Minutes Tableware

Location:	Makkum
Designer:	Studio Makkink & Bey
Client:	Koninklijke Tichelaar B.V.
Project type:	art & design
Product:	earthenware, various glazes, delft's pottery: 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. Various traditional models from the historical corporate collection, partly manipulated by the designer by omitting parts or adding them. The decoration consists of light gray lines, partly followed by the hand painter.

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 called 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.

The coffee and tea service by Jurgen Bey consists of new combinations of existing moulds and decorations from the company archives. Bey made a comprehensive analysis of the craft production process and concentrated on the time necessary to produce the different pieces of the service. He provides an insight into this time element by replacing the charcoal powder that is typically used to transfer the decoration onto the service with a grey glaze, which in contrast to the powder is permanent after it has been fired. He allowed the painters several minutes to add the decoration to the different parts, whether or not this was workable. The title not only refers to the duration of the hand-painting process, but also relates to the price of the individual pieces: more time to produce therefore more expensive.