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In the seventh episode of our From Brain to Home series, Ashley is joined by Âme Atendre’s creative director Dylan Williamson for a warm and open conversation with sculptural furniture designer Hannah Bigeleisen and design platform founder Alyssa Moff. This is a story of practice, process, and the spaces—physical and digital—that shape the way we create and live.
This is part one of their conversation.
ON PLAY AND PERMISSION
When we talk about design, we often talk about outcomes—furniture, lighting, objects. But before there is a piece, there is a process. And before the process, there is often permission: the permission to try, to question, to begin again.
For Hannah, play is not a casual detour but a way of staying open to new material relationships. “Play isn’t unserious,” she says. “It’s just a waved self-consciousness. A permission to explore.” Her practice invites tactile engagement—from mixing raw pigments to reshaping a curve by hand—and reminds us that our most meaningful creations often emerge when we suspend the pressure to know exactly where we’re going.
Alyssa, too, finds herself returning to play as she simultaneously builds a digital platform (Erria) and curates a global design exhibition of shelf-top and tabletop objects. Whether she’s sketching a landing page or collaborating with a designer in Lebanon or Japan, she’s guided by an RISD-era lesson: choose your medium by choosing your people. “What RISD taught me,” she reflects, “was to trust my own taste—and to be able to create something from nothing.”
STUDIO DIALOGUE AS DAILY PRACTICES
Hannah and her studio mate—who also happens to be her husband, designer Steven Bukowski—have been in conversation for 18 years. That ongoing exchange, from casual lunch chats to formal critiques, grounds her in a rhythm of thoughtful making.
“It’s always: What do you think about this overhang? This finish? This bottom tube?” she says with a smile. “That kind of shop talk is essential. And when you find people whose eyes you trust, it becomes a rich place of learning.”
Design, in this sense, becomes something more than a solitary act. It’s a series of touchpoints—moments of pause, exchange, and refinement. And in a world that often rushes toward product, Hannah reminds us that process can be a kind of intimacy, too.
WHAT SUCCESS FEELS LIKE
There’s a question we return to often in this series: What does success look like for you right now? For Hannah, success has shifted from press and visibility to balance—creative, financial, personal. “I want to be able to take trips. To relax. To live well. And in New York, that’s a wild quest.”
Alyssa recently paid herself for the first time—a milestone she celebrates quietly but proudly. Raised in a culture that defined success by traditional benchmarks (a finance job, a certain zip code), she’s forged her own path instead. “I’ve had to build a different definition,” she says. “One that’s not based on anyone else’s expectations.”
There’s a tenderness in how each of them speaks to this topic. Success, here, is not a finish line but a feeling—of alignment, of ownership, of joy in the work and the people it brings into your life.
TACTILE CONNECTION, EMOTIONAL MEMORY
Design, at its best, invites us to feel. It gives shape to memory, sensation, and self.
Hannah speaks of a childhood lamp—soft fringe brushing her fingers as her mother played piano. That memory lives on in her own fringe work, where even the underside of a piece is finished with care. “How do you design for that quiet moment of pause?” she asks. “That unnoticed touch point that still holds feeling?”
Alyssa echoes this through her work with contemporary makers: encouraging interaction, inviting touch. “So often, the designers want people to touch the pieces. That’s how we connect—with the material, with the maker.”
In an upcoming exhibition, she hopes to use this tactile experience to educate a new generation of collectors. Not through instruction, but through invitation.
DESIGNING FOR CONNECTION
At Ame Atendre, we believe our surroundings can shape our sense of time, intention, and togetherness. And in this conversation with Hannah and Alyssa, we’re reminded that behind every object is a choice. Behind every design is a dialogue.
This is just part one of our exchange. In part two, we’ll explore the evolution of Erria, Hannah’s upcoming collection, and how the spaces we share—both physical and digital—can deepen our sense of what’s possible.
