Local sand turned into ceramics for underwater restaurant
Materials World are featuring an article on the Lindesnes based Norwegian underwater restaurant in the May issue. Look out for the article, which will be featured on page 3 in the magazine.
Credit all images: Ment Design Studio By Idha Valeur
A Norwegian design studio has made ceramic tableware for Europe’s first underwater restaurant by using sand from the seabed right outside the restaurant’s window.
By using sand and minerals, the two sisters behind Ment – Ingvild and Sidsel Forr Hemma –, worked with the restaurant’s head chef Nicolai Ellitsgaard to make a set of tableware for the restaurant, called Under.
The tableware set includes cups for coffee and tea, water jugs, pots for sugar, toothpick holders, as well as several plates and bowls for the food to be served on.
To create the tableware the sisters used several natural materials, like porcelain, stoneware, wood, clay and sand from a beach in Båly to create a rough texture on the surface. The focus on nature is a theme throughout the collection.
Ingvild said, as reported in Dezeen.com, ‘The focus on nature and the underwater-concept was important in this project, and the inspiration comes from the seashore beside Under.’
Making the ceramics called for different production processes. Some products were cast first and then processed by hand, while others were shaped by hand using different types of clay first.
Continuing the nature theme and keeping it local, the colours for the collection was inspired by the environment surrounding Under such as seaweed, sand and rocks.
‘The Norwegian coast has very unique colours and species found only in this area because of the cold climate. Soft tones of brown, grey and green and beautiful textures are elements we wanted to adopt in our design for Under – choosing materials that give the collection a raw and natural feel.’ Ingvild said.
By researching and developing, the sisters created their own original recipes for colour, using iron pigments. The pigments were made by processing iron oxides from natural magnetite, which was harvested from Nordland, a county in Northern Norway.
Using their own pigments gives varied results each time, which goes hand in hand with the nature focus as the process mimics the organic ones found in nature.
Read more news and analysis from Materials World on the IOM3 website, here: https://www.iom3.org/materials-world-magazine
