Meet our Makers - In the Studio with Maha Alavi

After studying psychology and philosophy, I wanted to step out of the theoretical. I studied industrial design, hoping to combine my interests in epistemological thinking and making tangible things.

The founders of Casson, Jane and Megan. While I was interning, Jane saw a project of mine — a bottle opener I'd designed, a thick curve of metal with notches on the inside. She said, "Can you make me a handle like this?" That became the Cercle Thick Pull. I built a small series around it: a thinner version, a small globe. That was the first Maha Alavi hardware line Casson carried, and we've been expanding it ever since.

It was intuitive. I was thinking about what I could add that would make the series a little more interesting. The half pull is edgier — literally edgier. The whole Cercle series is about playful proportions, and some of the original pieces are more subtle. The half pull and the large keep the line cool and modern.

Fauna is more experimental, more organic. Yes — Art Nouveau is in there. It's also inspired by nature. I thought of the design while hiking through Switzerland. I remember looking down and seeing wildflowers and mountain plants with these dainty, intricate forms. I borrowed from that.

I want both. I want a clean, graphic line — that's Cercle, made out of foundational shapes — and I want to go organic with Fauna, or traditional with the Oval Knob. The lines have the same ethos: careful consideration of materials and shapes. Ideally they're heirlooms, designed to be at home in a variety of spaces.

The curator of IDS Studio North reached out and asked if I wanted to pitch something. I said, "I don't have anything, but yes." It went from a drawing in my notes app to a fully fabricated piece on display in less than three weeks.

Overnight, the design just came to me. When you've been holding a concept in the back of your mind, it can come back fully articulated. I think I'd been imagining Lithic for a long time before I drew it.

I work with bold, robust round shapes — you can see it in the hardware, in the exhibition I did with Umbra. Curves, slightly exaggerated but balanced. Lithic has the same principles, transposed to furniture. I love playing with those shapes — foundational, elemental, sometimes graphic — and grounding them through materials. A natural metal finish, a beautiful wood, plastic roughed up so it becomes tactile. Materiality matters.

I do. Leaving an idea as a one-off feels like orphaning it. I have to flesh it out fully — keep going back to it until I feel I've done enough, until it can live on its own without me intervening.

Breaks from the everyday — or rather, experiencing the everyday in a new way. Almost all my designs have happened after travelling: Fauna in Switzerland, Lithic after a trip to the Dominican. Something about the quotidian made fresh. I love the process too — using clay, learning craft techniques. My current series is hand-made in clay and cast directly. No software in between, just hand to metal.

We have a unique relationship. I've known Jane and Megan since 2018 — they've seen me go from student to intern to collaborator to independent designer. Watching them run their own thing while I was a student is part of the reason I always thought I could run mine.