online mag  /  print bookazine

Clay to clay …

Anna Bystrup, Bo Tyrrestrup, C for Ceramic, Gudrun Elbækgaard, Lov i Listed, Lund Keramik. Mette Duedal, Mona Vander og Oh Oak Her: Skål fra Lov i Listeds Kadeau-serie
Plates from Anna Bystrup, Bo Tyrrestrup, C for Ceramic, Gudrun Elbækgaard, Lov i Listed, Lund Keramik. Mette Duedal, Mona Vander and Oh Oak

From HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no 1, which sold out

You can find all articles here

October 2019

 

The Danish soil is rich in clay, and Denmark once had many brickworks making bricks and roofing tiles from it. For generations we have used it to make a wide range of household objects. Artists have sculpted works of art in it. Clay is one of the most fascinating materials we have, and virtually everyone on the plant has at one point or another held a clay object in their hands.

Danish Michelin-starred restaurant Noma version 2.0 sets their tables with hand-crafted ceramics and also includes a range of other crafts products in the presentation of their seasonal menus.

Kadeau also sets the table with handmade ceramics – and let’s just dwell on Kadeau for a moment: almost ten years have passed since the Michelin-starred restaurant Kadeau got rid of its mass-produced tableware in favour of a ceramic stoneware service developed in close collaboration with the couple behind the ceramics studio ‘Lov i Listed’.

Kadeau has roots on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The restaurant’s stores are full of produce from Bornholm, wild as well as cultivated, so engaging in a local collaboration to develop a bespoke table service seemed both obvious and inevitable.

Torben Lov is an acclaimed and experienced ceramicist. He founded his own studio in 1974. At times he has worked full-time as a ceramicist, while other times supplementing his income with other work.

The collaboration with Kadeau has been a turning point in his career. He no longer needs to supplement his income. On the contrary, Torben and his wife, Susanne, who is also deeply involved in the enterprise, are in a constant race with time to keep up with demand. Kadeau continuously needs new pieces, and private customers are queuing up in Listed, often merely to have their names added to (long) waiting lists for the chance to buy some of the sought-after ceramics.

A ceramic trend

Many other gourmet restaurants, both in Denmark and around the world, also use hand-crafted ceramics, sometimes complemented by mouthblown drinking glasses and hand-carved spoons. The unique, the handmade, the passionate is trending, both in the kitchen and at the table. This trend is important for the food scene and for contemporary craft makers. Not only because the restaurants place bigger orders than private customers, thus contributing to a stronger foundation for the studios, but also because the trend is spreading to private homes, a market that has a strong appetite for craft objects and, in particular, for everyday ceramics and ceramic art.

This appetite for ceramics is also reflected in long waiting lists for the schools and studios that offer pottery courses. Amateurs too are keen to delve into the world of ceramics.

  

 

Souvenirs

During my childhood, we would always visit local potters when we went on holidays around Denmark. This was during the late 1960s and the early 1970s. We would buy a mug or an egg cup to take home. Even if the form factor might sometimes leave something to be desired, it was handmade, and buying it straight from the potter’s workshop meant added value. Thus, the collection of unmatched mugs gradually grew.

Later I developed an interest in design, and pottery receded into the background. My pottery objects led a paltry existence in summer cottages belonging to elderly relatives and were otherwise non-existent in my world. I was not the only to seek a new direction. My generation went for clean lines. We were interested in industrial design, and not only did we demand industrially made design products. We were never interested in working with production ourselves.

 

Clay

Clay Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark, the only museum in the Nordic region specializing in ceramic art, crafts and design, puts on varying exhibitions of Danish and international ceramics that showcase the work of contemporary as well as earlier generations of ceramicists. Clay also preserves and exhibits aspects of our ceramic cultural legacy, including the historic collection from Royal Scandinavia.

In other words, Clay Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark offers rich opportunity for putting the contemporary ceramics scene into a historical perspective.

Thus also the exhibition ‘Pottery!’, which was developed in collaboration with the Danish Association of Craft Potters to mark the association’s 125th anniversary.

Many of the exhibits at the Pottery! exhibition remind me of my own childhood, for better and worse. Among them is a gorgeous cup by Lene Kass, shaped and decorated like a face. She has been making these cups for a long time, and over the years, others have had the same idea. Right now, this type of ceramics is back in style!
The exhibition also shows tableware pieces by 50 other potters and ceramicists in addition to a small selection of vases and a garden bench with a ceramic base.
‘Pottery!’ showcases the long-standing craft tradition that has shaped contemporary ceramics – and stylistically, we appear to have come full circle!

jar from Lov i Listeds Kadeau-series

Being a potter

Above all, being a potter means being a craftsperson. ‘Potter’ is a protected title that requires a completed apprenticeship. The Danish Association of Craft Potters was originally an employer’s association, and most of the members were large earthenware manufactories with many employees. Pottery was factory-made applied art, and potters worked in factory settings. Then, as now, they were highly knowledgeable about materials and technique. They made applied art objects – tableware, flowerpots, kneading bowls, pickle jars and other utilitarian items – as well as ceramic art in collaboration with contemporary artists and designers.
In Denmark, this type of production has long been a thing of the past. Among other enterprises, the renowned Saxbo Keramik closed down in 1968. Knabstrup brickworks switched off their kilns in 1988 but reopened a few years ago, now with production in Portugal. Kähler closed in its original form in 1975 and has now outsourced production to Portugal and China. Hjort on Bornholm has become an active workshop attached to the art museum Bornholms Kunstmuseum.

Since then, most pottery workshops have been small one-person operations, and since 2010 apprenticeship training of potters has been discontinued in Denmark. The Danish Association of Craft Potters has long since adjusted its membership conditions and is now a collegial association that welcomes potters as well as professional ceramicists (the latter trained at the design schools, currently at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design, Craft – Glass and Ceramics on Bornholm).

Running a modern ceramic business

In the new ceramics scene the most successful ceramicists are clearly the ones who combine a strong grasp of form, often acquired through training at a design school, with strong craftsmanship, regardless whether their craft skills have been attained through a pottery apprenticeship, while that was still an option, or through hands-on internship training with a skilled maker.

The potter’s wise hands master the material intuitively, and the potter’s mind contains profound knowledge of clay types, techniques, glazes and firing methods. We must make sure that this knowledge is handed on to the next generation. In other words, if you want to learn to master the craft in depth, you need to act now, before it is too late, to arrange for peer-based training with a skilled potter.

One of the members of the association is potter Lars Henrik Kähler. Lars has been a potter for more than 50 years and is fifth generation of the renowned Kähler family.

Another member is Julie Damhus. Julie graduated as an industrial designer from Design School Kolding and trained with Lars.

(about Julie Damhus here)




#ceramics



Af lerjord er du kommet

 

Det findes i vores undergrund, og engang havde vi i Danmark en lang række teglværker, som fremstillede mursten af det. Vi har gennem generationer fremstillet alskens brugsgenstande af det. Kunstnere har formgivet og udtrykt sig i det. Ler er et af de mest fascinerende materialer, som findes, og de fleste mennesker har på et eller andet tidspunkt har haft det mellem hænderne.

 

Noma version 2.0 serverer på keramik og inkluderer en lang række andre håndværksprodukter i deres sæsonbaserede serveringer.

Kadeau serverer på keramik – vi dvæler et øjeblik ved Kadeau: Det er snart 10 år siden, Michelinrestauranten Kadeau smed sit industrifremstillede service på porten og i stedet begyndte at servere på håndlavet keramisk stentøjsservice udviklet i tæt samarbejde med parret bag Lov i Listed.

Kadeau har sine rødder på Bornholm. Spisekammeret er fyldt op med bornholmske råvarer, både de vilde og de kultiverede, og et lokalt samarbejde omkring servicet syntes både indlysende og uundgåeligt.

Torben Lov er en anerkendt og rutineret keramiker. Han startede sit værksted i 1974. I nogle perioder har han været fuldtidsbeskæftiget som keramiker. I andre perioder har han suppleret sin indtægt ad anden vej.

Samarbejdet med Kadeau har været et vendepunkt for ham. Der er ikke længere behov for at supplere indtægten. Snarere er Torben og hans kone, Susanne, som er dybt involveret i virksomheden, i konstant kapløb med efterspørgslen. Kadeau behøver hele tiden nye servicedele, og de private kunder holder i kø i Listed og lader sig gerne skrive på (lange) ventelister for få mulighed for at købe af den eftertragtede keramik.

Keramiktrenden

En lang, lang række af andre gourmetrestauranter både i Danmark og internationalt serverer også på håndlavet keramik, og mange steder drikkes der af mundblæst glas og spises med håndsnittede skeer. Det unikke, det håndlavede, det nørdede, det passionerede er en stærk tendens, både i køkkenet og på bordet. Det har stor betydning både for madscenen, men også for kunsthåndværkerne. Ikke kun fordi restauranterne aftager større portioner end privatkunderne og dermed danner et solidt fundament for værkstedernes eksistens, men også fordi trenden har bredt sig som ringe i vandet ud i de private hjem, hvor der er en sult efter kunsthåndværk i almindelighed og i særdeleshed efter brugskeramik og kunstkeramik.

Keramiksulten betyder også, at de skoler og værksteder, som udbyder keramikkurser, har lange ventelister. Det er eftertragtet at fordybe sig i keramikkens verden, også for amatørerne.

  

Souvenirs

 I min barndom besøgte vi altid den lokale pottemager, når vi ferierede rundt i Danmark. Vi taler her om slutningen af 60’erne og begyndelsen af 70’erne. Vi købte et krus eller et æggebæger med hjem. Det var ikke alt sammen lige formstærkt, men det var håndlavet, og det at have købt det på værkstedet havde stor værdi. Således voksede samlingen af umage krus støt og roligt.

Siden blev jeg optaget af design, og pottemagerkunsten forsvandt ud af mit synsfelt. Pottemagerkeramikken levede sit hensygnende liv i sommerhuse tilhørende ældre slægtninge og var ellers ikke eksisterende i min verden. Jeg var ikke den eneste, som så til anden side. Min generation har begæret rene linjer. Vi har været optaget af industrielt design og ikke nok med, at vi har fordret industrielt fremstillede designprodukter. Vi har ikke selv villet arbejde med produktion.

Lars Henrik Kähler ved drejeskiven på udstillingen ’Pottemageri’, som er blevet til i samarbejde med Dansk Pottemagerforening af 1894 som fejring af foreningens 125-årsjubilæum.

Clay

På Clay Keramikmuseum Danmark i Middelfart, som er Nordens eneste specialmuseum for keramisk kunst, kunsthåndværk og design, er der hvert år flere specialudstillinger af dansk og international keramik. Både fra nulevende og fra afdøde keramikere. Desuden forvarer og udstiller Clay dele af vores keramiske kulturarv, herunder museumsdelen fra Royal Scandinavia.

Med andre ord er der på Clay Keramikmuseum Danmark rig mulighed for at få den aktuelle keramiske scene sat i et historisk perspektiv.

Således også på udstillingen ’Pottemageri’, som er blevet til i samarbejde med Dansk Pottemagerforening af 1894 som fejring af foreningens 125-årsjubilæum.

En stor del af effekterne på pottemagerudstillingen minder mig på godt og ondt om min barndom. Der står blandt andet på udstillingen en skøn kop, som er formet og dekoreret som et ansigt, fra Lene Kass. Dem har hun lavet længe, og andre har i tidens løb haft samme idé. Lige nu er den type af keramik igen meget moderne!
Desuden står der steldele fra 50 andre pottemagere og keramikere foruden enkelte vaser og en havebænk med keramisk fundament.
Fundament er netop, hvad udstillingen ’Pottemageri’ handler om.
Vi står med andre ord på skuldrene af en lang håndværkstradition, og stilmæssigt ser det ud, som om vi går i ring!

 

At være pottemager

At være pottemager er først og fremmest at være håndværker. Pottemager er en beskyttet titel, som kræver svendebrev. Pottemagerforeningen af 1894 var oprindelig en arbejdsgiverforening, og medlemmerne var hovedsageligt en række større lervarevirksomheder med mange ansatte. Pottemageri var kunstindustri, og pottemagerne var en slags kunstindustrielle fabriksarbejdere. Pottemagerne besad dengang som nu stor viden om både materiale og teknik. De fremstillede brugskeramik i form af steldele, urtepotter, dejfade og syltekrukker blandt andet. Dertil i samarbejde med tidens formgivere kunstkeramik.
Det er længe siden, der har foregået den type af produktion i Danmark. Blandt mange andre så lukkede det navnkundige Saxbo i 1968. Knabstrup Teglværk slukkede ovnen i 1988 og genopstod for få år siden, nu med produktion i Portugal. Kähler lukkede i sin oprindelige form i 1975 og producerer nu i Portugal og Kina. Hjorths keramikfabrik på Bornholm er overgået til at være arbejdsværksted under Bornholms Kunstmuseum.

Siden da har de fleste pottemagerværksteder været små enkeltmandsvirksomheder, og siden 2010 er der ikke blevet uddannet pottemagere i Danmark. Foreningen Dansk Pottemagerforening af 1894 har for længst ændret på medlemsvilkårene, således at der nu er tale om en kollegial forening for både pottemagere og keramikere, som arbejder professionelt med fremstilling af keramik (sidstnævnte uddannet på designskolerne og nu på KADK Bornholm).

 

At drive en moderne keramisk virksomhed

På den nye keramikscene går det åbenlyst bedst for de keramikere, som kombinerer en stærk formsans, oftest udviklet undervejs på en designuddannelse, med fagfaglige færdigheder. Det hvad enten de faglige færdigheder er opnået på pottemageruddannelsen, inden den lukkede, eller gennem træning i praktik hos en dygtig håndværker.

Pottemagerens kloge hænder kan materialet i søvne, og deres hjerner rummer en enorm viden om lertyper, fremstillingsmetoder, glasurer og brændinger. Den viden, skal vi sikre os, bliver overleveret og ført videre til næste generation. Med andre ord, hvis man vil lære håndværket at kende til bunds, så er det altså nu, inden det bliver for sent, at man ydmygt skal opsøge en dygtig pottemager for at blive sidemandsoplært.

En af pottemagerforeningens medlemmer er pottemager Lars Henrik Kähler. Lars har været pottemager i mere end 50 år og er 5. generation i den navnkundige Kähler-familie.

En anden af pottemagerforeningens medlemmer er Julie Damhus. Julie er uddannet Industriel formgiver på Designskolen i Kolding, og så er hun oplært hos Lars.
(om Julie Damhus her)

 

#haandvaerkbookazine1

Related stories

NEXT STOP: STOCKHOLM

I am already busy writing and taking photographs...

TRACES

‘Decoration is a form of trace-making,’ said Tina...

MIKKEL FRIIS-HOLM

LONG TIME NO SEE

Jesper Gøtz is no longer involved in Lille...

#01 EMBELLISHING

Excerpt from article on jewelry/Hornvarefabrikken in HÅNDVÆRK bookazine...

THE PATTERN

From HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no. 9 about Petit Knit...

This website uses cookies

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services.