Category Archives: Blog

As described in an earlier blog post, I think “to design” things is a very broad term. Almost anything can be designed. So recently I heard of so-called pasta designers, whose job is nothing else but to design and create custom made pasta. Who would have thought there were awesome jobs like that out there.^^ Feeling myself as a designer, or product-designer to be specific, I thought it would be remarkable to work as a pasta-designer – for one day – especially since I love cooking myself. So I took a pack of durum wheat, and “designed” something that ought to look like a mixture between Italian tortelloni, and the famous German “Maultaschen”. So, at the end we got to enjoy some freshly hand-made pasta, stuffed with spinach-walnut, respectively ground-meat. It all came together in a cream-based mushroom carbonara, au gratin with mozarella cheese.  As starters, we had bruschetta with tomato/pesto topping. If I were to really work as a pasta-designer my whole life, I would certainly have severe weight problems. It was rich, and delicious.^^ (click on the images to enlarge) p.s. don’t worry, TAOMINA is still going to produce high quality furniture, hand-made accessories, and sustainable products. Pasta like this is not very long-lasting, and hence not really suited for our portfolio.                

  Now, I could make up an elaborate story about how this Korean celebrity and VOGUE magazine came to my last gallery exhibition in Seoul, JUST to see my works. And I could also cut this scan below differently and write some more bs about it… BUT I’d rather tell the truth, because the real story IS actually much cooler: (as it is most of the time. and besides, by looking at the pictures everyone would’ve seen through my marketing blurb anyway.^^) So I have this exhibition at the Mullae archive, which is a cute little gallery also called cottonseed, in a part of Seoul that somewhat became the Soho of this town. The other day VOGUE magazine dropped by, because they were looking for some unique galleries to photograph and print in the next magazine coming out. And my stuff happened to be there. (which sadly isn’t worth anything, because they forgot to/deliberately didn’t mention both the exhibition AND my name) Instead, they put a photograph of some random model guy standing on the stairs, looking fashionable – zero message, zero quality, BUT the picture above with the TAOMINA artwork. THAT IS nice.^^

  There is interesting research on bionics and really good videos to find on ted.com about related topics. Nature has researched and developed functionality and design of living organisms, for about 4 billion years. You may think, there ought to be some good ideas out there, no? In terms of beauty, I don’t see anything man-made being able to compete. I tried my best to capture some of it in the photos below. Design, and beauty, made in nature. I am going to post some more information on the above mentioned topics soon, since it will be a big part of my masters studies. More photos can be found at svenschelwach.com, and some attempts to copy some of nature’s brilliant simplicity, and efficiency in design, can be found at taomina.com.            

Some people say a man has to built a house, plant a tree, and have a son. Well, if there is truth in this –  I think, the more appropriate version would be: any person has (at least) three obligations in life: 1) love 2) built/create 3) seed (knowledge/life/happiness) …and since this is my resonsibility as well – here you go:   This is a sketchup of my first dream house, or let’s say, what I’d do with the first million in my bank account.^^ Obviously, I would want to design all the furniture, and accessories myself (which I will.. but maybe not in sketchup)     Starting from left lower corner, counter-clockwise: kitchen, dining room, living room, reading room/library, office/studio space, extra room, entrance hall, toilette, laundry room, pantry The living space and studio space offers nice 4.50 meter high ceilings. Everything is quite spacy and bright, due to large windows… I imagine this to be built on a hill/mountain with lots of trees around, and of course some sunshine… In the second floor I will have two sleeping rooms, a large bathroom, and a rooftop terrace… – pictures will follow soon. All the necessary design furniture, and accessories can be found at TAOMINA.

This is the next step in the TAOMINA development, besides working on and improving the current pieces…. http://www.taomina.com/design/dao

  So, what does design or designing actually means?  Literally is means to make a drawing; in everyday life, it means to conceive something – to create something out of nothing or something else. Anyway, today I went to my climbing gym, and luckily I was allowed to set a new route with the holds I ordered the other week. Setting a climbing route is very much a creative design process. One has to consider the given holds, climbing grade, training goal, and fun-factor. Here are some impressions of the process: What we worked with, some so-ill holds: And this is a picture of work in progess….   That’s me, blurry, but content.^^   And, since I don’t have a wide-angle lens yet for my camera, here is a amateurish-3-min-photoshop-panorama-photo of the new route. (It is the one with all the shiny holds.^^) ((Next time I will mark these shiny holds better.))   Thanks to Ju-Jin, Ji-Hyeon and Han Seong for their help!! Ace Climbing Center Seoul

Today I went to the shop in Seoul, where I am selling some of my works. In particular, there are some of my wineholder sculptures on display. When I got there, some people where waiting, because the shop was still closed…. Seems like these guys are dying to see my works. ))   And this is what they saw inside:       And here some non-TAOMINA stuff:       More information on my work can be found, as always on taomina. Thanks to the KaareKlint Team. Sven

  The T.one speaker system combines high-fidelity sound with unparalleled design. Carved to a convex column, the speaker’s surface resembles annual rings of trees, giving it an organic look. The box itself is laminated from ten different apple/birch plywood pieces and incorporates a two way bass reflex system with a 5” glass fibre cone woofer and a 9cm planar ribbon tweeter. The wood surface is meticulously sanded and polished by hand – traditional Korean wood oil finishes the T.one speakers with a silky smooth shine. Dimensions: 1080 x 155 x 155mm.   티원(T.one) 스피커 시스템은 하이파이 사운드와 비할 데 없는 디자인이 결합된 제품입니다. 스피커의 형태는 볼록한 기둥, 표면은 나무의 나이테와 유사하여 유기적인 룩을 선사합니다. 원목의 표면은 세심하게 갈고 광택을 냈으며 한국의 전통적 동유로 마무리하여 부드럽고 매끄럽습니다. 10가지 다양한 원목판을 붙여 제작된 스피커 박스에는 5 인치 유리섬유 콘형 우퍼와 9cm 플레이너 리본형 트위터를 포함한 투웨이 베이스 리플렉스 시스템이 들어가 있습니다. 맑은 사운드와 순수한 디자인을 자랑하는 T.one. 1080 x 155 x 155.        

Building these was like climbing a really difficult route. It took a lot of time to figure out the right steps, and the optimal sequence of assembling everything. IF I had just built a box, it would have been a lot easier. BUT: I wanted a speaker system, which would have unique design, AND which could be taken apart, in case I would have to change a driver or tweeter one day. With the laminations, convex shapes, glue-up and cold connections, this project was a bit more difficult, as I realized this weekend, when I finally added the drivers and the tweeters. It turned out to be ok, but it could have been soo much easier, if I hadn’t glued one of the front-plates to the corpus before. It was quite finicky to get the drivers and cross-overs in place and connect everything together. IF I were to ever make them again, a few steps in production would have to be changed. Ironically a beautiful part about this project was to figure those things out, and now see an acceptable result. Now I only need to sand the surface on last time, and finish it with some oil or wax. Let’s hope they sound good, after this months-and-months project.^^    

  Today I almost finished the first one of the TAOMINA speaker project. It cost me countless hours, blood, sweat and tears to come this far. I haven’t heard them yet, so, fingers crossed, let’s hope they sound as nice as they will look. I didn’t have a camera at hand today, so I am posting some older photos from the time I built the boxes. MONTHS ago.^^ I am going to finish them this weekend (hopefully) and post more photos then. Of course they will be added to my online portfolios at TAOMINA and svenschelwach.com.    

Yesterday I went to got the leather pieces skived. Tomorrow, they will be branded with the TAOMINA logo. Then, there is only folding and stitching left. I’ll post some more photos tomorrow.

…the next batch of origami. wallets: Last night I cut the new leather into the sizes I need for the wallets. Next steps are to skive the skins thinner, press/punch the logos, and lastly stitch everything together… More photos to come. The finished work can be found online here and here.

…need to be made carefully. Today I was able to secure some fine calf, buffalo, and lamb skin – best quality, made in Italy. More origami. wallets – limited, signed and numbered – are waiting to be made. Results can be found at Zimmermann & Kim, or online.  

…here some new cuff buttons. Hand made of titanium. Better pictures to follow together with our TAOMINA catalog. AND of course soon to find on our webpage.

  This knife just help me a couple of hours to cut some fine cow and buffalo calf leather for another batch of origami.wallets. More about these beautiful hand made accessories, and some more photos, at http://www.taomina.com/design/accessories And recently I saw… this cool looking chair. Looks like someone did a nice mix and match of leather and stainless steel. Almost like here. 

In about 20 hours I am on my way back to Korea. It’s been a great time in Germany. It was good to see friends & family, and get some work done for TAOMINA. I feel things are on the right way. If fate is on my/our side as well, it WILL be a great 2012. Thanks again, Marco Badorrek for your help with the new website, and thank you and Martin Walter for your love and support. I am looking forward to enjoying my first kimchi-jigae, and my next climbing session at ACE climbing center. Korea, here we go.

  Today I sketched the plan for the final project: my house. the dream: every single thing in it will be carefully designed, and maybe published on www.taomina.com^^

…tends to start on a piece of paper in my case. Yesterday and today I designed a plan for my dream house. Pictures to follow…. Now I am working on the google sketch-up implementation. Somebody’s got a mil. $$ for me to realize the dream of the TAOMINA design house? Filled with design furniture, accessories and artwork, all designed by me and my friends? Guest-room will be available for free housing.^^ p.s. www.taomina.com and svenschelwach.com are almost finished

Usually I wouldn’t talk about my doctor’s appointments, but this week I woke up, after the anaesthesia, and had three brilliant ideas for TAOMINA. Soon you will hear all about it here and at www.taomina.com.

  The exhibition consisted of prints on aluminum, prints on canvas and prints on paper (sandwich-face-mount). Sizes of the works range between 25 x 25 up to 50 x 80 cm. For titles of the pieces please check TAOMINA webpage until my private webpage at svenschelwach.com is ready. For inquiries, please write me an email.^^                                                  

  www.taomina.com   Fascinated by topics such as perception, congnition, reality, time, and space, this series observes our way of experiencing our environment. It also questions how we perceive the world in general, and how we make things become our “reality”. The works that are printed on aluminum show fragments, and little parts of larger pictures. What the prints are of –plants, animals, fruits, liquids, etc.– is not the central focus of these pieces. These works are there more so to make the viewer contemplate how small pieces of information are often not enough to understand the whole. Many times, people form an opinion very early on by only seeing bits and pieces of information, without comprehending the subject matter in its entirety. This leads to falsely categorizing, putting things or people in boxes, and creating a thinking pattern, which might not do justice at all, to the subject at hand. Some of Schelwach’s works are blurry and unsharp, a metaphor for how things can become unclear, the closer one looks. Sometime, it is necessary to step back, take some more time to observe and think, to see and understand the bigger picture. -  Today’s society has become infinitely complex and extremely fast paced. We all function as specialized individuals, almost like little parts of a big machine. Little parts that often don’t see or understand what the whole is working on, or walking towards. Through increasing awareness of how limited our perception may be, this exhibition examines another facet of one of the biggest questions to date: who are we?

  This Friday coming up: Our first group exhibition in Korea.

    Jason’s new piece, almost finished. Jason working. Soon to be seen at TAOMINA webpage as well… and in person during our show TACTOPHILIA.