Spotlighting Illumini bright ideas as Sooper Design journeys through the Design Made Trade event and meets some of our future Australian design stars.

These two creative artists, Mandi King and Karen Cunningham are currently collaborating at Illumini and designing eco-friendly lights and clocks. Their products are  fun and really well made.

For  years they worked and lived side by side, both in their formal training as glass blowers at  JamFactory in Adelaide, and also as neighbours in the surrounding foothills. In that time they developed a strong chemistry, bonding over common visions in craft as well as lifestyle. In February, 2010 Karen and Mandi decided to combine their talents into a special collaborative project called “Illumini” to develop hand-made products that reflected those ideals.

They have a strong belief that they’re part of a movement of young artists who are actively re-imagining the bridge between the worlds of design and craft through our work. Their wares demonstrate successful balances of the best sensibilities both approaches of making have to offer. Intimate and intuitive understanding of material combined with fluency in the clean visual language of contemporary design. Clear vision of function in greater contexts. Appreciation for the maximum efficiency of production, with a vested awareness of the impact of our objects in the world.

We currently stock Mandi’s beautiful Rocket vases and Soft Splice sculptures. To see more click here.

OMG! Thank you WeWish.com.au for nominating Sooper Design as one of Australia’s Top 10 Design online stores. We are constantly striving to bring new and innovative products to the market and showcasing the talent behind the beautiful and quirky objects. We certainly didn’t expect this support, so once again. Thank you. To read more

Anne and Jacqui

Emma Klaus’  handblown Kinetic wine glasses are the perfect gift when you want to make a statement. Obviously a designer with a quirky sense of humour and a sense of fun. This is also one gift that I want for me…if anyone is listening?

Some things in life are just so beautiful that it is hard to think that mother nature wasn’t responsible for it. This brings me to highlighting our new designer Maria Chatzinikola, from South Australia who is the creator of the ceramic Brine and Scales series range with it finite detail and 3D delicate patterns. Honestly I can’t get over how organic and beautiful these pieces are.

We have two of Maria’s ceramic series – Brine and Scale. It’s an understatement to say how much we at Sooper admire the incredible workmanship that has gone into these handmade works of art. Now its your chance to have the opportunity to collect and own an object or a series through the Sooper Design shop.