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.