Breaking Frame is what happens when two editors follow their curiosity wherever it leads. After a flurry of phone calls and a decadent dinner of Balkan delicacies in Chicago’s River North, we realized just how many significant-to-us discoveries we were keeping to ourselves—and how much joy we might generate by passing more of them along.

Building it meant leaving familiar six-month print timelines behind to learn the ropes of independent, creator-model journalism. Along the way, our understanding of what it means to break the frame expanded. It became permission to follow an idea beyond the parameters that once made it fit an outlet, a page count or a production cycle—and to let the story find its own footing rather than dictating one in advance.

We bring a collective four-plus decades of editorial experience across art, design and culture, and with that comes a certain confidence in our own discernment. When we come across something good, we know it is worth paying attention to. Our job is to show you what we see. That mission unfolds across three pillars:

✸ CURIOSITY gives the people, projects, trends, articles and products we stumble upon a moment in the light. Some become quick dispatches; with others, we tug at a thread, test a hunch or wonder out loud about a pattern taking shape. What beguiles us is work that bears its maker’s hand. We’re after more than pretty; often, that means unsung talents taking risks with their craft. These are the findings we frankly can’t keep to ourselves.

✤ PROCESS looks not just at how something is made, but how its maker learned to make it that way. Some projects proceed through false starts and unexpected pivots—Breaking Frame, for its part, made a couple of quarter turns along the way—while others follow methods honed through years of experimentation. Whatever the subject—a room, a design pro’s creative rituals or a one-of-a-kind object—the finished work conceals a long history of human decisions.

✦ PERSPECTIVES puts a point of view in the spotlight—sometimes our own from out in the field; other times, it’s that of an artist, designer or cultural figure whose work has captured our attention. We believe the coolest stories live a little left of center, a bit beyond the frame. It’s editorial that invites you to see the world through the subject’s eyes—and perhaps change how you see it, too.

This first issue is special—longer than those that will follow and intentionally packed (including with two marquee features) to show the full range of what Breaking Frame can hold. Like the work we love, we want this platform to retain evidence of the human hand—or voice—behind it: spirited, conversational and with visible authorship. We hope you’ll share in our childlike fascination with the making of our material world.

Your Design BFs,
Shannon + Kate

✸ Schoolhouse has officially reopened after roughly six months in the dark. Now under Hudson Valley Lighting Group, the beloved Portland-born brand is back with fan favorites like the Stillwater Quilt, Ann Side Table and Isaac Desk Lamp available to order now, with more restocks and fresh designs on the way.

Suddenly, the future of the home is skewing, well, a little bit squiggly. First, we spied this sculptural brass light switch cover by Quebec-based L.L.Y. Atelier, which will add a playful touch to an otherwise simple room. (Purchase direct here, but U.S.-based buyers can also grab these from Petra Hardware.)

And although not officially part of her collection (one can dream!), the undulating forms of these carved-wooden handles by Philadelphia woodworker Steph Trowbridge scratch a certain itch.

So that covers the convex direction, but we’re simultaneously smitten with concave curves; for example, Juliette Green of Charleston-based Pink Lemon Ceramics creates darling stoneware candle sconces. I’m gravitating toward the glaze variations on her Iceberg star, but her swirling sun shapes also serve as particularly sweet eye candy.

Northward in NYC, Mexican-American artist Clarissa Guzman’s Platform Studio fuses influences of Brutalism and folk art for lighting and hardware, including her stoneware Nina Triple Pull (which also looks fetching in the brushed chrome glaze). If you’d prefer to tiptoe into the trend, you can find a more affordable version of this shape in these Crossbeam Brass Knobs from Letifly New York.

On the opposite coast, experimental Los Angeles-based jewelry artisan Carmen Kelly of California Dirt crafted shuriken-esque glazed stoneware tiles that she then integrated as inlays into a cherrywood bed. Brilliant.

As a ’90s kid practically raised on Nickelodeon marathons, the iconic splat shape will always ring nostalgically for me; perhaps that’s just a little echo of my childhood in 21st-century design. What do you think? Could the splat be the next dominant interior motif? Send us any examples that have crossed your radar and we’ll share the love.

— Kate

Material Desire: Cox London’s brass-and-bronze Asp Lantern with faux parchment and passementerie by Christopher and Nicola Cox is a must-see. Come for the writhing serpents, stay for the tassels clasped between their teeth.

Breaking Records: Fifth-generation Gullah-Geechee weaver Corey Alston recently completed the world’s largest sweetgrass basket. On view at the South Carolina State Museum, “Big Percy” is already listed in the Guinness World Records.

Looking for your next binge watch? The BBC’s The Big Deal, which premiered on August 12, throws art-world rookies into the gallery scene, where they’ll hustle their way through the art market. At stake: £50,000 (about $67,500) worth of British art... and some real-world gallery cred.

Alabama’s Gee’s Bend quilters are getting into the retail business again. The community’s latest brand collaboration (previous ones included Pottery Barn and Target) comes through Ralph Lauren’s Artist in Residence program. Hand-pieced quilts made from upcycled Ralph Lauren fabrics and Italian-made ceramics translate the craft of fourth- and fifth-generation textile artists (respectively) Claudia Pettway Charley and Loretta Pettway Bennett.

Take a moment to escape the here and now with a virtual spin through La DoubleJ’s New York City flagship, The Lighthouse, which bowed this spring. The Italian-American brand teamed up with Elle Decor for the immersive video tour, which reveals mother-of-pearl-clad walls, custom wallpaper, LDJ’s new Fiesole porcelain and more merchandised among its trademark boldly printed frocks. Upstairs on the VIP level is the Light Temple, described as a “sound sanctuary” complete with self-playing metal gongs crafted by Grotta Sonora, an experimental instrument project born in an Etruscan cave outside Rome.

Soaking up summer’s swan song? Kate has been hemming and hawing for weeks about buying D.S. & Durga’s Debaser—and today she finally pulled the trigger. It’s a figgy and fresh, green yet creamy unisex fragrance perfect for closing out the muggiest month. Below are a few other finds striking the BF girls’ fancies:

✤ Are you as crazed about ornate moldings as we are? Then check out Goccia Studio (based in Mumbai) for some super bold—and surprisingly affordable—trims. ✸ After a lengthy search, Shannon has discovered her ideal olive oil. Fragrant and fruity, Frantoia’s cold-pressed Italian provision is delicious drizzled over the late-summer spoils of her garden. ✦ Kate, meanwhile, is smitten with these custom cherrywood chairs by Big Sur sculptor Hartwick Hanson, which are inspired by 19th-century birthing stools. His work is like 1970s California craft-Brutalism meets prehistoric talisman chic.

The New York Times recently ran a story about the resurgence of “Grandma hobbies.” This wasn’t exactly news to me, and I suspect that’s true for the rest of you. The comeback of crafting has been building for years, and I’ve seen it as much in my immediate circle as in the world at large. “I’m addicted to knitting,” my friend Whitney confessed to me the other day. So much so that she developed tennis elbow (knitting elbow?) from overworking her forearms in the process. Still, the injury has not stopped her from picking up her knitting every time she sits down.

Fittingly, we were having this discussion while strolling through the Renegade Craft fair, where our friend Laura was showing her oh-so-charming ceramics (those whimsical pieces are owed a standalone story). The fair is a clear demonstration unto itself that people are turning to the handcrafted in a world where authenticity (I know, I know, we’re all sick of that word) is the true meaning of luxury. And when we’re surrounded by what sometimes seems like a crumbling society, turning to comforting hobbies is a calming salve. So, pick up your yarn. Get out your sewing machine. Or do as my husband does and grab your felting needles. Because when it comes down to it, creating is hardly a bad addiction to have.

— Shannon

On a hot, humid summer afternoon in 2016, I walked into interior architect and designer Suzanne Lovell’s Chicago studio. I’d love to say I remember every piece of art and object on display, but this was 10 years ago, and memory is fallible. What’s more important is what I do recall. This isn’t a reception area, I thought to myself as I stepped through the doors. It’s an art gallery. The space captured Suzanne’s guiding ethos of gesamtkunstwerk, in which multiple disciplines come together to create a total work of art. This concept sits at the center of Suzanne’s practice, so much so that the firm maintains an art advisory.

On a bone-chilling January day this year—a decade after I first visited the studio—I returned. Over the years, the artwork has changed over again and again. Yet, the space revealed itself in exactly the same way: a place where fine art, architecture and design converge.

On that particular winter afternoon, I encountered—among many other works—a towering porcelain vessel by Felicity Aylieff standing beside a Zizipho Poswa glazed-earthenware sculpture. Photographer Marina Abramović’s The Hero served as a backdrop.

By the time you read this, much of the work will have been rotated out for other pieces in the firm’s collection. There are, however, four seemingly permanent pieces at the center of the space—41-by-32-inch vitrines, each containing individual exercises in design. From these acrylic-encased palettes—composed of commissioned architectural samples by artisans, handwoven couture textiles and a curated view from the collector’s art collection—an imaginary inhabitant comes to life. One design might suggest an urban dweller drawn to the bold and unexpected; another might hint at a world traveler who has spent their life collecting fine art and objects from around the globe. The vitrines offered a small glimpse into Suzanne’s process, and over the next couple of hours she was happy to share her process with me—and now with you.

New York artist Francesca DiMattio is always up to something cool, whether she’s building her opulent porcelain sculptures fusing Sèvres, Wedgwood and Rococo traditions or lending her aesthetic instincts to exciting collections for Calico Wallpaper. This June, she brought that creative impulse home—literally. Surprising her parents, she painted the stoop descending from the street to the Chelsea townhouse where she grew up, channeling ancient Roman mosaics. So charming, so classic and so distinctly DiMattio.

Driving, windows down, through the Alabama woods on a Friday in August, the air is warm on my face as I wind through the loblolly pines. In the late‑afternoon light, I catch slivers of water flashing through breaks in the trees—so fleeting, they could be the silver wings of liminal beings hiding along the periphery. Knowing my friend Blake Weeks, this arrival sequence feels as if by design.

He’s invited me for a weekend away at Lake Martin, where I will finally experience the retreat he conceived with his partner, architect Bobby McAlpine, months before the house debuts to the world in the pages of a magazine.

Reaching the cul‑de‑sac at the end of the road, my car’s wheels turn down the ribbon drive, coming to rest atop the reclaimed timber motor court. Reminiscent of a Tudor cottage and crowned with a roof of clipped thatch—trimmed as if by manicure scissors—the house seems almost sentient. It rests a foot or two below the motor court, giving the impression it has been sinking into this ground for decades. My car door shuts with a hollow clap that reverberates through the hushed landscape.

Flinging my weekend duffle across my shoulder, my bare legs brush past the ornamental grasses that line the boardwalk. Like tiny sentinels, bright green anoles creep to the tips of their swaying blades to soak up the final beams of afternoon sun. Already, I can feel something shift within me, but it will take the rest of the weekend to understand what.

We know you’re out there exploring the world, and we love it when you report back to us. In February, Chicago designer Isabel Schultz landed in the middle of Mexico City’s vibrant art week, revolving around Zona Maco. But like many global art fairs, the real discoveries often happen beyond the main event. It was at a small exhibition staged in collaboration with seafood restaurant Contramar inside Studio Davidpompa’s Roma Norte showroom that Schultz stumbled across the studio’s handcrafted lighting and objects made from materials such as handwoven palm, recycled glass and smoked clay.

During her visit, she noticed founder David Pompa’s rust-colored lamps illuminating crates of his other pieces alongside mollusk shells. “It was like a love letter to Mexico,” she says. “It’s such a beautiful culture and has such a beautiful relationship with the sea. I loved how the exhibit was broken down into the simplest forms—the shells and the beauty that they inspire.”

We couldn’t agree more. Have you discovered a special artist or artisan on your travels (or even in your hometown)? If so, we’d love to know.

✸ It’s a Hot Gaudí Summer
From Pope Leo’s tower blessing of Barcelona’s Basílica de la Sagrada Família to the newly released book, Gaudi: God’s Architect, the turn-of-the-century Catalan visionary remains a perennial part of the conversation. We adored this recent Elle Decor piece on the elaborate restoration of the third-floor residence at Casa Batlló, Gaudí’s 1906 masterpiece in the city’s Eixample district.

✸ Have You Noticed the 30-Foot Coyote Head near Taos?
Wallpaper magazine just published a fascinating look inside one of the most talked-about attractions in the American Southwest. Stepping inside the quirky dwelling leads to some seriously one-of-a-kind interiors. Even better: The abode is available for Airbnb booking.

✸ Turns Out, Dua Lipa is Something of a Librarian
Pop stars can be bookworms, too (it’s how Lipa met her husband, after all). Now, she’s established a physical home for her Service95 Book Club inside of Porto, Portugal’s 120-year-old Livraria Lello. The Manifesto Library collects 100 banned, censored or challenged books within an Álvaro Siza-authored cultural auditorium.

✸ Set Design is One of Our Unhealthy Obsessions
Every design devotee watches TV with an eye for the backdrop as much as the plot. Olivia Wilde, director (and star!) of the new film The Invite, knows this well. She spoke to Architectural Digest about the story behind the San Francisco-apartment mise-en-scène—created by production designer Jade Healy—revealing the power of interiors to mirror her characters’ emotions.

If you’ve been on the fence about purchasing Artist in Residence, the new book by documentary filmmaker and photographer Joshua Charow, this enchanting Instagram reel might change your mind. The clip is an intimate, empathetic portrait of the aging artists who have remained stalwarts of New York City’s former industrial spaces for decades, protected—if precariously—by the Loft Law and related rent regulations. As the city’s real estate machine closes in, the book is a pressing reminder of the need to protect both these artists and the creative traditions they carry. It’s also a time capsule of an era that could very well vanish with its last inhabitants. You won’t find the book on Amazon; buy it directly from Charow’s site. Proceeds help fund his future photography projects and documentaries.