Alexander Groves and Azusa Murakami, the husband-and-wife founders of Studio Swine, are always down for an expedition. Speaking from their London home, the designers recall one of their farthest-flung trips to date: a voyage deep into the Amazonian rain forest to visit an enclave of rubber tappers. Getting there required two planes, a six-hour drive, and, when roads became unnavigable, a cattle caravan through the rain forest. Then the couple spent four days studying the material that they would transform into ebonite (a plasticlike substitute for ebony wood) and use for their Fordlandia collection of chairs—so named for Henry Ford's deserted manufacturing town, another stop on their journey.
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