Creators of Objects Is the Toronto-Based Design Studio Turning Hand-Poured Resin Into Bold, Collectible Pieces

“If we knew how difficult it was in the beginning, we might have rethought the journey,” laughs Jonathan de Swaaf, who co-founded Toronto’s Creators of Objects with Joanne Byrne. Resin, their signature medium, captures colours and forms like nothing else—but it’s a tricky, time-consuming, temperamental material. Few studios fabricate resin pieces as large and ambitious as Creators of Objects, which means Byrne and de Swaaf create truly inimitable works—partly because no one else has the patience to try.

Sculptures, consoles, and tables in fascinating geometries, opacities, and tints: the studio’s functional art has retrofuturistic, almost cosmic qualities. Before they discovered resin, Byrne and de Swaaf met at Moss & Lam, executing custom art projects. In 2013, after they created their studio and added twin degrees in industrial design for good measure, a contract job introduced them to resin. It sparked their imagination, and a sketchbook of bold ideas followed. After the pandemic—a reckoning for many creatives—they finally put their own collection together.

The duo have experimented endlessly, developing their own methods. “We’re addicted to the impossible challenge,” de Swaaf says. One breakthrough came through rotocasting, whereby resin is poured into custom moulds, spun for hours and hours, forming layer by layer, creating strong yet hollow forms. It took over a year to perfect.

That obsession shaped Oort, a series of bubble-like tables with polished surfaces inspired by the icy, theoretical cloud in the solar system’s outermost reaches. Later came Pop, a bubbly sculpture installed on walls like floating curved ledges. “Sun comes through the window, shines through the piece, and cascades a big splash of colour on the floor,” de Swaaf says.

Colour is the studio’s superpower. Resin can be opaque, translucent, or virtually transparent, tinted in infinite hues from foggy neutrals to jewel tones. Recently, commissions have trended toward forest green—but they’re eagerly waiting for someone to order pink. “We want to make beautiful, colourful things that bring joy into the space that they’re in,” Byrne says of their steady approach. “Things that don’t go out of style,” de Swaaf adds. “Things that have a place in design history.”

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