kaikado: 6th generation tea caddy maker.

I am a confirmed tea accessory lover.  Given a steady paycheck, I spend far too much money on teapots, cups and tea and anything pretty and vaguely related.  So these tea caddies appeal to me on both a tea stuff level and a design level.  The craftsmanship is amazing, as is the attention to detail.  But what I really love is the feeling of time, that is a intrinsic aspect of the design.  The metal is not meant to remain perfect, but gently age.  The design is simple and probably has managed to seem contemporary for the last 6 generations and with do so for the next 6.  I’m reading an article literally right now (yay procrastination in action) that is talking about how we tend to see space and objects as static and unchanging, when they are really part of the give and take of life and as such change. So though we may think that these caddies are all about returning to the past ways of doing things, they caddies have always been conceived as being part of the future.  They are made to be used, and be changed by that use, even made more beautiful by the use.

1. Article by Eliasson, Olafur. “Models are Real”.  Sent to my class by my studio teacher with the motivation of convincing us to make more concept models.  I need to buy foam.

2. Original article covering the tea caddies found at Design Boom.