The Japanese housewares brand aeru is always looking for ways to make the lives of young families easier. Its latest product, a collaboration with the designers at Nosinger, is a line of handmade bowls that help young children learn how to eat on their own with fewer messy spills. The design is simple: starting with traditional Japanese flatware materials, a small ledge is built as a center ring in the bowl in order to help the eater-in-training push food back onto a utensil before taking a bite. According to Spoon-Tamago, the bowls come in three varieties: Yamanaka Lacquer, Ootani-yaki pottery, and Tobe-yaki porcelain, and depending on the materials, a set of three costs between $45 and $100.
In a typewritten letter, Lenka Clayton announced why she started her conceptual Artist Residency In Motherhood:
"I find now that many aspects of the professional art world are closed to artists with families. Most prestigious artist residencies for example specifically exclude families from attending…"
Her artist's statement finishes:
"I will undergo this self-imposed artist residency in order to fully experience and explore the fragmented focus, nap-length studio time, limited movement and resources and general upheaval that parenthood brings and allow it to shape the direction of my work, rather than try to work "despite it".
Since beginning her residency in September, Clayton has produced around 16 works and maintained an extensive studio diary. True to her original mission, her work explores the duties of motherhood including a sculptural proposal about child-proofing a curator's office, an archive of items found in babies' mouths, a pair of baby pants made from the child's great-grandfather's pants, and a collection of potentially dangerous items rendered in soft fabric.