Finding her way in a strange world
- Roos' work expresses her fascination with nature
- She works with bone china, as well as paper, copper and bronze
- She creates personalised tableware for restaurants and chefs
Nature and light are the guiding spirits of Roos Van de Velde, whose fascination for ceramics developed in her childhood. “I felt happy in nature, surrounded by trees. I grew up in the Pajottenland clay fields opposite a brick factory. I made my first pots with this clay, baking them in an outside wood-fired oven that my mother used for baking bread.” She then enrolled in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, attracted by the magical light of the ceramic and sculpture studio. In the beginning she worked with stoneware, but with time her creations became thinner and thinner, so she started looking for a stronger clay. “I felt attracted by the white colour and transparency of bone china.”
INTERVIEW
No. All my creations are my own experiments. When I was studying at the Academy, the masters and teachers were never there, but I felt very happy with that, because I wasn’t influenced. I wanted to search within myself to express my own language.
Copper wire and bronze leftovers inspired me to create jewellery. In the period when my bone china creations became so thin that they disappeared in the oven, I started making paper. Then I got acquainted with the best chefs in the world, for whom I started to create unique tableware.
I have my studio and living space in a renovated barn in Oxdonk. In this space, all is one. Every detail is part of nature, has a soul and a story. The furniture is handmade. Every object reflects the essence of its owner, breathing a beauty and fragility that reflects their transitory nature.
The design of all my creations, no matter what material they are made of, is always linked to nature. Creating my own universe is a way to survive in a world that looks very strange to me.
