Holiday Gift Ideas: Let's Have a Drink

In 1862, Jerry Thomas published How to Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant’s Companion. Not content with two titles, Thomas clarifies his unusual – and what would become recognized as ground-breaking - project further with the subtitle, “containing clear and reliable directions for mixing all the beverages used in the United States, together with the most popular British, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish recipes, embracing punches, juleps, cobblers, etc., etc., etc., in endless variety.” Think of the following items as being clear and reliable in their design direction for your most prized holiday wines and drinks from around the world.

Iittala Essence Glassware
Designer Alfredo Häberli has fashioned ingeniously proportioned wine glasses. Inspired by his own family’s history in restaurants and hotels, Häberli strikes a mean between ballroom and bar, high and low. Adore the technical mastery of the stem’s merge with the absolutely flat bottom plate. $40 - $115

Tom Dixon Low Glasses
The heavy glass is blown and then hand-detailed with copper. Suitable for cocktails or simply a straight shot of bourbon, whisky – or as Thomas might say – etc., etc., etc. Every time you drink, you reverse the process of manufacture from their mouths and hands to your hand and mouth. $65 set of 2 glasses

Tom Dixon Tank Decanter
Use this mouth-blown, hand-finished decanter as mates for Tom Dixon Low Glasses or mix with others in your collection. The decanter’s walls aerate your wines expertly and display the liquid’s beauty. Can also be used to store and pour your pre-holiday party punch, julep, or cobbler. $125 

Holiday Gift Ideas: Kitchen Soldiers

Your name does not need to be Arthur Stanley Jefferson, aka Laurel, or Oliver Norvell Hardy, aka Hardy, to march a few kitchen essentials out of the shop or to feel like a true babe in toyland after a purchase. These three kitchen stalwarts continually surprise and delight.

Menu Salt & Pepper
Norm Architects upends expectations with these paired pepper and salt shakers. The grounds dispense from the top to keep counters clean, while the smooth mechanism of the ceramic grinder produces perfect grounds whether spice, nut, or seed. $60 - $65

Nut Hammer
Roger Arquer’s Nut Hammer tickles – and for some may even frighten - the soul. From its playful wink-right-at-you name to its supreme utility as a nutcracker, you may have to get more than one for the after dinner table. $40

 

Muuto Push Coffee Maker
Mette Duedahl has reimagined the press coffee pot. The simplicity of the four design elements: stoneware, steel, plastic, and beech, reveal a sheer mastery of controlled Nordic form. $149

Holiday Gift Ideas: Metal

Metal fascinates. Sometimes the fascination leads to dead ends. For instance, the European alchemists misguidedly attempted to turn a base to a noble metal. Other times the fascination with metal’s malleability, elasticity and plasticity yields beautiful objects. We submit some objects now in the shop as exhibits A, B, and C of successful metallic fascination.

Tom Dixon Bash Bowls

Each Tom Dixon Bash Bowl is hammered by hand so that no two are alike. The bowl has been – wait for it - bashed to a thin metallic delicacy. Surprisingly strong, place other precious items inside. Or simply let the hammer-dimpled surface shift shape as a solo sculptural work on your table. $350 & $280

Seth Andersson Bowls

These Seth Andersson stainless steel bowls, commissioned through Iittala, are designed and fabricated to be incredibly functional. Purchase one and, like magic, you have an instant heirloom to use every day. $175 & $195

Björn Dahlström Pots and Pans

Swedish industrial designer Björn Dahlström’s cookware line for Iittala is informed by the Finnish company’s focus on simplicity, functionality, and quality. Spell your Sarpaneva cast iron pot and let one of these stainless steel pieces into your kitchen’s cooking tools rotation. $265 - $395

Holiday Gift Idea: Alvar Aalto vase from Iittala

The Aalto vase dates back to 1936 - first presented at the Paris World Fair the following year.  Its fluid, organic form is still mouth blown today at the Iittala factory.  It takes a team of seven skilled craftsmen working as one to creat one Aalto vase - an icon of modern design.  Alvar Aalto is undoubtedly one of the greatest names in modern architecture and Scandinavian design.  
$175 for the clear 6.25" version

Holiday Gift Idea: Moooi vases

A delightful, unique and inventive collection of fun-yet-functional porcelain objects that make the perfect last-minute gift. 

Egg vases $141 each

Foam bowl $224

Ming vase $147

Sponge vase $218

Towels for Tea by TextielMuseum

These tea towels, glass towel or table linens, are expressions of the TextielMuseum's critical engagement with contemporary and historical trends in textile design and manufacture. The museum, located in Tillburg, Netherlands, selected some of the best contemporary designers to create beautifully utilitarian fabrics for the home through their exclusive label, by TextielMuseum. The fabrics - and their designs - are deeply informed by the museum's in house experimental textile laboratory, TextielLab.

Here are just a few examples of what we have on offer at the shop:

Grandma's Buttons, Kiki van Eijk, The glass cloth, Grandma's Buttons, was inspired by the curios of a button box handed from grandmother to designer. Swaddle your finest crystal in the playfully buttoned down - or up - world of Kiki. $25 

Farm Fabrics, Mara Skujeniece, The designer's reinterpretation of the Latvian countryside. The rhythm of the rural landscape - the sight of a barn's wooden slats - is transfigured through warp and weft. Bucolic and elegant. $25

Font of the Loom, Bertjan Pot, A real textural and textile wonder! The designer produced the smallest possible font for TextielLab's jacquard loom. Read selected snippets from Wikipedia articles, while eating, to have an endless supply of dinner conversation. $195

Insect Pattern, Studio Job, Release a colony of linen bugs and critters upon your counter with Studio Job's delightfully terrific and multi-layered insect print. $25

Pantheon, Studio Job, An elegy to classic damask. Animals, machines, weapons array themselves around an empty center that awaits your table's centerpiece. Napkins with the same design are also available. $176

Graffit, Viktor & Rolf, A checkered pattern adorned - or provoked if you wish - with the designer's signature intervention, a graffiti tag. The artist's graffito appears still wet! $25

Holiday Gift Idea: Piano Serving set from Iittala

Iittala Piano, designed by Renzo Piano, is a gracious and soft design. With extreme attention to detail, Piano, one of the world's leading architects, created this extremely sophisticated cutlery that will change your eating experience. Piano has left no detail unturned— deleted its soft, rounded and balanced handles and appropriate and thoughtful proportions.

$140 /set

Iittala Piano Serving Set | Designed by Renzo Piano

Holiday Gift Idea: Eclectic Form Bowls

Nest of five delicate dishes. Sculpted from fine sheets of brass and finished with a gold wash. Much needed sophisticated glamour for the pared down modern table setting from Eclectic by Tom Dixon.

$130 - Large, set of 5

$90 - Small, set of 5

Eclectic Form Bowl Set | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Holiday Gift Idea: Aarne Champagne Glass from Iittala

Something new for your New Year bubbles. This mouth-blown piece originally helped set the trend for essential glassware in the 1950s. Glass designer and decorative artist Göran Hongell was one of the pioneers of the Finnish glass tradition. With his mouth-blown glassware range Aarne, he won the gold medal in 1954 at the Triennale in Milan. 
$55/2 set of two

Iittala Aarne Champagne Glass | Designed by Göran Hongell, 1948

Holiday Gift Idea: Eames House Bird

Charles and Ray Eames augmented the interior “collage” of the Eames House with numerous objects brought back from their extensive travels. The figure of a black wooden bird — evidently one of their most prized objects of American folk art — has stood in the centre of their living room for over fifty years. Also seen as an accessory in many of the Eameses’ photographs.

10.75"H x 3.5"W x 11"D 
$230

Holiday Gift Idea: Eclectic Hex

A solid copper multi-functional dish, hand formed with a hammered hexagonal pattern and beaten finish. Polished and sealed with a food safe clear lacquer. Available in three bowl sizes and a champagne bucket. 

Starting at $65

Eclectic Hex | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Holiday Gift Idea: Aalto Oak platter from Iittala

Iittala honors artist Alvar Aalto with a wonderful collection of products inspired by his work. Modeled after the iconic Alvar Aalto vase, this serving tray possesses the same sensuous lines. The tray is made of sturdy oak and the wood grain gives an intriguing texture to the piece. Make it a part of your home décor and you will appreciate its understated elegance.

$60 - 10" x 8"
$110 – 17" x 14"

Iittala Aalto Wood Platter | Designed by Alvar Aalto

Holiday Gift Idea: Cast Nutcracker

A well rounded nutcracker made to fit in the palm of your hand. Manufactured in cast iron and finished with a black powder coating for supreme durability. Resilient brass thread incorporated. 

$65 
6" x 1.75" 

Eclectic Cast Nutcracker | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Holiday Gift Idea: Teema series from Iittala

Highly versatile with endless combinations, Teema serves all your changing dining needs. Capturing essential design thinking, each object is derived from three basic forms: circle, square, and rectangle. As Kaj Franck put it, "Colour is the only decoration needed." 

Currently in stock: Teapot, Milk jar, Mugs, Serving Bowls, Dinner Plates, Pasta Bowls, Mini Serving set. All in white. 

Pieces start at $24

Teema Collection | Designed by Heikki Orvola, Kaj Franck, 1952

Holiday Gift Ideas: Bash Vessel

Tom Dixon's Bash Vessel is formed of brass and shaped by hand into an expressive crumpled form. It can be used as an extravagant flower vase, fruit bowl or as a contemporary sculpture.  Each piece is unique in shape and finished with a gold wash. 

$395 Large 18"x9"x12" 

$235 Small 12"x6"x8"

 Eclectic Bash Vessels | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Sale! Giveaway! Eclectic by Tom Dixon.

Timeless. Classic. Covet-worthy. Tom Dixon Eclectic.

This Saturday, December 8th, Inform Interiors will be offering 10% off all Eclectic pieces in stock at our Seattle showroom. And the first 25 shoppers will receive a free Tom Dixon fluoro bag with their Eclectic purchases. 


Inform Interiors
300 Dexter Ave North - Seattle
Saturday 12pm - 5pm
Prices start at $65

A collection of everyday home accessories, giftware and design objects formed from honest, resilient and heavyweight materials including copper, marble, cast iron and wood. The products are informed by British heritage, with each piece designed to be used and played with, and always to be treasured. 

HOLIDAY GIFT IDEAS!

Ready or not, December is just around the corner. Making your gift list? So are we!
For the next month, we are featuring unique gift ideas - all available from the Seattle showroom to wrap up for the holidays.

First up, a new showroom favorite from Eclectic by Tom Dixon.

Scent Candles | Eclectic by Tom Dixon, 2012

A collection of three scented candles created to capture the essence of the travelling, trading and nostalgic past with the vibrant future of British life.

Each candle is encased in a reusable metal vessel and topped with a solid morwad marble lid. 3.3" 

$80 /ea

Orientalist captures the faint memory of an Indian wedding with rose petal garlands, giant cinnamon sticks on beach stalls and the musky smells of the Chinese herbal market. Brass and marble.

London calls to mind the smell of red brick, London parks with crocuses and nettles and the salty smell of the Thames at Dagenham. Copper and marble.

Royalty is a reminiscence of tea time with a pot of Earl Grey, scones, strawberry jam and the drive home in a '52 Bentley with tatty leather seats. Nickel and marble.

Eclectic by Tom Dixon now at the Showroom!

Now available for sale at the showroom! Eclectic by Tom Dixon. 

A miscellany of useful and decorative artefacts and curiosities formed of honest, resilient and heavyweight materials, including copper, marble, cast iron and wood. Each piece is designed to be used or played with, to be treasured or to be given.

Which is your favorite?

 Eclectic Cast Nutcracker | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Eclectic Bash Vessel | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Eclectic Cast Factory | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Eclectic Cast Mini Jack | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Eclectic Cast Shoe | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Eclectic Form Bowl Set | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Eclectic Hex Bowl | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Eclectic Scent Candle | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Eclectic Stone Candle Holder | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012

Eclectic Chop | Designed by Tom Dixon, 2012