Stefanie: We always start with a question and it could be with a material, or with a colour or whatever, and then we just start.
Renee: Yeah the fact that we don't have the know-how of the technique makes the research much more interesting because it will go over boundaries and you will explore, you will try, you will fail, and you will like... this whole process is really important for us to find the right thing to make the end result more interesting.
Welcome, we are rENs. My name is Renee and she's Stephanie, and we have a design studio based in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Nine years ago, I think, we graduated from Art Academy St. Joost in Breda, and almost immediately afterwards we started our studio.
Renee: To make it work you need to fail every time because otherwise you will not explore how the material will react or how the color will react, so maybe it's nice to show this project.
Stefanie: We did research about ceramic and in which way we could colour it, but then in another way, then glaze or colour the clay, because then you will first think about, “Okay this I want to be red, and this yellow,” and then it's like, more a design that you put on the ceramic. But we really want to search for a new way.
Renee: So we made like I think at least 200 different samples of ceramic and different pigments to see what would happen. We just collected like different pigments from like red wine until more industrial pigments, and we just started to explore and to try and to use ceramics in different ways and even with the pigments. And then we found out that that the most interesting part was that the material will choose the pattern. So as a designer we don't choose like I want to have the color here, here and here but the porosity of the material will make the color and will choose the pattern in the ceramic.
Stefanie: So we are put it in liquid and this part is always unglazed because it has to be like this in the oven. So the liquid is soaking under the glaze into the material.
Renee: So now it’s like this but it could be different within a week when you put it somewhere where it's more warm it will be more bright red, and after a while it will be more pink again so it will change like forever. And that's is the most beautiful thing about the vases and about the whole project.
Renee: The process that we use there was something we explored so we wanted to try it in different ways. So this was the first project the "Reddish" project and then we did the Colour Traces collection. The principle is almost the same because it's also the pigment what will absorbing under the glaze and through the ceramic. But then we wanted to mix, so we also glaze the colors so you see that, for example this is blue glaze and then we placed it - I can show you it's more interesting. And then we place it in liquid and then you will see the mixing color here and even with those wall objects you will also see that we didn't choose the graphic or the illustration but the ceramic and the way, the fact that this is round, will make the graphic will be like this. But even the time because when you put it more long in the pigment of course the graphic will change and the pattern will change, but this will stay. So it's a different thing than the Reddish part because this will stay forever like because it's a different pigments and with Reddish vase it will change forever.
And I think that's also a thing that we use in a lot of different projects, is that the fact of time and changing of time is really important for us.
Stefanie: Because we are not focusing on one material we also don't know like everything from ceramic or everything from wood but in the end it helps us because we are thinking only in a lot of opportunities and not like, OK this is not going to work with wood or with ceramics, but everything is possible for us.
Renee: I think it's more interesting to just experiment with different materials and to see what is happening while you are experimenting, and then the outcome of the research or of the experiment will make the product in the end.