The clients request: A double-bed, actually two double-beds. This seemed to be quite easy because the client wanted to have it simple. Hence, we proposed something simple. But probably it is impossibile for us to do something simple and also the client noticed that there should be done more. We agreed to the use of which woods, even some African wood was added due to happy memories, and then this very nice client did ask for further interventions in measures, shapes, hidden functionalities, colours of Murano glass, raku tiles and more. The simple double-bed turned out to be a powerful hybrid that combines several of our beloved materials: handcrafted wood, raku ceramics, Murano glass and concrete.
Raku, a ceramic known for its unpredictable patterns caused by the firing process, originates from the 16th century in Japan and was primarily used in the tea ceremony. The fired raku piece is removed from the hot kiln and allowed to cool quickly in the open air, water or snow. It happend by chance that a bowl needed to be cooled quickly and therefore it was put into snow. The new, unique and typical "cracked" surface appeared right away and since the opening of Japan in 1853 this technique continues growing worldwide.
Our ceramic tile's are inspired the the story of the Raku itself. They show “burned” drawings which represent the microphotographs of snow crystals taken by the scientist W.A. Bentley. He photographed his first snowflake under a microscope in 1885. He found many hundreds of forms, all based on a common hexagonal pattern and published more than 2000 microphotographs of snow crystals in 1931 revealing the wonder of nature’s diversity in uniformity: no two are alike. Exactly like the Raku ceramics – no two are alike.
The acceptance of coincidence and destiny is part of the spirit of Raku, which means by the way “enjoyment”.
