How to re-invent the craft?

DESIGN: Bartosz Brylewski

Poland

make me! 2021

Collection of ceramic is an element of my diploma research focused on natural, local materials and alternative production methods. It’s an attempt to create a personal craft practice based only on what is around my house.

I collected forest soil samples and conducted some experiments to see how they could be used for making ceramic objects. Glacial till is a clay material and it was a common building material in the past. It turns orange colour in the low firing process and when all sand is removed it becomes porous terracotta. Earthenware can absorb liquids and this property of ceramic allowed me to create my natural finishing. The composition includes natural ingredients as wildrose drying oil, beeswax and pine resin. Drying oil polymerizes with time creating a water-resistant surface, the addition of other natural substances makes it antibacterial as well. The process is planned to have as small as possible impact on the natural environment.

I like to refer to archaeology in my work, but also observe how archaic methods like wild plants foraging can emerge nowadays. Analyzing the past allows me to find ecological solutions that, as humanity, we already had but lost for some reason. The research of natural materials is also an opportunity for me to explore alternative scenarios for the future, based on respect for the Earth.