Brick Clay Carafe & Cups

During the summer of 2018, Unfold designed a cup and carafe made from a local clay that has been used in Belgium since the 13th century to make bricks. This clay originates from the shores of the river Maas, and can take many colors. When firing to low temperatures, it turns to the well-known orange brick color. But fired to 1200 degrees Celcius or higher, it turns dark red, purple, and almost black.

Unfold produced this tableware in the Bokrijk open-air museum on their ceramic printers which they developed and open sourced in 2009. With its thick coiled appearance, the design is an ode to the traditional technique of coiling, a technique at the very roots of ceramic 3D-printing. For this set Unfold developed new software methods to break loose of the traditional planar appearance of 3d printing where objects are build up from equally thick horizontal stacks of lines. In the cups, the spacing between the coils gradually increases, from 0.5 to 1mm. In the carafe, the plane of printing changes slowly multiple times during printing and the carafe ends with an angled spout.

This brick clay 3D-printed ware was used by the Flemish Government as diplomatic gifts on culture and trade missions to Japan, China and other countries.

With the support of Domain Bokrijk & Wienerberger brick factory Maaseik