Alexa Lixfeld Handmade Collection 2009 / 2010

Alexa Lixfeld studied design at Köln International School of Design and The University of Applied Arts Pforzheim in Germany. Prior to her studies she was a model, often gracing the pages of Marie Claire. She also studied at the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven, in the Netherlands. Alexa has received numerous design and innovation awards for her work, she exhibits and also lectures to an international audience.

“Alexa enjoys working across disciplines and cultures. She applies creative processes to social projects and is determined to think outsideof the box. For the 2009/2010 handmade collection she has been exploring the convergence of digital technology and traditional handcraft techniques, immersing herself into the phenomenal universe of scents and drawing with primary school children in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka.”

I met Alexa Lixfeld at the New York International Gift Fair. It was her first time to exhibit her line of ceramics, fabric, parfum and dolls in the United States. She is truly multi-talented, and her serene composure, behind her wares, made them all the more beautiful.

I was first attracted to her ceramics, they are a soft, matte color, with a wrap around edge that is a little like torn paper. The palette is exquisite and the shapes are elongated and irregular.

cups

I spent quite a bit of time in Alexa’s space, just looking, not asking many questions, and each area revealed a sharply contrasting product. My next adventures were Alexa’s parfum. Four exquistely designed bottles with equally exquisite fragrances.

FRA EDP 004

I had to quote from Alexa’s website, I can’t do the parfum’s scent justice. It is her fourth scent; and a delightful addition to Alexa’s orignal three scents. It has the same concrete top, with a wild splash of fuschia. It begged you to smell it and it wanted you to get in a little bit of trouble.

“WHAT A JOYFUL ADVENTURE OF SEDUCTION… A NAUGHTY -ALMOST RUDE- SEXY HEROINE. IT IS ENVELOPING, BOLD AND WARM BUT YET SCREAMING OUT LIKE A DEMANDING EXPLOSION. A LUMINOUS OPENING BUILT AROUND THE ZEST OF TWO DIFFERENT ORANGES: A BITTER ORANGE FROM AFRICA AND A SWEET ONE FROM ITALY. FOLLOWED BY ITS STRONG DOMINANT FLORIENTAL HEART SHAPED OF THE
TUNISIAN ORANGEBLOSSOM ABSOLUTE WHICH GRANTS THE FINE FRAGRANCE ITS CHARACTERISTIC, SOLAR CHARM, SURROUNDED BY FLORAL WAVES OF SAMBAC JASMINE. THE SENSUAL, ADDICTIVE TRAIL IS AN ALLIANCE OF ORANGE BLOSSOM, MADAGASCAR VANILLA AND A DROP OF HONEY.
TOP: BITTER ORANGE, SWEET ITALIAN ORANGE
HEART: SAMBAC-JASMINE, ORANGEBLOSSOM ABSOLUT
BASE: VANILLA FROM MADAGASCAR, HONEY, A TOUCH OF MUSK”

cashmere

Alexa’s cashmere is hand dyed, and handwoven. Cashmere blankets, cushion covers and shawls are made from the undercoat of the Himalayan mountain goat, “Capra Hircus”. These goats are reared in high altitudes in the Himalayas. The wool is collected in the spring when the goats shed their winter coats, yielding a minimal amount of fur. Alexa’s cashmere is preciously used and the animals are not harmed in her process of procuring their wool.

Collectibles, one of a kind objects that are designed by Alexa. They are limited editions and highly collectible.

metamorphose spoons

Metamorphose spoons was an installation of thirteen spoons for an exhibition “à la carte” at the Musuem fuer Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. Translation: Musuem for Art and Trade. Some of the spoons evolve into forks. The spoon stands for the developing female, while the evolution of the spoon into the fork stands for the developing male.
Alexa calls it “a visualization of developing gender realized in fine silver cutlery”.

concrete tableware

Alexa Lixfeld has combined modern alchemy with a traditonal Japanese laquerware called Wajima-nuri. Wajima-nuri is  traditional urushi lacquerware from Wajima, Japan. This lacquerware dates back to the 14th century. Alexa has transformed this traditional lacqerware into concrete tableware, juxtaposing the beauty of concrete with the smoothness and sheen of lacquerware.

Something colorful is just peeking through the subltle beauty of the cups. These are Alexa’s dolls. They are handmade in Indonesia, fair trade, of course. They are whimsical, lovely sprites to make any one of any age happy.

dolls

She has received too many awards to list them, trust me, but I did want to include something that Professor Axel Kufas says about her work. I am taking the liberty of using Professor Kufas’ words to describe her art. “Attracted by the classical, and in wondrous way tension-loaded forms and proportions of her containers and objects, we literally discover the tangible qualities of the material which was otherwise trampled under our feet: The granulations, stains and sprues left over from the casting, the drying and crazes, the burrs and fractures of the mold removal, the so-called flaws of the molding process. And concomitantly her handling them, the concretion and ports.”
“Briefly: The cultivation of peculiarities of the material and its process of manufacture, creates a new value by magnitudes, which we never thought to be possible with this „mass“.The interaction with the material is innovative, exemplary and yields in sustainability.“

Professor Axel Kufus

It is precisely what drew my eyes to the elongated, extended edge, which wraps around her cups.

It has been over a month since I was weaving my way through designers’ spaces at the New York International Gift Fair, and  I have been looking forward to finally writing about Alexa. From our brief interview in her space, I had no idea what the scope of her work truly was. I just kept coming back around and looking, she was a beacon in a sea of sameness. My son and I were looking at her work today, and her accomplishments, and he said, ‘she is my dream woman’. I loved that.