Brazilian furniture designer Fernando Akasaka has a sixth sense when it comes to creating works of functional art. A polished brass side table looks like a big gold chunk extracted from a subterranean kingdom. A magazine holder enlists spiky shapes -- they could be stalagmites or chopsticks -- into the paradoxically friendly task of holding current monthlies. Sculptural, smooth and seductive, Sao Paulo-based designer Fernando Akasaka’s multifaceted furnishings for his line FA Designs are a magpie’s delight, glittering works of art that tap into a primitive human attraction to the shiny-metallic.

Akasaka, 40, says that he is inspired by nature, which explains the newly-mined look of his regal creations, which also are made in Brazilian wood. “I look at things I see in everyday life,” he says, “the fantastic shapes and the beautiful patterns and forms that can be found in some animals and plants, and reinterpret them into something functional.” From inspiration to production, his furnishings, which include lamps, stools, side tables and globular decorative pieces, often take two weeks to bring to life -- although modern technology is involved in the making, customers like the handcrafted quality of the finished product. “My clientele is eclectic, and always looking for something new, original and unique.” Speaking of discerning clients, Akasaka says he dreams of his wares landing in the home of one very cool customer: “Mick Jagger. He’s one of my idols.”