-2
24cm x 15.5cm
112 pages, soft cover with belly band
Language: English
Drawings and photography: Max Lamb and Man Kit Au-Yeung
Design by Omar Sosa
Interview by Marco Velardi
Published by Apartamento Magazine for Everyday Life Books
Retail price: £17 plus shipping

Also available from Max Lamb's shop and Bruil.

Congratulations to the winners! Fraser Moore in New Zealand, Peter Ainsworth in the UK, Juliana Melo Pereira in Brazil, Vojtesek Jiri in the Czech Republic and James Heard in the United States all won copies of China Granite Project II.

More about Max Lamb »
More competitions »
Back to Dezeen »

The post Competition: five copies of China Granite Project II
by Max Lamb to be won appeared first on Dezeen.

London designer Max Lamb has designed this self-assembly wooden chair for Tokyo furniture brand E&Y.

The title of the product, called Third, refers to the way designer, manufacturer and consumer must each do one third of the required work to create the chair.

The piece forms part of E&Y's new collection entitled Edition Horizontal.

More about Max Lamb »
More furniture design »

The information below is from Lamb:

[ third ] design by Max Lamb
For edition HORIZONTAL / E&Y

This is a 33/33/33 project, where the designer and manufacturer constructing all the components, and the consumer assembling the chair at home, are equally involved in the completion of the piece.

People used to be much more resourceful, but nowadays we have become lazy, less confident, or even lost the practical knowledge entirely. This is very sad.

I would like to encourage people to re-discover their ability for building furniture and regain the confidence to work with tools. Giving the consumer a certain volume of responsibility, is for them to regain confidence. “third” is a project reflecting these ideas.

material : spf
size : W.380 x D.525 x H.794
manufacturer : E&Y
release : winter, 2010

edition HORIZONTAL / E&Y

A multiple is an object. An object meaning something. Objects inherit their true values, meanings, and often provide mental satisfaction when taken in one's hand. Without prioritizing function, to give the joy to possess, by creating an object appealing to one's inner depth.
And to give a view, a horizon, where various people and objects are connected side by side. "edition HORIZONTAL" is a new collection and an announcement made by E&Y in collaboration with various designers.

See also:

.

Anodised table by Max Lamb for Deadgood	Sedia 1 – Chair by Enzo Mari	2440×1220, Saw, Assemble by Pål Rodenius

The post Third by Max Lamb for E&Y appeared first on Dezeen.