Bottle vases are inspired by a collection of plastic trash from the river Maas in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. After reading about plastic soup, I started looking more carefully at the river running through my home town and found plastic waste that had been accumulating there since the 1960s. By creating durable porcelain copies of the material I find, I try to spread awareness of this growing problem.

The outside of the stained porcelain is biscuit which gives a matt finish similar to plastic. The inside of the bottle is glazed to make it waterproof and suitable as a vase or container. The bottle is signed at the bottom.

This series is handmade by Middle Kingdom Porcelain in Jingdezhen. The plastic bottles are used to create moulds. Pigmented liquid porcelain is poured into the moulds, leaving a thin layer that forms the shape. After drying, the inside of the bottle is glazed lead-free and fired at 1300 ºC. All this handwork is done by a team of seven craftsmen, therefore none of the bottles are exactly the same. The picture shown is an indication, minor changes in color are possible, depending on the place in the kiln. Overall the surface is smooth but small defaults do occur and should be considered as a quality of the product.

Vases will be shipped plastic free, double boxed, and come with a brochure, a postcard and a small surprise.

This vase measures 18.5X7X7 cm.