Soft rock: Kelly Wearstler unveils new stone furniture with ARCA at Design Miami

Along with the great and good of the design world, American designer Kelly Wearstler was in Miami last week where she unveiled NUDO 2.0, a sinuous stone furniture collection with natural stone brand ARCA. Realised in pastel-hued onyx, the new collection is an expansion of Wearstler's original 2022 marble furniture series with the US brand, which explored softness in stone.

This new collection continues on the same theme but pushes it further in terms of form and materiality. Inspired by textile craftsmanship and weaving traditions, the project began with digital explorations of helix forms and weaving patterns. 3D-rendered miniatures were meticulously calibrated before the full-size onyx pieces were brought to life by ARCA's craftspeople using a combination of robotics and hand techniques to carve the monolithic blocks.

The new pieces, appearing like candy confections, include a round coffee table with a continuous, spiralling base, a dining table informed by natural rock formations, an undulating lounge chair and corrugated bench made from layered, hollow stone arches that look more like marshmallows. The show pony of the collection is an onyx ping pong table that transforms into a dining table with the removal of the net.

Arranged across the floor and perched on pedestals in ARCA's Wynwood showroom, the NUDO 2.0 pieces are displayed alongside bestsellers from the original 2022 collection remade in onyx. To bring the stones to life, Wearstler chose to paint the showroom's gallery-like rooms in warm shades of ochre. We caught up with Wearstler, a former guest editor of Wallpaper* Magazine's special Legends Issue, to find out more.

How did the collaboration come about?

A few years ago, ARCA contacted me about collaborating with them on a stone furniture collection. I was captivated by their cutting-edge approach to the material. From the outset, there was a natural synergy – we wanted to create pieces that pushed the boundaries of the technological capabilities while also celebrating artisanal craftsmanship. With NUDO 2.0, we expanded upon the language of the original NUDO series, and revealed new ideas.

The pieces are made using a blend of robotics and hand techniques. Could you elaborate on the role robotics and artisan skills play and why they are both important?

The robotic arm allowed us to approach very large pieces of marble, using scientific precision, to realise works at an impressively grand scale. There is an intricacy to carving the interiors of these pieces that would be almost impossible for a person to achieve. Ultimately, each piece was finished by hand to preserve its refined character and to ensure the designs conveyed a softness that only an artisan could execute.

The original NUDO collection was realised in marble. Why was onyx chosen for this follow-up collection?

Onyx possesses a translucence that beautifully interacts with natural light, highlighting its intricate banding and veining. It appears almost gem-like. It proved to be a mesmerizing material to experiment with, as the stone’s rich variation in colour allowed us to create one-of-a-kind pieces, each with its own distinctions.

The collection draws inspiration from ancient weaving techniques and explores themes of fluidity and softness in stone. What motivated this exploration, and how do these concepts resonate with the larger vision of the NUDO series?

When conceiving my first presentation at Miami Art Week, I wanted to convey works that represented a tradition that connected all corners of the world. The intricacy and rich tradition of textile craftsmanship and weaving was the united element we were searching for. Approaching these ancient crafts through stone was an exciting challenge and the capabilities that ARCA presented made it all possible. Naturally, the works are not literal and the new collection diverges a bit from the first, but it really builds upon the principates that were set out by the initial inspiration.

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