Design
Konekt’s chains
Armor Pendant featuring a hand-blown glass fixture and brass draped with finished chainmail.
Dimensions are: 9″ (w) x 14 3/4″ (h), stem cut to order.
Materials are: hand-blown glass, brass and finished stainless steel chainmail.
Finishes are: stain brass, satin nickel, oil-rubbed bronze, and satin black.
This is the first collection that the mother and daughter duo have designed together.
Image courtesy of: Architectural Digest, photographed by: Heidi Bridge
A family business… that is exactly what Konekt is. The furniture design studio is headed by the mother and daughter duo of Helena and Natasha Sultan. Set on designing the unique, collections embrace the randomness and imperfections that are found throughout nature. The pair loves using contrasting textures and finishing… this allows for a beautiful combination of modern and ancient techniques; and the end product is a contemporary aesthetic.
Konekt was founded in 2015 by Helena, a former photographer and award-winning documentary film maker. Helena decided that it would be fun to bring her “eye for composition and detail” to furniture design. Natasha joined her mother after working in the field of contemporary and vintage jewelry.
Armor Cylinder Side Table in Oil-Rubbed Bronze and Satin Brass
Image courtesy of: 1st Dibs
Together, the pair presents a multi-generational approach to designing what was cultivated through their unique upbringings. A vast appreciation for art and design was passed down from their (respective) mother and grandmother, a woman who herself was an artist. This matriarch greatly influenced the duo’s approach to design with the layered textures in her abstract oil paintings.
The Konekt collections feature craftsmanship which ranges from hand-stitched leather and upholstery to hand-sculpted and patinated metals.
Natasha and Helena Sultan.
Image courtesy of: Konekt Furniture
Each piece is made-to-order in Pennsylvania, New York, or New Jersey by extremely skilled craftspeople and accomplished artisans. The showroom is in New York City’s Chinatown and was designed to resemble an open-plan studio apartment. The walls are painted a deep blue and the weathered wooden floors evoke an organic feel that is a beautiful compliment to the handcrafted pieces displayed.
To add to the familial feeling within the showroom, Helena’s mother’s (and Natasha’s grandmother) art pieces adorn the walls. And… Eric, Helena’s husband (and Natasha’s father) has helped run the family studio since 2017.
Tables, part of the Armor Collection. Woven steel is draped over the metal table bases which are offered in both triangular and cylindrical versions.
Image courtesy of: Dezeen
A couple of years ago, Natasha said about the brand, “In the next few years, we’d like to have grown the furniture collection, and we hope to add in lighting soon. But it’s also important to us that we will be making things just as we do now. We want every piece to still show the human hand,”
Similar to sewing fabric, each metal piece is linked together by following one particular pattern. As a final step, the chainmail panel is dangled over the lightbulb.
Image courtesy of: The Scope NYC
We adore Konekt’s first lighting collection. It is said that this collection was influenced by Eva Hesse’s sculpture “Untitled or Not Yet.” In the art piece, net bags are weighted down by polyethylene spheres… and here, Helena and Natasha Sultan deliver a similar aesthetic.
The metal links from chainmail resemble the artwork’s knotted string sacks and the organic, teardrop shape of the hand-blown glass mimics the silhouette formed from the weight of the plastic used in Hesse’s piece. An additional inspiration was the chainmail draping from medieval Viking helmets. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!
