When foekje fleur was a student at akv sint joost in den bosch, she was drawn by the creative potential of rubbish. The dutch designer told co.design that she read an article on plastic soup thrown in the pacific ocean, where trash is collected and floats on the surface. The sea gets it from the rivers and it continues to stay there, as plastic does not dissolve, but breaks into smaller pieces. She travelled to the local maas waterway banks as she thought that there would be supply of debris in her hometown.
She found various objects like toys, toothbrushes, etc, and was surprised to see many bottles, from motor oil to cleaning detergent and shampoo. She pointed out that there were new pieces as well as around 50 years old pieces. She unambiguously inculcated the castoffs to make a range of castceramic pieces for a school project. This success led her to use the idea for production. She explained that she visited the chinese capital of porcelain, jingdezhen, along with old plastic bottles filld in a bag and worked on the first set of 150 items at a rented table in a studio.
She was assisted by local craftspeople, who worked with the material throughout their lives. She met the u.s. Tableware brand middle kingdom owner there by chance for a delighted partnership and collection. Each box has a small card to elaborate on the concept on purchase. Fleur said that she desires to share some awareness in an about an environmental issue in an artistic manner. Eventually, perception shifts with the transformation. She further added that people value bottles made in porcelain even though they seem similar to plastic ones. This new material will remain for a long time and probably when the porcelain will stay for thousands of years, it will stand as a souvenir for pollution that will long be gone. She is also interested in discarded helium, ballons found near her new home in hague. She stated that she does not yet know what to use them as, but it interests her immensely, as each of them were sent by someone who probably wished for not polluting the sea. Httpwww.fastcodesign.com1670931discardedplasticbottlesrebornashighdesignpor…
