An overhead view of a table set with mismatched striped, dotted and solid plates, figs, oranges and patterned napkins on an ochre cloth
A faded indigo work shirt laid flat on ochre linen beside indigo swatches, leaves and a coil of rope The Feature · Essay · Color Indigo, Always Returning Few colors have traveled as far or stayed as long. Designers are reaching for deep blue again, and the dye is older than any of them. Read the essay

Dispatches

Indigo · NB1
Essay · The Founding Note On Ochre Before there was writing, before there was money, there was a red earth ground to powder and pressed to stone. A note on the pigment that gives this publication its name. Essay · Our Standard of Selection The Provenance Standard How a brand comes to appear in these pages, what we confirm before it does, and the few things that can never be bought here. From the Founders Why We Began A letter from the two sisters behind Ochriva, on a hard season, a kitchen table covered in craft paper, and the artists we intend to celebrate.
Three stoneware mugs stacked, in green, pale blue and oxblood
The Studio · Ceramics The Accidental Wheel A single borrowed ceramics class in Long Beach became Sara Ekua Todd's life's work: sculptural clay in colors that seem to have been mixed rather than chosen.
A woven blanket in a bold black and cream geometric pattern draped over a rattan chair
The Studio · Surface Design A Renaissance in Pattern Hadiya Williams left a nonprofit desk for clay, then for surface design, and built a body of work fluent in West African form and the graphic confidence of the Black Arts Movement.
Stoneware bowls and incense burners in deep teal glazes
The Studio · Ceramics The Temple in Portsmouth A former software developer taught himself the wheel in a single season and built DEEP BLACK, a ceramic studio of inky glazes, Venetian artichokes and constellations hidden in plain sight.
An ottoman upholstered in a sienna and gold print of birds in circles
The Studio · Textiles Wax, Water and Indigo After two decades in public radio, Aishah Rashied Hyman founded BODDO Studio, translating West African textile traditions into pillows, slipcovers and ottomans sewn by a co-op of immigrant women in Atlanta.
A hand-tied fringe net bag in orange and fuchsia
Object Biography · Handbags A Little Courage, Hand-Tied Petit Kouraj makes fringed net bags that move like clothing, designed in Brooklyn by a stylist of Haitian heritage and named in Creole for the courage it takes to begin.
A flatweave rug with vertical bands of black, ochre and peach on cream
Object Biography · Rugs Every Courtyard a Loom Tantuvi Studio designs its flatweaves in Brooklyn and entrusts them to weaving families in Rajasthan, whose craft began four centuries ago as flooring for nomads' tents.
The Almanac · Gifts The Autumn Almanac Considered gifts for the season, drawn entirely from the brands featured in Volume I. Prices are as listed by each brand at the time of writing.
An overhead view of a table set with mismatched striped, dotted and solid plates, figs, oranges and patterned napkins on an ochre cloth
Essay · The Table The Table Where Nothing Matched The matched set is giving way to the collected table, and with it a different idea of what a family's dishes are for.
Essay · Interiors The Shelf That Keeps the Family From the ofrenda to the curio cabinet, the home altar is returning, and with it the oldest idea of what a room is for.
A faded indigo work shirt laid flat on ochre linen beside indigo swatches, leaves and a coil of rope
Essay · Color Indigo, Always Returning Few colors have traveled as far or stayed as long. Designers are reaching for deep blue again, and the dye is older than any of them.
Forecast · Materials Five Materials for the Next Decade The future of design is being grown, spun and dug from the ground. A field guide to the materials that will shape the next ten years of making. Essay · The Pantry The Kitchen Is the Oldest Room Fermentation crocks, heirloom grains, a jar working quietly on the windowsill. Why the pantry has become the most collected corner of the home. Essay · Interiors A Room That Remembers You After a long season of empty surfaces, the layered interior is back: worn velvet, inherited chairs and the quiet case for keeping what has been used.
The Correspondence

A letter, twice monthly, on the objects worth knowing and the minds that conceived them.