Skip To Main Content
Issue 61 - Vintage Modern Issue

Issue 61

Vintage Modern Issue

The breadth and scope of Habitus has always been extraordinary. With how we live at heart of every issue, we have stepped it up with Guest Editor David Flack of Flack Studio shaking the ‘how’ and looking at new ways to make a house a home. With Vintage Modern as the issues theme, we look at the way iconic design has stayed with us, how daring pieces from the past can add the wow factor and how architecture and good design defy the pigeon hole of their era.

Order Issue

A Product of

Design Hunter™ Q+A with Carl Scriber
PeopleHabitusliving Editor

Design Hunter™ Q+A with Carl Scriber

Mother of Pearl & Sons Director Carl Scriber sits down with habitusliving to share his design favourites as well as his thoughts on decorative hardware, the Shakers, and model boats.


Your name: Carl Sriber. 

Company: Director, Mother of Pearl & Sons Trading

Your latest design or project: Copper architectural door furniture and accessories

What inspires you about your industry: The opportunity to be involved with bringing world class products to our market .

How/why did you choose the medium/format you work in: I have a passion for detail. Door and cabinet furniture was the unsung hero of design. It is a fascinating world that involves dealing with producers/manufacturers with real integrity on the one hand and designers who appreciate this.

Who are three people that inspire/excite you:

Not in any particular order:

  1)  Graham Chant, uncompromising. (Chant Productions, New Zealand)

  2)  Walter Gropius, visionary. More relevant today than ever.

  3)  Gandhi. It’s all been said. 

What is your creative philosophy: Bringing craftsmanship together with the organic nature of raw materials to create design and products that will endure. 

What does the term ‘Design Hunter’™ mean to you: I imagine it relates to persons chasing down ‘good’ design. What is good design? I think of the Shakers, the sect for whom carpentry is devotional work. The raw material is considered sacred so their chairs are hung on ‘shaker’ hooks when not being used. Nothing must be wasted, leading to minimalist design, exploring the nature of the material. They are attributed with ‘inventing’ the circular saw. Shaker style is much bandied about. I hope we are all getting it!

What is your favourite…

travel destination: Home. Watsons Bay. O/S Florence

hotel/place to stay:  Hotel. Oberoi Grand Kolkata India. Guerrando and Isabela’s home in Florence 

periodical: Classic Boat Magazine

luxury goods company: Armani 

value for money company: Fersa. Luxury hardware who we have the privilege to represent.

design classic: Walter Gropius ‘Bauhaus’ lever by Fersa

new design: Not so new, but arriving at the Sydney Opera House still thrills. 

type of chair: Austrian bentwood. For the economy of raw material and the physical and apparent lightness. 

meal: King fish slabs coated in Cajun spices, pan fried in butter with a bottle of Pol Roger, 50 nautical miles out from Lord Howe Island on the way home on my old wooden boat Suraya.

restaurant: Mario’s in Fitzroy Melbourne

drink: Crown Lager

bar: Cruising yacht club of Australia. Amazing setting. 

gallery/museum: V&A London, Museum of Sydney

book: Moby Dick

item in your studio: My original model boat collection. Built by shipwrights and raced on Sydney harbour. 

Artwork: Nike in the Louvre

Artist: Modigliani, since I was very young

piece of technology: My boat


About the Author

Habitusliving Editor

Tags

Carl Scriberhero3news


Related Articles
Issue 61 - Vintage Modern Issue

Issue 61

Vintage Modern Issue

The breadth and scope of Habitus has always been extraordinary. With how we live at heart of every issue, we have stepped it up with Guest Editor David Flack of Flack Studio shaking the ‘how’ and looking at new ways to make a house a home. With Vintage Modern as the issues theme, we look at the way iconic design has stayed with us, how daring pieces from the past can add the wow factor and how architecture and good design defy the pigeon hole of their era.

Order Issue