2016/ Christien Meindertsma ｜Arita Wares

Designer

A unique Arita ware like folded linen fabric

Christien Meindertsma

Studying model of Christien Meindertsma at Fujimaki Seitou_Photography Kenta Hasegawa

Characteristic

In return for the precious Japanese ceramics that 16th century Dutch traders returned laden with to The Netherlands, they presented the Shogun of the day with a ceremonial gift of Dutch linen cloth.

From this origin, Dutch designer, Christien Meindertsma has come up with ‘Porcelain & Linen,’ a new range of Arita-ware celebrating this historical relationship.

Using linen cloth, Meindertsma created models of cups, plates and bowls which were then reconstructed in ceramic form.

This collection also makes use of a common glaze type, as well as a newly-developed glaze made from recycling the broken ceramic shards discarded by the 10 potteries contributing to the 2016/ project.

Profile

Christien Meindertsma is an exciting young designer who uses her work to explore the life of products and of raw materials.

She often turns her attention to a single product or process and studies it in great detail.

The documentation for her study is sometimes the end product, as in Checked Baggage where Christien categorised 3267 items from a confiscated shipping container and PIG 05049 in which she lists an astounding array of products made with different parts of a pig called 05049.

With this project Christien reveals the increasingly invisible links between raw materials, producers and products.

Similarly, with her product designs Christien Meindertsma aims to regain an understanding of processes that have become distant or lost.

Her work has been exhibited in MOMA, The Victoria & Albert Museum and the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum.

Meinderstsma has won three Dutch Design Awards in 2008 and an Index award in 2009 for PIG 05049.