Papabubble Cappellini

The avant-garde Barcelona-based candy shop Papabubble recently collaborated with Tobias Wong and Josee Lepage to open a shop within a shop in the whimsical Italian furniture manufacturer Cappellini’s New York City showroom. The results are breathtaking and sugary sweet. Papabubble owner Fiona Ryan and industrial designer Tobias Wong, who has designed everything from bulletproof heart brooches to diamond rings, answered a few of my questions about the collaboration.

Papabubble Cappellini interior

Bradford Shellhammer: When I walked by Cappellini the other day, I was blown away by the candy in the window. What is Papabubble?

Fiona Ryan: We are a small group of artisan candy-makers that got started in Barcelona.

B.S.: This collaboration — Papabubble and Tobias Wong with Josee Lepage and Cappellini — how did it come about? What role does each play in the mix?

F.R.: All of us are kind of whirling around each other, and all have been totally essential to the collaboration. Ideas have come from everyone, and our hands are busy making them come to candy life. Tobias and Josee came in one day and asked if we’d be into it, and here we are. It has been a very pleasant collaboration.

Tobias Wong: “Organic” is the best way to put it! I have worked with Cappellini in NYC over the years showing my own work, curating others’, and creating installations. This year I got a call from them asking for another project of my choice (absolute freedom) within their SoHo flagship store, with no restrictions and whatever I wanted and needed. That request sat on the back burner for months until one day I was lunching with Josee Lepage (a dear friend and longtime collaborator) and within hours we hammered out the idea of piecing together a unique crossover of art, design, and sweets to match the economic climate. So we marched into Papabubble and presented our concept. It’s not a pop-up shop, we all agreed. It’s going to be a classic “shoppe in shop”!

The Marcel Wanders lollipop

B.S.: The Marcel Wanders lollipop is brilliant. Who thought of that? Has he seen it?

T.W.: It was Josee and myself. And Marcel’s signature gold nose seemed so perfect for this holiday project. After all, he riffed on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. We just took it for another spin. Wanders has not seen it yet, but I’m sure he will be pleasantly surprised and happy. Won’t you guide our sleigh tonight, Marcel?

B.S.: Did you attempt to make replicas in candy of some of Cappellini’s designs? What were the results?

F.R.: We did, and the results were usually beautiful but very fragile. It’s challenging to make sharp corners and straight lines with candy, and this project has been good practice.

T.W.: What Josee and I were really aiming at were creations inspired by Cappellini, so at the end, it wasn’t about mimicking their furniture. As you can see, this artistic translation turned our to be our own unique pieces. They are beautiful and create a new dialogue.

B.S.: The rings too are beautiful. Who came up with those designs?

F.R.: The three of us who make the candy here came up with the designs. Some have been intentional, and others have completely caught us by surprise. It is amazing how many possibilities there are. Other times, people will ask for specific types of rings with initials or will give us something to put in the ring … like a diamond! There was a proposal with a candy-covered diamond not too long ago.

T.W.: We are in love with them. And wish we could, but cannot, take credit for them! It’s all Papabubble. The rings inspire us.

Candy display

B.S.: What is the process of designing candy? Do you sketch? Is it that thought-out?

F.R.: We do sketch. Say we want to make a bicycle out of candy. We sit down, map it out, and then figure out who is going to sculpt what. I may do the wheels, and another will take the handlebars. We have to make sure the timing is right with the cooling process and keep an eye out that we don’t actually put something backwards or upside down.

B.S.: What is involved in the process of making custom designs?

F.R.: We love to make custom designs. People will come to us with an idea or an image and we’ll work out how to turn it into candy. Some things are more difficult than others. We’ve done candy portraits and animals and massive lollipops. We’ve even done some “adult” items. It is great what people come up with and even better when it really turns out. There is nothing like licking a lollipop that looks like yourself or a friend.

T.W.: Bring it on! We can use a challenge.

B.S.: If you had to choose which piece is your favorite in the collection, which would it be?

F.R.: For me, the bowls or the Wanders.

T.W.: It is so difficult to name one. Each piece that Papabubble makes is unique, and so every time there is a new piece we find a new favorite. And then one of them gets sold and we wish we had put it aside for ourselves.

Candy display

PHOTO CREDIT: Davies and Starrs