Patchwork plates

Year:	2003
Location:	Makkum
Architect:	Marcel Wanders
Designer:	Marcel Wanders
Project type:	art & design
Product:	Delftware, various glazes, the product is shaped and baked from local clay. A tin glaze made in-house is applied to the baked shard. The raw glaze is painted, after which the product is carefully baked a second time. A series of existing models from the traditional collection of plates and dishes served as a basis. The decoration is partly made through transfers and partly through hand painting.

During the Milan Furniture Fair in 2003, Koninklijke Tichelaar presented its first commission to leading contemporary designers, entitled 'Nothing New'. The key aims were the renewal of the old craft process and developing the existing collection, in which hand-painted work plays a major part. Hella Jongerius, Jurgen Bey and Marcel Wanders were asked to create new decorative methods using the tin glaze technique, which is also known as faience. Three inspirational series provide an ingenious insight into the hand-painting process and the company's archive, and are a welcome addition to the collection.

Patchwork plates is the series designed by Marcel Wanders. He found the majolica plates in our traditional collection particularly charming. He selected five different sizes from the archive and designed thirty different decorations that were transferred using a silkscreen printing technique on to the raw glaze to which gold lustre was applied. By leaving a blank space each time, which was filled in later by our painters, he not only illustrated the contrast between the two techniques, but also used the opportunity to demonstrate different aspects of the painter's work. Hence an intriguing twenty-first centry series of plates was created, one that enhances our contemporary collection.