Culture
The Classics
Raw Edges
Partners in work and life, Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay are one of the design world's most delectable duos right now - winning awards left, right and centre, and wowing with their tireless ability to innovate. Although the pair only graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2006 they have already established a significant back catalogue of work for manufacturers such as Established & Sons, Cappellini and Arco, and a reputation for never revisiting the same idea twice.
One of their most recent bests has been the Coiling Collection. Developed as an exploration into design processes, the Coiling Collection consists of pieces of furniture made from felt which has been coiled and then saturated with silicon on one side. The silicon gives the felt structure and longevity, but the real appeal is in the weird and tactile contrast between the textile and the plastic - together they form a new composite material.
In art as in life - the Coiling Collection could be a nice metaphor for Raw Edges' studio, as with Yael and Shay's different skills and approaches, together they are able to produce work that is more diverse and experimental. Where Yael has a talent for tranforming two-dimensional sheet materials into three dimensional functional sculptures, Shay is more interested in the mechanics of things. Together, they say, their goal is to create objects that have never been seen before. They've certainly achieved it here.


















