Agne Kucerenkaite Uses Metal Waste to Create Colorful Ceramic Glazes and Porcelain Works
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A graduate from Design Academy Eindhoven, the Netherlands-based material designer Agne Kucerenkaite works with raw materials, transforming them into valuable products, methods, and systems, seeking interaction between design, society, industry, and environmen
Agne Kucerenkaite Uses Metal Waste to Create Colorful Ceramic Glazes and Porcelain Works
A graduate from Design Academy Eindhoven, the Netherlands-based material designer Agne Kucerenkaite works with raw materials, transforming them into valuable products, methods, and systems, seeking interaction between design, society, industry, and environment. In her ongoing “Ignorance is Bliss” project, she works with metal waste from industries such as soil remediation companies and water treatment plants, using it to create new valuable products and methods.Metal waste is processed by drying, milling, and sieving, in order to use it as a pigment. Kucerenkaite uses the pigment to color ceramic glazes. Her latest collection features elegant porcelain tableware and ceramic interior wall tiles, which are the representation of small and large-scale applications of such a waste. “Metal waste comes in a shape of sludge, often wet. It is a mixture of high quantities of metals and organic materials. No extraction is needed, but sludge has to pass a process of preparation in order to use it as a pigment: drying, milling, and sieving. Finally, the powder can be applied to ceramics. Additional minerals besides the metals participate in a ceramic firing process and influence the result,” Kucerenkaite says while describing her project. “The colors are retrieved purely by using pigments from waste. In this project, surprisingly, the more contaminated the raw material, the greater the potential is for designed objects,” she adds.Agne Kucerenkaite is also working on the textile collection, where she uses non-toxic iron metal waste from the water supply companies to create naturally colored yarns. According to the designer, dyeing causes a lot of environmental problems due to the chemicals used in the coloring process. Furthermore, chemical remains in the textile after it is produced and comes out just after several washes. To address the problem, Kucerenkaite is supporting natural dyeing using strictly non-toxic samples from the water industries’ waste, containing iron.“‘Ignorance is Bliss’ is not about beautiful objects, rather an integration of new methods and new systems. The project is tackling a lot of issues and encourages collaboration between designers, environmentalists, scientists, architects, and manufacturers,” Kucerenkaite writes.Click on the slideshow for a sneak peek at the collection. https://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin Read more
