Frans Ottink

StudioZAND

Porcelain maker

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The shape of emotions

Frans creates small series of porcelain tableware
His ideas spring from Bauhaus or Art Deco
He also designs products on commission

Frans Ottink designs tableware, which he produces in his own workshop, often in small series. His collection includes a multitude of porcelain designs that originate from his entire career. The basis of his creations is geometric in nature, but often has a small detail or ornament. It satisfies the need to tell a story, to offer the spectator and user a look into his mind. “My educational background is the art academy ArtEZ in Arnhem, the Netherlands,” he says, “where I studied 3D Design and specialised in porcelain tableware design. My teacher was Dick Lion, a designer and porcelain maker who worked with Rosenthal and Arzberg porcelain factories. I was interested in the process of designing, but also in the process of making: understanding the material and its properties, and achieving the result I had in mind.”

Interview

Do you design the objects you make?
My graduation project was a series of tableware, which I carried out myself, since craft was an important part of the course. I kept making my own designs, this evolved into my own active workshop and making a living creating and selling porcelain tableware.
What fascinates you about the Dutch tradition?
In the Netherlands the Delft Blue is well-known, but especially around 1900 various ceramic manufacturers developed their own products, continuing into the 1950s and 60s. Most were linked to the earthenware-clay that we find here along the coast and rivers.
Do you collaborate with other designers?
We create a lot of products for other designers, like Aldo Bakker, Marcel Wanders, Hella Jongerius, Forma Fantasma and many others. Our atelier is somewhere in between an artist-workshop and a ceramic factory. Craft is making it possible to visualise ideas.
What is your idea of craftsmanship?
Craftsmanship is poetry. It means focus, eye for detail, personal expression in material and product. By making, ideas develop. Concepts grow through execution. I shape emotion, treatment and use. I shape context. By creating, a strong connection between maker, product and user arises.

Frans Ottink is a master artisan: he began his career in 1989 and he started teaching in 2000