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Food Objects by Kristine Bjaadal

It’s been a while since we checked in with Underfull Table Cloth designer Kristine Bjaadal. She exhibited numerous objects related to food and eating at Food Work, an independent project initiated by Torbjørn Anderssen and Espen Voll. The exhibit, which features 21 designs by eight Norwegian designers shown at Tokyo Midtown Hall during Designtide Tokyo 2012.

Photos above: Siska is a French press coffee maker made of porcelain, cork, wood and leather.

Svale (Norwegian for the name of the bird “Swallow”) is inspired by the Oslo coffeehouse Fuglen (translated “the bird”), established in 1963. The coffeehouse is well known for its high quality coffee and its focus on Scandinavian 50s and 60s design. Bjaadal explains that this tray and cup design was created so as to distract you and remove you from the other things you might do while drinking coffee, like check emails or work. She says, “the tactility of Svale cup and tray calls you back to the physical world. The handleless cup forces you to be more focused on the action; you can feel the heat from the content, and let your fingers play with the embossed lines. The wooden tray gives a hint to finer occasions, and hence a feeling of treating yourself.” We all deserve a treat once a day, don’t we?

Bjaadal explains that the “walnut project” started out with “a lump of clay and a fascination for the shape of the walnut shell.” Two objects came out of her experimentation: Keepsake and Cloche, which have similar forms but perform different actions.

Cloche, made of porcelain, is a sculptural object that can be used for serving that first almost perfectly in one’s palm.

Keepsake is a larger set of two wooden shells that can be used separately as small bowls, or together as a closed capsule in which to store curiosities or mementos.

All photos by Ellen Johanne Jarli, except the last two by Kristine Bjaadal.

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.