CERAMIC DESIGNER JULIE DAMHUS
Julie Damhus is 34 years old, married and the mother of three young children.
Since 2013 she has lived with her family on a former farm a 30-minute driven from the Danish city of Århus.
She graduated as an industrial designer from Design School Kolding in 2014.
Julie learned pottery wheel-throwing from Lars Kähler during an internship while she was still a student at Design School Kolding, followed up by extensive training in his workshop both before and after her graduation.
Since 2017 she has been a full-time ceramicist in her own firm, Julie Damhus Studio.
Her ceramics are sold from a wide range of design shops, at design markets and from her own web shop.
Julie develops all her designs in her studio north of Århus. She also makes many of the pieces herself at the potter’s wheel. During peak periods she relies on assistance from two potters who throw the items based on her directions. She has also designed a collection that is produced in a semi-industrial plant in Poland.
In her own studio, the first step of the process is to ‘wedge’ the stoneware clay to make sure there are no air pockets and that the material has the same level of humidity throughout.
Next, she weighs out evenly sized lumps of clay. For example, a cup requires 350 g of clay.
The object is then thrown and left to dry until it is leather-hard: firm enough to be moved but still soft enough that she can work on it and add the finishing touches.
In the final finish, the ‘turning’, she uses a variety of specialized tools to finish the bottom of the piece and stamp it with her logo.
If the piece is a cup or a jug that has a handle, she ‘pulls’ a handle. After air-drying the handle is attached to the body.
Next, the ceramic object is left to dry completely before it is ready for ‘bisque firing’.
Bisque firing takes up to 24 hours. The kiln is first pre-heated to 900 degrees Celsius and then gradually cools.
After this initial firing, any minor irregularities are sanded off.
Then the item glazed. Julie mixes most of her own glazes from scratch.
Finally, it is time for the ‘glaze firing’, at 1260 degrees Celsius. This process also lasts about 24 hours, including cooling.
When the finished item is taken out of the kiln, the bottoms are sanded to get rid of any small irregularities that might otherwise scratch tabletops and other surfaces.
Shaped in clay
About serendipitous events, about talent, about talent for having talent and about dreaming big
‘How do you briefly introduce yourself when you’re a designer with clays as your preferred material, and when you’re sometimes also the potter who actually produces the pieces,’ Julie asks rhetorically when we meet. She explains that she was originally supposed to have been at a design fair the day when we meet to talk, and in that context the question is highly relevant!
She leaves no doubt that she is in the right place. She is not sure what to call it.
Ceramic designer seems to be the closest we can get to a suitable job title.
So far, all Julie’s products have been handmade, either in her own workshop or by one of the two potters who help her during peak periods.
Julie’s business is thriving, she tells me with pride and satisfaction. ‘My initial goal was to be able to pay myself a salary. I can do that now. My next goal is to be able to accept when prospective international clients reach out. I would also love to be able to deliver to restaurants that might want to use my tableware, without putting them off with long, long delivery times.’
Julie is very, very happy to use both her craft skills and her design qualifications and loves working hands-on with the clay on a daily basis.
However, she is also clearly a businesswomen and loves working with concepts and marketing and meeting with clients and customers.
She regards her work as a business. A business that has to grow if she is to be able to realize her dreams. Hence, Julie recently launched a ceramic series that she designed and put into production. The series matches the handmade items but is produced on a slightly bigger scale than she can manage in her own workshop.
Semi-industrial, you might call it. Or industrial art, as it was called in the old days, when such companies existed in Denmark. Now production takes place in Poland. All the processes are hand-held. Instead of throwing the ceramics, the potters ‘jigger’ the pieces in the workshop: pressing a firm lump of clay into a mould that Julie has defined. Next, it is finished in the same manner she would do in her own workshop, and if there is a handle, it is attached manually. The glazes are the same as the ones she uses in her own workshop.
Due to these similarities the hand-thrown elements from her own workshop are easy to match with the semi-industrial design series.
The series, which she calls Toto has a pared-down form. The stackable cup is inspired by the classic canteen cup. Toto was originally designed for a large Danish design company, which wanted to include her design in their portfolio. For a variety of reasons the project fell through. A blessing in disguise or, really, just a blessing, as Julie sees it. The series, which she has titled TOTO, has a form expression that is cut to the bone. The stackable cup is inspired by the classic canteen cup. TOTO was originally designed for a large Danish firm that wanted to include her designs in their portfolio. For various reasons, the collaboration did not work out. A blessing in disguise, or, actually, simply a blessing, thinks Julie Damhus. Being in charge of production and sales of the new semi-industrial product line is one more step towards her larger ambition of fixing up more of the space and using it for storage, a showroom and a packing room. Soon she is going to need help to pack and dispatch orders, so that she can devote more of her time to product development – for her own company as well as, hopefully, other actors in the design industry. She would also like to have more time for customer care – for existing customers as well as the new ones who come knocking on her door
‘How do you briefly introduce yourself when you’re a designer with clays as your preferred material, and when you’re sometimes also the potter who actually produces the pieces,’ Julie asked when we met. I am going to propose a possible answer: as a consummate professional with both hands buried in the material but her gaze turned to the outside world; ambitious, realistic, hard-working and talented!
How did she wind up working at the potter’s wheel rather than in front of the computer, as her designer’s training would generally suggest? That path, like most others, is paved with serendipitous events. The Ceramics programme at Design School Kolding was discontinued in 2007, two years before Julie enrolled in the school’s Industrial Design programme in 2009. At the school she had a fairly superficial introduction to a wide range of materials. During her second year of studies she went to Canada on an exchange programme. She had planned to study furniture and 3D design, and as a bonus she was able to try her hand at ceramics.
She wound up spending most of her free time in the ceramics workshop and realized that she had found her principal material.
A natural next step for her was to apply for an internship with potter Lars Kähler, whom Julie knew through her mother-in-law, when it was time for her next internship. After a few complications, in the form of an additional three-month internship with Friis & Moltke Design in Århus, because Lars was not formally approved as an internship provider, Julie did her internship with Lars. She later followed up on the experience, returning to Lars’s workshop during her first maternity leave, while she was still a student, during her second maternity leave, which came after her graduation, and during a sabbatical from her job in an architect’s office.
It was during her second maternity leave that she decided to take the leap and go into business for herself.
‘I had a good job,’ says Julie. ‘I was headhunted by my external examiner from the Design School and worked with Bønnelycke MDD in Århus. Although I was flattered to be asked, I felt that I “died” a little in front of the computer. After I had spent all available time during my second maternity leave practising at the potter’s wheel, I knew it was time for me to take the leap to being an independent ceramicist.’
‘While I was training with Lars I was a designer visiting a deep-rooted pottery tradition. A tradition with its own aesthetic. The potters rolled their eyes at my design expression,’ says Julie with a smile, adding that ‘It’s interesting to see how profoundly the context affects understanding and success. In the potter’s world, I am a bit of a strange bird. When I’m at the design market I, I have exactly what the audience is looking for.’
‘Since then, things have progressed rapidly. While my original approach to ceramics was playful, experimental and driven by passion, and the pieces were not conceived as part of a collection, I have now systematized, streamlined and tightened my production to clarify the concept. That makes it much easier to communicate what my company is about,’ says Julie, who recently had her third child and points out that passion still drives her work. Just in a different way.
Besides her own product line Julie also teaches in a nearby folk high school specializing in design, and she sometimes offers courses to hobby ceramicists, an activity that is very popular and offered by many other ceramicists besides Julie.
In fact, the courses are good marketing, says Julie. ‘Once people understand the time that goes into making a beautiful cup they are far more willing to pay the price I charge for my
Julie Damhus er 34 år, gift og mor til 3 små børn.
Hun har siden 2013 boet med sin familie på en nedlagt landbrugsejendom 30 minutter i bil fra Århus.
Hun er uddannet Industriel Designer fra Designskolen i Kolding i 2014.
Julie Damhus har lært at dreje keramik hos Lars Kähler, dels under et praktikophold fra Designskolen, dels ved at komme på hans værksted dagligt gennem en længere periode efterfølgende.
Siden 2017 har hun været fuldtidsbeskæftiget i sin egen keramiske virksomhed, Julie Damhus Studio. Keramikken afsætter hun fra en lang række designbutikker, på designmarkeder og i egen webshop.
På Julies værksted nord for Århus produktudvikles alle design. Når det kommer til produktionen, så drejer hun selv en stor del. Desuden får hun hjælp af to pottemagere, som drejer for hende efter hendes forskrift. Hun har tillige designet en kollektion, der produceres på et semi-industrielt værksted i Polen.
Når produktionen foregår på eget værksted, starter processen med, at stentøjsleret ‘klaskes’ for at undgå luftbobler og således, at materialet har samme fugtighed hele vejen igennem.
Herefter vejes leret af i ensartede klumper. Der bruges fx 350 gram til en kop.
Objektet drejes og stilles til tørre, indtil det er læderhårdt: Så fast, at man kan flytte på det, men stadig så blødt, at man kan arbejde med det og give det en sidste finish.
Den sidste finish hedder ’afdrejningen’. Her benyttes forskellige redskaber for at lave en pæn bund og for at stemple med logo.
Hvis der er tale om en kop eller kande, der skal have hank, så ’trækkes’ hanken. Den tørrer lidt og sættes derefter på.
Siden skal det keramiske objekt tørre helt, inden det er klar til at blive ’forglødet’.
Forglødningen tager op til 24 timer. Først varmer ovnen op til 900 grader, derefter sker en langsom afkøling.
Efter forglødningen pudses eventuelle småujævnheder væk.
Objektet glaseres, de fleste glasurer blander Julie selv af råstoffer.
Slutteligt skal der ’brændes’, denne gang ved 1260 grader. Også her tager processen ca. 24 timer inklusive afkøling.
Når det færdige produkt er taget ud af ovnen, pudses bundene efter for at sikre, at der ikke er små ujævnheder, som kan ridse ved brug.
Formet i ler
Om skæbnesvangre tilfældigheder, om talent og om talent for at have talent og om at drømme stort.
”Hvordan præsenterer man sig selv i kort form, når man er designer med leret som foretrukne materiale, og når man en del af tiden, selv er den pottemager, der producerer,” spørger Julie retorisk, da vi mødes. Hun fortæller, at hun egentlig skulle have været på designmesse den dag, hvor jeg meldte min ankomst, og i den forbindelse er spørgsmålet aktuelt!
Hun levner i øvrigt ingen tvivl om, at hun er på rette hylde. Det er blot hyldens navn, hun overvejer.
Keramisk formgiver er vist det tætteste, vi kan komme på en korrekt titulering.
Hidtil har alle Julies produkter været fremstillet i hånden, enten på hendes eget værksted eller hos et par pottemagere, som hjælper til, når der er spidsbelastning.
Julies forretning går godt, faktisk rigtig godt, fortæller hun stolt og tilfreds. ”Mit første mål var, at jeg skulle kunne få løn af virksomheden. Det får jeg nu. Næste mål er, at jeg vil have mulighed for at takke ja, når internationale kunder melder sig på banen. Og jeg vil gerne kunne levere til restauranter, som måtte ønske at servere på mit service, uden at skulle skræmme dem med lang, lang ventetid.”
Julie er meget, meget tilfreds med at bruge både sine håndværksmæssige færdigheder og sine designmæssige kompetencer og priser højt at have hænderne i materialet på daglig basis.
Men hun er åbenlyst også forretningskvinde og kan lide at arbejde med koncept, lide at markedsføre og lide mødet med kunden.
Hun betragter sit virke som en forretning. En forretning, som er nødt til at vokse, hvis hun skal have mulighed for at realisere alle sine drømme. Julie har derfor netop lanceret en serie keramik, som hun har designet og sat i produktion. Serien matcher det håndfremstillede, men den er produceret i en lidt større skala, end hun kan overkomme på sit eget værksted.
Kunstindustri, som det hed i gamle dage, da sådanne virksomheder fandtes i Danmark. Nu foregår det i Polen. Alle processer er håndholdte. I stedet for at dreje keramikken ’inddrejer’ pottemagerne på værkstedet. Det vil sige, at de presser en fast klump ler ned i en form, som Julie har defineret. Herefter rettes den til på samme måde, som hun selv gør det og en eventuel hank påføres manuelt. Glasurerne er de samme, som Julie bruger på sit eget værksted.
På den måde kan de hånddrejede steldele fra eget værksted let kombineres med den semi-industrielle designserie.
Serien, som hun kalder TOTO, er formmæssigt skåret ind til benet. Koppen er stærkt inspireret af den klassiske kantinekop, og den er stabelbar. TOTO var oprindelig tegnet til en større dansk designvirksomhed, som ville have hendes design i deres portefølje. Af forskellige årsager løb samarbejdet ud i sandet. Held i uheld eller faktisk bare held, tænker Julie Damhus. For det selv at håndtere produktion og salg af de nye semiindustrielle produkter, er et skridt yderligere i en retning, hvor mere af ejendommens plads skal sættes i stand og inddrages til lager, showroom og pakkerum, og der skal snart ansættes hjælp til at pakke og sende, sådan at Julie kan få mere tid til at produktudvikle. Både til sin egen virksomhed, men også gerne til eksterne aktører i designbranchen. Hun vil også gerne have mere tid til at pleje kunderne. Både de eksisterende og de nye, som banker på
”Hvordan præsenterer man sig selv i kort form, når man er designer med leret som foretrukne materiale, og når man en del af tiden selv er den pottemager, der producerer,” spurgte Julie, da vi indledte. Jeg vil forsøge mig med et svar: Som en fagnørd med hænderne dybt begravet i materialet, men blikket stift rettet mod verden, som ambitiøs, realistisk, arbejdsom og talentfuld!
Hvordan hun havnede ved drejebænken frem for foran computerne, som hendes designeruddannelse ellers lægger op til? Den vej er ligesom de fleste andre veje brolagt med tilfældigheder. Keramiklinjen på Kunsthåndværkerskolen i Kolding blev nedlagt i 2007, to år før Julie i 2009 blev optaget på linjen Industriel Formgivning. På skolen stiftede hun relativt overfladisk bekendskab med en bred vifte af materialer. På sit andet studieår var hun på udveksling i Canada. Hun havde planlagt at læse møbel- og 3D-design og fik som en bonus mulighed for at snuse til keramikken.
Det endte med, at al fritiden blev tilbragt på det keramiske værksted, og en erkendelse af, at hun var kommet på sporet af sit materiale.
Det var derfor også nærliggende at søge praktik hos pottemager Lars Kähler, som Julie kendte til gennem sin svigermor, da hun næste gang skulle i praktik. Med lidt forhindringer i form af en ekstra praktik i tre måneder i designafdelingen hos Friis & Moltke i Århus, fordi Lars ikke var formelt godkendt praktiksted, lykkedes det. Praktikken fulgte Julie siden op på, både under første barselsorlov, som var i studietiden, og under anden barselsorlov, som faldt, da hun var færdig på skolen og på orlov fra sit job på et arkitektkontor.
Det var under barselsorlov nr. to, hun besluttede at tage springet at blive selvstændig.
”Jeg havde et godt job,” fortæller Julie. ”Jeg blev headhuntet af min censor på designskolen og sad hos Bønnelycke MDD i Århus. Selv om jeg var smigret over at være blevet valgt, så døde jeg lidt foran computerne. Da jeg havde tilbragt al ledig tid under min barsel nr. to på at træne ved drejebænken, så vidste jeg, at tiden var inde til at springe ud som selvstændig keramiker.”
”Da jeg var under oplæring hos Lars, var jeg en designer, der kom på besøg i en dyb pottemagertradition. En tradition med sin egen æstetik. Pottemagerne rullede øjne over mit formsprog,” smiler Julie og fortsætter, ”det er interessant så meget sammenhæng gør for forståelse og succes. I pottemagermiljøet er jeg lidt en fremmed fugl. Når jeg står på designmarkedet, så rammer jeg præcist det, publikum efterspørger.”
”Siden er det gået stærkt. Fra at keramikken var lystbetonet, legende og eksperimenterende og ikke i en kollektionsramme, så har jeg systematiseret, valgt bort og strammet op, således at konceptet er forståeligt. Det gør det meget lettere at kommunikere virksomheden,” fortæller Julie, som i øvrigt har fået endnu et barn i farten og pointerer, at lystfuldt det er det stadigt. Det er bare anderledes.
Ved siden af arbejdet med egne produkter underviser Julie Damhus på en nærliggende designhøjskole, og hun afholder af og til drejekurser for hobbykeramikere, en aktivitet som er meget værdsat og meget udbredt ikke bare på Julies værksted men på også på mange andre værksteder.
Faktisk er kurserne super god markedsføring, fortæller Julie. ”Når folk først har forstået, hvor lang tid det tager at lavet en smuk kop, er de langt mere tilbøjelige til at betale den pris, mine kopper koster!”
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