Dahyeon Yoo | Leatherworker

Ostensibly, Ben Bloomstein and Aaron Aujla run Green River Project, their furniture and design practice, and Emily Adams Bode Aujla runs Bode, her fashion brand. However, the three are friends, partners (Emily and Aaron are married), and symbiotic creative collaborators. Their output is fueled by constant conversation and hours of research. They share a reverence for materiality, the preservation of craft, a love of historical narratives, a fascination with domestic spaces, and a belief in the importance of research. Deborah Needleman sits down with the three creatives ahead of Cabana's Speak, Memory Salone 2025 exhibition.

Korean-born and based leather artisan, Dahyeon Yoo, values the preservation of traditional Korean crafts, and sees the wear of time on natural materials as a mark of beauty rather than imperfection. Her artisanal name, Debaroun, is a compound of the Korean words DEBA, meaning 'following the sense of the hand', and ROUN, meaning '-like' – a philosophy that guides her practice.

Sophie Coryndon is a British artist whose intricate wall reliefs, objects, and drawings fuse historical ornament with contemporary craftsmanship. Rooted in a deep fascination for nature, myth, and the decorative arts, her work reimagines gilded manuscripts, medieval altarpieces, and cabinets of curiosity. Trained in an array of specialist techniques – from gilding and sculpting to lost wax casting – Coryndon’s pieces evoke wonder and a sense of the sublime, and have been exhibited at TEFAF, PAD, and Design Miami/Basel.

Sophie Wilson’s idyllic home in the Dorset countryside doubles as the creative sanctuary for her '1690' clay workshop, where she crafts her  authentic – and so wonderfully hand-made – sgraffito pottery. Adorned with nature's motifs, folklore, mythical beings and woodland creatures, her ceramics, which she fondly refers to as "impressionist ceramic sketches," evoke the spirit of traditional slipware of a time long past. 

L.A. born Peter Schlesinger has long defied categorisation: a painter who never quite felt at ease with painting, a photographer who never claimed the title, and a ceramicist whose internationally celebrated sculptures – three decades in the making – found recognition only over time despite insisting; “I don’t consider myself a craftsperson”. Yet across every discipline, his work remains strikingly original and deeply resonant. Today, Schlesinger is represented by Sperone Westwater in New York and Tristan Hoare in London.

James Cherry grew up with an intrinsic drive to 'create'. Today, the American artist's practice revolves around material experimentation, transforming elements into intimate, tactile forms that blur the line between function and art. His lighting pieces exist as both sculptural statements and immersive spatial experiences, shaping how we perceive light, material, and form.

Always a highlight of Salone del Mobile, Milan-based duo DimoreStudio's shows are quite the spectacle - as such, expect long queues in certain sites. This year, the studio will appear in several spots - including Fondazione Sozzani and Teatro Arsenale, but we're particularly excited about 'Welcome to the Blackout', an immersive installation promising "subversion and rebellion" where the duo's furniture line, INTERNI VENOSTA, which debuted at MDW 2024, will take over the Phillips Auction house. Booking advised. Discover more about them. 

The Wanda Barcelona trio – Inti Velez Botero, Daniel Mancini, and Iris Joval – push the boundaries of paper as an artistic medium with their ephemeral, immersive installations. Blending traditional craftsmanship with modern technology, the design studio has worked with the crème de la crème of the luxury industry, transforming delicate and humble sheets of paper into grand spectacles of Wanda wonder.

A centuries-old company specializing in superior quality fabrics, HOSOO attracts a high-end clientele of leading interior and fashion designers. But this is recently; before, the customers were aristocrats, shoguns and none other than the Japanese imperial family. The true preciousness of HOSOO fabrics is difficult to capture in photographs, but guarantees a wonderful surprise in person - when you notice their astonishing three-dimensionality and the way they change as light falls.

At the age of 40, Davide Furno discovered an extravagant and irresistible collection at the Fruit Museum in Turin, created using the lost wax technique with (currently illegal) 19th century materials, such as Smyrna wax, cachalot fat and lead paint. Attempting to recreate these small wax sculptures, and this forgotten technique, became his vocation. Davide's most popular creations are individual fruits placed on elegant turned wooden pedestals, equipped with a handwritten label and packaging inspired by 19th century apothecaries.

A lifelong observer of architecture, London-based Vicki Ambery-Smith transforms the built environment into delicate, wearable forms. From Oxford's spires to the sweeping lines of Zaha Hadid, her miniature structures distil centuries of design into silver and gold. Drawing on sources from ancient Greece to American modernism, each piece reflects personal fascination or private commission.

Leading litigator-turned florist Lil Caldwell - founder of London's most sought after floral design studio, Grandirosa - spent 10 years working 70-hour weeks in the City before a course in floristry changed the course of her career. Famed for their exquisite exploding roses, Grandirosa have decorated many of London's most notable events, while Lil works hands-on, crafting flowers, in particular roses, into visual and sculptural works of art.