Flora Aeterna

Background

Lotte Douwes makes new, high-quality tableware and interior products from ceramic waste. She wants to make the entire production process of porcelain and earthenware circular. Because the plate in your cupboard and that cup on your desk seem so ordinary, but they are made from precious pieces of earth. After years of experimenting and research, Lotte is an expert in the reuse of ceramic waste, for the production of new high-quality ceramics. She develops clay recipes that are comparable to new clay, but consist largely of shard waste. She applies the circular production technique to her designs, such as Lamp&Socket, Circular Collection and now also for Flora Aeterna.

A touch of nature

Flora Aeterna is about our connection with the landscape, the nature that surrounds us. The fertile soil of sand, limestone, loam and clay where nature can grow and flourish. Nature that takes on a different breathtaking shape every season and evokes vivid memories of scents, colours and tangible memories of grass plumes that run through your fingers. I tried to capture our environment, the earth (also basis of clay) in a tableware collection. By kneading the material and literally leaving an imprint, nature has come to a standstill and has been immortalized in a tableware. The native plants and flowers that are characteristic of our country, such as Plantago lanceolata, Wild Honeysuckle, Small Burnet and Persicaria amplexicaulis have been placed in relief on the various tableware parts, using a special process. Every refined detail that makes these plants so characteristic is visible: from a folded leaf with refined veins to pistils, stigmas, seeds and pollinated anthers.

Ambition

The tableware collection is the result of my wish to offer well-designed products and at the same time have an answer to the increasing scarcity of raw materials and climate change. In my ambition to reduce ceramic waste (which always part of ceramic pre- and post-productions) to zero, I have succeeded in making new porcelain from extremely hard shards that are difficult to reprocess. Thanks to the valuable collaborations with Dutch social partners, companies and residents, we can now locally produce circular ceramics. The result is visible in our design collections, which are not only aesthetic but also tell a deeper sustainable and social story.