Having trouble finding the right product that perfectly suits your needs? Good news, our Bay Area Made community includes skilled makers and artisans who can create made-to-order goods such as furniture, lighting, decor, kitchen & tabletop, clothing, jewelry, bags, accessories, food, beverages, and body products. Whether you need a custom or customized solution for aesthetic or functional reasons, or both, we got you covered. In this series we’re calling “Have it Your Way” we highlight some outstanding bespoke projects from our members. Here is the second installment.
JOHI
Based in Santa Cruz County, Johi designs and manufactures furniture and home décor products. When designing multiple pieces for a family home, they spend a great deal of time understanding how the clients and their families hope to use their space. They wine, dine, sketch, and ideate together to pull out their dreams and visions. Furniture should reflect the client’s lifestyle, sparking joy and awe when center stage, but also flowing seamlessly into their lives.
For this Palm Springs home, it was all about family gatherings. Natural, durable materials were selected to tie to the family heritage in leather work. Made from white oak, the large format dining table can seat the entire family with extra room for serving and drinks at the custom buffet table. Copper elements bring a touch of chatoyance to the white oak, while blackened steel ties back to the hardware found throughout the home. A set of three minimalist benches play double duty, floating between the living and dining room, serving as both extra seating and side table space. The one-of-a-kind coffee table is perhaps the most playful. Made of white oak, its organically shaped top is supported by three dramatic bent wood legs.
Fire Road
Fire Road is a San Francisco-based design brand focused on creating timeless home goods with unique material combinations, minimalist design, and excellent function. Their products combine advanced production with superior craftsmanship to create innovative and inviting accessories for the home.
In collaboration with Sonoma County interior designers and sustainable home products retailers Jak W, Fire Road created the exclusive Skyline Backgammon Set.
Inspired by the iconic San Francisco skyline, this striking and modern backgammon set makes a statement at any game night. The beautifully crafted oak frame is inlaid with an engraved aluminum playing surface and the back of the case is laser engraved with a checkerboard. Two custom walnut dice cups and custom playing pieces are included with the set.
Loreto Remsing of LAROMATICA
For her Marin-based fragrance company LAROMATICA, Loreto Remsing creates small-batch, non-gendered fragrances, made with exquisite botanical ingredients and aroma molecules. As a fragrance formulator, she also designs private label formulas for clients.
Recently, Napa-based skincare brand Vintner’s Daughter approached her to collaborate on an all-natural oil-based fragrance. After receiving their brief, she went to work researching natural raw materials and coming up with ideas that matched their vision of a forest bloom scent. She created some initial blends and supplied them with samples of several concepts for them to choose from. Once a concept was selected, they worked on refining it until it was perfect. The process can take weeks, with a lot of adjustments and tweaks until a final formula is established and recorded.
After a final formula was written, she moved onto sourcing the ingredients in bulk, blending a small batch of concentrate, and maturing the batch or ‘macerating’ – which is a period of rest where all the molecules fuse together for a more cohesive blend. Then the concentrate is diluted, blended, and poured into bottles. Loreto’s formulations are a turn-key service where she pours out the bottles, apply the labels and boxes them so they are ready to sell. In this instance, she only needed to bottle and label each perfume, Vintner’s Daughter packaged the perfumes in a vegan leather pouch.
Formulating is one of Loreto’s greatest pleasures. She loves launching new products and making her clients’ dreams and visions come to life, exploring new materials, and blending them in ways she would not have thought of on her own. Formulating for others really feeds into her need of working on new and exciting projects.
Len Carella
In his San Francisco studio, Len Carella creates sculpture and installation art in stoneware, porcelain, and leather, and small batch functional ware in stoneware and porcelain for homes and restaurants.
For a residence in Sonoma, Len created the custom installation titled “In & Out of Fire”. He was originally approached by the client in 2017 and was only given the location and dimensions of the wall where it would ultimately hang as guidelines. As they were in discussion about the project, the fires of that year forced the client to evacuate, and he was told that if the house makes it through, they would like to commission the installation. Thankfully their house survived unharmed, and he began the process of building the piece and the name was born.
The installation is made up of 16 individual porcelain relief tiles that measure approximately 16” wide x 9” high each, and feature Shino and Celadon glazes. The ‘carbon trapping’ of the Shino glaze creates an ombre effect that goes from a creamy white on the left side to a dark smokey grey on the right side, giving the effect of what might look like the remnants of a fire. While there is no control of how the carbon trapping will appear, it turned out perfectly considering the circumstances.
Are you looking to have something custom made? Check out our directory of makers that can create a bespoke product for you here.
