New Bella Summer 17 - Part 3
Time for another exciting launch! Week 1 we were in LaLa land showing classic elegance with a little twist of glitz. In part 2 of our three part launch series, we met coastal chic, more modern rust and classic gold and silver. In this last installment, please enjoy two wood tone veneer collections; the Scandi-flavored KUBIK and Japanese influenced SUMI.
These two collections are presented together because Japan and Scandinavia are design soulmates sharing a love of minimalistic elegance, natural materials, and functional designs for the home.
KUBIK
Recently, the world has a renewed fascination with all things from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Iceland, known as ‘Scandinavian’ or, more accurately, ‘Nordic’ design.
Kubik | Bare Birch White Cube
After World War II, the modernist designs that had emerged out of Europe in the 30's seemed too cold and totalitarian. Also since that International or Bauhaus style was considered very German, the world was ready to look elsewhere for something more functional and natural. Scandinavia’s focus on the home and family, assertions of democratic principles, and emphasis on traditional craftsmanship fit in well with consumerist ideals of the postwar period.
Kubik | Bare Birch White Cube
The Nordic movement’s rise in North America is attributed to a mid-century design exhibition proposed by House Beautiful editor Elizabeth Gordon, a prominent taste maker. The exhibition, which toured the US from 1954 to 1957 was supported by the kings of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and introduced the term "Scandinavian Modern" to our market.
The essence of Scandinavian or Nordic design is to pare all the elements down to their most poetic simplicity. This frame collection is indeed minimal, yet not lacking in character.
Kubik's cap and small block profiles come in four wood tones; natural birch, white wash, light grey and a warm brown. The clean white lacquered side and two-toned look is perfectly matched to other Scandi accessories. Kubik is a combination of Italian lacquer and the same quality faux wood foils used in the modern kitchen cabinetry and furniture markets.
Kubik | Four colors and two profiles
SUMI
Sumi | Small Miso Brown
The traditional art of East Asian ink wash painting, also called Sumi-e, has long inspired modern artists in the West.
"The painter ... put upon the paper the fewest possible lines and tones; just enough to cause form, texture and effect to be felt. Every brush-touch must be full-charged with meaning, and useless detail eliminated. Put together all the good points in such a method, and you have the qualities of the highest art." - American artist and educator Arthur Wesley Dow (1857–1922)
Sumi ink wash painting uses tonality and shading achieved by varying the ink density and by varying the pressure within each single brushstroke. Calligraphy artists spend years practicing basic techniques to refine their movement and flow. In the hand of a master, a single brush stroke can produce astonishing beauty, from deep black to silvery gray. This variation in shading and beautiful nuance in tonality has inspired our bamboo look.
Sumi | Four colors and two sizes
Our simple collection of two graceful angled profiles with a natural bamboo veneer are designed to reflect and compliment the harmonious palette and the tonal variations found not only in sumi-e works but also in a natural and sustainable material like bamboo.
Sumi | Medium Samurai Smoke
East Asian calligraphy is not only beautiful, but each line is also philosophical and holds meaning to the artist. Advice from a skilled master is that while practicing your art with each movement of the brush, you should think about success, light, love, pleasure, creativity, or anything that makes you happy and then happiness will fill your life. Perhaps we framers can incorporate some of this Zen while we are selecting samples, hinging art, or adding hardware, which is our art, is it not? Namaste!
Sumi | Medium Samurai Smoke
