THE CHALLENGE
To mix tradition and modernity by connecting young French designers with local handcraft production.
THE SOLUTION
“Burning For” is a project creating new contemporary products for a traditional market that is more used to conservative designs. The products are handmade stoneware crockery. The team strives to achieve new design proposals and patterns to create new shapes.
THE IDEA
We are Tomáš, Pavel, Hana and Baptiste, we are the founders of Burning for. We have a passion for art, craft and design, we are fascinated by nature. Burning for can be considered as the result of our European cultural and artistic blend. We wish to offer beautiful and sustainable tableware, conscientiously designed with heart, and carefully made by hand, to please your eyes. As food lovers and amateur cooks, we are also thrilled to prepare, serve and eat beautiful meals in delicious plates! We believe it is important today to slow down the urban consumerist lifestyle and to reconnect to nature. We think it is crucial to consume differently: less, better, local, durable. And of course, beautiful. We believe that well-thought, well-designed, well-made objects cultivate a strong symbolic and affective relation with their owners and bring them a warm and valuable comfort in their everyday use. As it has become a common banality today to buy mass-produced objects at the other end of the world and have them drone-delivered within 24h, we want to meke delightful items meant to last the whole life and be bequeathed to next generation. One masterpiece rather than ten cheap somethings.
THE BIRTH OF THE PROJECT
Pavel knew the Hrdějovice stoneware factory for long, as his grandma had some of their products home. What fascinated him on the factory was, that they had all the milling machines for rough mass, working with local stone, clay and caolin. His girlfriend Hana liked the idea of local products, but disliked the conservative design of blue – white flowery pattern of the tableware. Pavel got to know, that Baptiste as graphic designer loved patterns.
However, with recent political and economic changes, the factory was forced to close. But in 2016, teh factory was rented to a local man, he hired four employees, and the famous factory could experience a new beginning. Pavel presented Zdenek Malena the idea of transforming the traditional blue and white floral pattern, that he knew from his childhood, into a modern design, which was innovated by Baptiste. By retaining the traditional blue and white colour, and creating new forms and patterns, it became evident, that a great tradition could be transformed into a contemporary design for those who value sustainability, craftmanship and the modern patterns that have inspired by nature.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Our creative process lies in between the rich heritage of the factory and contemporary creation. We value the slow and skilled handwork of stoneware. We kept the traditional cobalt blue paint and the warm natural color of the clay to which we brought completely new shapes and patterns. Tomas has designed elegant and softly curved plates, bowls and cups, as Baptiste worked on unique, various, and intricate patterns. Based on his strong background in pattern graphic design, Baptiste tend to build a substantial iconography exploring geometric and organic shapes of shells, crystals, corals, leaves, water, etc. The first collection is a mix of abstract and figurative, minimal and complex… As they are fully hand painted, drawings may vary from one item to another. Variations and imperfections are encouraged as part of the design process; they make each item precious and unique. Our aim is to achieve a timeless design by developing a universal visual language connected to nature.
THE COLLABORATION
With the help of Worth and our partner Hrdějovice factory we were able to produce our tableware without investing a lot of money in buying all the necessary machines and equipment. We can rely on very well skilled workers and their know how. We can offer them work and we also emloyed new skilled painters in the region of the factory and we also make a good advertisment for the factory.
THE FUTURE
Our production process aims to have the smallest environmental footprint: 99% of our supply chain is local, our energy is renewable, clay is a natural and durable material, our packaging are made out of recycled materials and we do not use any plastic. We are selling are products in whole Europe.
THE MESSAGE
Burning for is based on friendship, on the preservation of local heritage, on the appreciation of high quality, handcraft and on the deep wish to offer beautiful, durable and timeless pieces of ceramics.
