Fresh picks

From the catwalk to interiors, white remains an important colour trend. We salute it with a round up of vases that create a perfectly cool canvas for sprays of summer blooms.

Local and international designers are leaving it up to the flowers to add colour to a display this summer, with white vases offering interesting shapes and textures. Whether filled with bright blossoms or displayed as is, we think this collection of en vogue vases will become classics in years to come.

Harry Allen’s Brush Vase for Areaware gets our vote for out-of-the-box design. Created to hold actual paintbrushes, Harry thought it would also make a great vessel for flowers, so added a glass inside the brushes.

We think it’s brilliant that Carrol Boyes now offers ceramics. The Bud Vase, designed by Martine Jackson, uses organic shapes and repetitive patterns in a one-of-a-kind, hand-made ceramics collection.

Locals designers Lisa Firer and Sarah Walters also have fabulous white vessels in their arsenal. Lisa references fabric, patchwork and the process of sewing in her work and uses techniques that result in ceramic pieces that imitate the feeling of paper.

Sarah, on the other hand, uses a “wash away” process: hand-thrown porcelain pieces are decorated by brushing on cold wax, which, once dried, creates a raised pattern while the surrounding clay looks washed away.

British artist Maya Selway has created a vase that uses the properties of metal to create forms with spectral characteristics.  Her Kishu vase requires a double take as there’s no actual vase but rather a metal frame that suggests a solid form.

Other British vased that caught our attention are those at Made in Design’s online store of delicate goodies. Fern Living, Tse-Tse and Eva Solo pieces in white all offer stylish ways to display flowers in a contemporary way.

And we couldn’t do a round up without an abstract piece. Enter Michael Geersten’s Closely Separated Vase for Muuto. The designer says this piece reminds us of the beauty in disharmony and how old things can lead to new if we change our perspective.