22 22 Edition Design

Faridha El Gabsi and Jean-Claude Cardiet, a former perfume flacon designer, have pledged their 22 22 Edition Design production company to champion humor and poetry in “beautiful objects that combine function and fiction”, recounting stories with a twist to add mystery—and a dash of surrealism—to everyday objects. Their six-object first collection tells some eclectic tales, from a frosted-glass Biblio lamp in the shape of luminous books that slips in among the real ones on the shelf to a chaise longue strung with pearlized plastic balls. Still stylish, but more mainstream, an updated cane-patterned chair is “designed like a construction puzzle” and made of laser-cut metal. “As beautiful and fragile as an art object” is Cardiet’s description of the porcelain Ciel & Terre (Sky & Earth) bud vase or candleholder that reverses into a basket—the product of a newly developed Limoges porcelain technique. The most fun: the hot-red enameled porcelain knifeholder emblazoned with the female-silhouette target of a circus knife-thrower that is bound to brighten up the most minimalist kitchen.

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Originally published in the January 2012 issue of France Today