On our way to 20 years of ceramics

“The challenge however,” Brekveld continues, “begins after the design. Because what follows is the unrelenting oven. Porcelain is baked at extremely high temperatures, which causes great shrinkage. Incorrectly detailed products collapse and get warped. To bring this to a successful conclusion, you have to work with incredible precision. On the one hand you have to stick to the rules, while on the other hand you are trying to stretch those rules as far as you can to suit your purpose,” — a process the designer has mastered now.

Transparency. Absorption. Shrinkage. With each product Brekveld developed at the Ceramic Center, he exposed a unique feature of ceramics. “Take my wine cooler design: it cools by evaporating absorbed water. The mortar makes use of the porcelain’s extreme hardness, while the porcelain lamp has been cast so thinly, you can mount it directly on the light bulb and a beautiful light will shine right through the material.” He walks through his studio and picks up a dish. “If you look closely, you’ll see that my current ceramic designs build on the experiments I did back then. Only now I can build on the expertise of the best craftspeople in the ceramic industry.” And then, with a smile: “A subtle difference.”