ABOUT US

Design Shows – where we’ll be for the rest of 2005: We will be showing our new designs for Tempus Stet at the London Design Shows this month, including a range of resin/organics table lamps, and a lichen table for both the indoors and outdoors: 100% Design (22nd – 25th Sept, Earls Court 2) and Decorex (25th – 28th Sept, The Royal Hospital Chelsea, SW3) We will also be showing at the exclusive Create 2005 show at Fota House Cork (1st-16th October) which forms part ‘European City of Culture’ festivities. Showcasing the best of contemporary Irish furniture with a fantastic selection of designers and makers from all over the country, this is sure to be an exciting event and well worth the visit for anyone wishing to purchase or commission work.

Photo by Chris Floyd

farm21 was formed in 2001 to create contemporary rural furniture and art, as I felt at the time it was an area of ‘modern design’ that was being neglected. Our signature farm21 item is the straw-packed plexiglas cube, originally created as a present for my father’s 60th birthday. To this day, the bulk of farm21 organic material (straw, wood, lichen etc) is sourced from my family’s farm in County Carlow, Ireland.

The original concept has been developed into a range of cubes packed with various straws and mosses, grains, barks, french lavender and rosebuds, functioning as stools, benches and tables. We also have a selection of fantastic coffee tables and stylish lamps incorporating these materials, and have been making wall-panels and screens based around this idea of ‘exposed organic materials’ cased within acrylic. We are working on our diffusion lighting range, and hope to have this available from summer this year.

Our timber ‘lyric’ benches and tables continue to be popular, with our timber supply continually growing in scale and diversity. Wych elm, spalted beech, tiger-stripe ash and crab apple are just some of the unusual woods we have been working with lately. An interesting project in February involved placing a real diamond into the centre of an oval ash table for a show on Mercer Street NYC furthering the idea of contrasting and interesting materials within the realms of furniture.

The farm21 roller blinds have also had much interest recently. Available in almost any size now, we digitally print images from up-and-coming Irish photographers onto beautiful fabrics, then laminate and mount onto rollers for the ultimate view from that view-less window. We have a library of sample images, can work from submitted negatives, and we also offer ‘location commissions’.

The latest farm21 products, which have been extremely well received with both Press and the design community, incorporate an exciting new laminating process which allows our organic material to be literally suspended (or encased) within the acrylic, creating truly eye-catching pieces. We have been using this process for lamp bases, tables and screens, encasing lichen and rosebuds in particular for their wonderful colours which are stabilised in this process. Currently we are pushing the possibilities of scale with bespoke pieces such as sink-surrounds and shower panels for Interiors projects in London and New York. We are also developing a range of lamps and table options for London-based Tempus Stet which we hope to have on the shelves early 2006.

farm21’s ’unique take on the natural world’ has received extensive recognition and has been featured in prestigious publications such as the New York Times, Wallpaper, Vogue, GQ, IDFX (cover), Living Etc (cover), London Telegraph Magazine and London Sunday Times. We have provided installations for corporate headquarters such as the Bank of America in Dublin, as well as bringing the farm21 concept to bars, hotels and offices, and many happy individuals on both sides of the Atlantic.

Thank you for your interest in farm21 and for visiting the website, and please do contact us if you have any questions or comment.
 

SASHA SYKES

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