Considering trends and shifts in our relationship with our health and wellbeing Nina van Bart's 'The Alchemist' short film cites the bathroom as a laboratory where one can take control over beauty and wellbeing. Mixing materials and chemicals, substances react to create new super sensory experiences. Playing with materials from growing crystals to drifting mist, van Bart's film suggests a future whereby we can mix our own personalised perfect elixir. http://vimeo.com/68999678

Continuing his quest for quiet relaxation in our busy urban environments, Harm Rensink's latest project shown during Dutch Design Week in an old church explores bathing in warm earth that covers the user. Taking inspiration from the Japanese thermal sand baths the firmness and the warmth of the sand stimulates the senses and enlightens the mind and in the words of Harm 'Leads you into a new reality'.

In keeping with the trend for New Porn that has been emerging almost as a counter reaction to the ubiquity of bad porn on the internet, we are seeing a rise in new magazines seeking a new perspective. The latest to emerge is from Future-Filter's very own creative partner Ed Vince in the form of TALC Magazine. TALC offers a new fresh concept and perspective on erotica shown as part of a celebration of general visual stimulation to include architecture, design and furniture, it is also key to Ed that it is an "antidote to lads’ mags".

Recently launched on Kickstarter to promote and distribute the magazine bi annually it will be a fresh and compelling addition to publishing.

Exploring materials, form and process, Maxim Velčovský's snow vases are on show at Mint as part of their Cabinets of Curiosity exhibition - one of the not to be missed locations during London Design Festival. Describing the technique as "lost-snow casting" and created over three winters from 2010-2012 using different snow from different locations, each vase is made from moulding snow into which plaster was then poured.

As the plaster hardened and gave off heat, its warmth melted the snow resulting in unique shapes and textures.

Being experimental, thoughtful and creative is key to challenging the restraints that mass manufacturing holds and stops young up and coming designers from achieving their goal, but not for David Steiner who for his graduation project from the RCA used adapted humble house hold appliances to help him create his own factory to mould, form and create a series of objects. Driven by a desire for self sufficiency and as a comment on desktop digital manufacture he has created crockery using an embroidery hoop and a noticeboard frame t that was put in his washing machine instead of a rotation mould device.

He also used his blender as a pottery wheel to create a cup made from sugar paste as well as using his microwave to steam form some wood.

http://vimeo.com/68536748

Materiologist James Shaw explores varying processes and materials upcycling through his projects Making Guns. 'Making Guns; Plastic Extruding Gun' takes a cumbersome manufacturing process and turns it into a hand held process. Using recycled HDPE (a type of polymer) he has created a series of alchemic forms that celebrate the properties of the material.

Also part of the same series, Shaw has created a gun that sprays recycled paper fiber and a binder that mix in the air. Mixing colour as well to his formula he has re defined the notions of papier mâché creating ombre effects when sprayed onto wire frame structures that create solid forms.

Part of their Hyde Park collection, “Living material” is a project from Benwu Studio made up of designers Hongchao Wang and Peng You. Based between London and New york they explore materiality. Their latest project explores ways to reuse found natural materials with the aim to enhance natures beauty by mixing materials to create unexpected and beautiful outcomes. Juxtaposing materials such as branches and twigs with more industrial materials their outcomes suggests new applications for natural materials as well as pushing the boundaries of materiology.  

Exploring the home production of cosmetics with her ‘The Alchemist’s Dressing Table’ project, Lauren Davies has designed a beautiful collection of contemporary, analogue tools for the home production of cosmetics. Celebrating ancient rituals and a smattering of alchemy her project explores ways for extracting natural ingredients for wellbeing.

Based on the premise of users wanting to take more control of their wellbeing and a stronger connection to their daily rituals it also encourages a more symbiotic and natural relationship with nature and its intricate mysteries.

http://vimeo.com/68512532

Textile student Ejing Zhang explores materiality through craft, colour and process. Graduating from the Royal College of Art from the school of materials with a masters in Mixed media textiles, her material explorations made from bamboo, cast resin, peach wood and wrapped thread have a beautiful and delicate quality to them. Collated into a collection titled 'Moonrise' she has explored Chinese craftsmanship and modern day manufacturing techniques that resulted in a series of beautiful objects such as a lunch box as well as bracelets and handbags.

She also collaborated with another student to create a 3D printed tote bag.

3 graduates from the Royal College of Art Design Products are proposing a recyclable, disposable and safe recycled paper bike helmet that would be available alongside the infamous Boris Bikes using recycled Metro Newspapers which currently cause waste issues with the transport network. Utilising the techniques already used for paper moulding for the protection of high end electronics they aim to create a small scale factory within London close to both supply and the end user.

Exploring colour and our relationship with objects, RCA graduate Lina Patsiou has developed a colouring system that matches the letters of the alphabet with a colour allowing for colour coded messages to be sprayed onto objects. In addition she has also developed an algorithm that converts the alphabet into lines that are then imported into 3D imaging software and can be printed out as 3D shapes or dimensional messages.

http://vimeo.com/68352788#at=0

Lapka is a collection of smart sensors which plug into your iphone and give you a visual representation of your envrionment. Initially released during CES the consumer electronics show in las Vegas earlier this year, it is now being showcased with its delicious minimalist and emotive packaging that fits entirely with the wood detailing on the product itself.

This beautiful range of packaging for athletes has caught our collective eye at Future-Filter. The successful blend of pastel colours, minimalist geometric illustration and sans serif type almost makes us want to take up running!

There are a lot of designers, architects and restaurants that are going back to nature and exploring nature in new ways, but taking a really fresh approach to nature, sustainability and design is Moe Nagata who is soon to graduate from the Textiles Futures Ma. Her project was inspired by ancient tribal based craft design that was rooted in animism and a symbiotic relationship with nature. Traditional tribes hunted for food and then used every last piece of the animal to make products such as teeth necklaces.

Nagata has taken that consideration into a very modern look with her From Creatures collection that uses the natural materials discarded from the fishing industry. Using shells and bones she has given them a surprising twist using laser cutting, dyeing and printing.

Just opened in Paris is the Envie/Alive exhibition curated by Carole Collet which explores issues around synthetic biology. The exhibition begins with a statement  'A quiet revolution is happening. A new breed of designer has begun to reshape our world by re-orchestrating our relationship to nature'. Most of the work is not new, but it is for the first time that it is all under one roof.

Showing the likes of Emile de Vischer's pearling and Amy Congdon's biological atelier it also explores the work of architects and designers who are exploring the bio-engineered world.

Presenting a new design landscape with a glimpse to our synthetic future and a new ecological consideration the exhibition groups them under 5 headings

1/ The Plagiarists: (Nature as a model) those who look to nature to engineer man made and digital solutions.

2/ The New Artisans: (Nature as a co-worker) - those designers who are collaborating with nature to craft future consumer goods

3/ The Bio-Hackers: (Reprogrammed, ‘synthetic’ nature) designers working with synthetic biologists and who are engineering living organisms for a possible hybrid future

4/ The New Alchemists: (Hybridised nature) combining biological and chemical (non living) technology these designers merge robotics, chemistry and biology

5/ The Agents Provocateurs: (Conceptualised and imagined nature.) Pushing the boundaries to the extreme these designers explore the ethics around living technology as well as high-tech sustainability.

Alongside the exhibition ‘En Vie-Alive’ is hosting 4 designers and architects who are already working with synthetic biology or tissue engineering and has them set up in a lab style scenario showing the new tool kit for designers of the future - DNA and bacteria.

Soon to be graduating from Central St Martins, Textile Futures Course, Amy Radcliffe has designed an analogue device that  captures scents that can later be retrieved to exist as an olfactory memory of a time and a place. Questioning 'How can we archive personal memories through captured scent?' Amy is drawing parallels to the way that we consumed our memories through photography in a pre digital era drawing comparisons with lomography and 35mm film. Photographs were precious and faded with time.

Utilising the Headspace Technology to capture 'scents' Amy's project explores the poetic narrative of the time it takes to capture the scent and considers how in the future we will 're-experience the moment' through the emotions that a scent captures.

Her device is beautifully crafted using ceramics, leather and blown glass - all skills that she has acquired during the project to enable her to develop a sensitively designed analogue system that would allow us to capture scents - one that could in turn profoundly change the way we experience scents in our daily life engaging with our memories in an entirely new way.

Titled 'Madeleine' Amy makes reference to Proust and his works 'In search of lost time' where explores he the experience of 'Involuntary Memory' - one that Amy believes her device will elicit.

The other material of choice during Milan was glass. It was in abundance and especially exploring colour and texture. One designer who particularly stuck out was Ammy Olofsson who explores the notion of the intangible with the tangible through her designs. Looking to the idea of mirages and rainbows - from a scientific perspective we know they are real, but at the same time they are not real in a tangible sense.

Ammy tries to explore this same feeling with form, colour and luminosity with her blown glass pieces.

Acting as an alchemist she plays with space, mirror, light and form and the resulting glass pieces are beautiful yet intangible at the same time.

The jury is still out as to whether Milan was a great, or not so great year - I feel a bit disappointed overall but amongst some really bad design - Zona Tortona being particularly poor - there were some fantastic finds. One of the key materials that stuck out during the show was the abundance of marble and stone.

What was particularly beautiful about it was the blend between the rawness and beauty of nature that the material offers, combined with modern day tooling allowing for beautifully refined objects.

The marble bath that was on show as part of the Hybrids Architecture show at the University was particularly incredible as was the installation from Mathieu Lehanneur for the Bathing in Light marble installation at Superstudio

In contrast the combination of the organic exuberance of the glass captured within the refined marble structures at Osmosi by Emmanuel Babled in Lambrate were breathtaking in both scale, colour and proportion whilst the incredible curved marble sculptures at Wallpaper Handmade Milan by Michael Anastassiades and Henraux exemplified the beauty of when man and machine come together in design.

With the build up to Milan next week there are a plethora of exciting and some not so exciting projects that are being exposed to tantalise the design industry to visit during their time in Milan. Tom Dixon's MOST currently offering Robots and Design looks set to fully take over from the lure of Lambrate and one of those designers who will be making waves showing at MOST is Emilie Grenier a graduating student from the Textile Futures Ma at CSM.

Her project is not only pertinent, but it is also beautifully executed. Here is a sneak peek at what she will be showing during Milan at MOST next week.

She explains her project so well I have simply lifted the copy (with permission!) from her site.

'Disquiet Luxurians explores alternative trends for the production and consumption of rare and luxurious objects. This has led to a new definition of the current state of luxury, one which (re)places most emphasis on meaning, craft and provenance. The resulting collection focuses on the material feldspar - the world's most prevalent mineral which makes up 60% of the Earth's crust. If we define ourselves by what we achieve with the materials that surround us, then let the times of the Disquiet Luxurians be those of more meaningful value'

Image Credits Tristan Thomson