The DDS Audience Award and more

The Dutch Design Week was a rush: almost a week has passed since and we're slowly starting to emerge from a post-fair fatigue that had nothing to do with the fun we had (we had a blast!) and everything with our crazy schedule these past weeks.

Sleepless nights, long days and three-hour train-journeys: It was all worth it, WATERWORKS is a hit! 

We spoke with so many enthusiastic people who in turn were happy to spread the word about WATERWORKS and tell their friends and family. 

All the sharing and spreading the word resulted in us winning the Dutch Design Starter Audience Award. - Thank you so much!
Here's a little piece about the award from Ireen Laarakker of Dutch Design Starter.

Together with alderman Mary-Ann Schreurs holding WATERWORKS

We were honored to receive the award out of the hands of Eindhoven's Alderman of Design: Mary-Ann Schreurs.
Mrs. Schreurs' schedule must have been chock full that week, which made us extra appreciative of the time she took to give a wonderful speech about WATERWORKS, have a chat with us and share a little celebratory drink.

Alright... So we had a great time, met loads of really cool and interesting people who (luckily) were as enthusiastic about WATERWORKS as we were AND we managed to win the DDS Audience Award. Score!
But that's not all...

In the first two weeks of our crowd-funding campaign we've raised a whopping 68% of our target!
68%! That's over 2/3rd!

Wow, numbers like this make us more and more confident about reaching our € 6250,- target and getting WATERWORKS produced and in stores for an affordable price.
But it's nowhere near champagne time yet: there still is a long way to go. With your ongoing support we can do this!

One thing we picked up on during the DDW is that WATERWORKS is considered a great gift for the coming Holiday period.
Obviously we couldn't agree more! That's why we are now working hard on a very special WATERWORKS voucher so you'll have something tangible to present to your friends and family.

More on that soon!

five days - thirty five percent

Since we've reached 35% of our funding goal in only 5 days (yes, that's right: THIRTY-FIVE PERCENT - FIVE DAYS) we thought now would be a good time to spread the word about WATERWORKS a bit more by sending out a newsletter to a wider audience + mailing our first official press-release.

Click on the links below the pictures to view the full press release / newsletter.

view the full newsletter

view the full press-release

There are still a couple of days left to visit us at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. 

 - See you there?

More information about the show can be found here.

Waterworks featured on Design-4-sustainability.com

By Mirjam Visser for Design-4-sustainability.com

Mirjam Visser wrote a lovely piece about Waterworks for sustainable design platform 'Design-4-Sustainability'.
Click here to read the entire article.

NASA's 1989 study for clean air

Wolverton, B. C., A. Johnson and K. Bounds, Plants for Clean Air Council, Davidsonville, Maryland, 1989
published on Scribd by Avisolo

Remember this infographic? It was based on a study conducted by NASA back in 1989. 

Googling around i found a scan of the original study on Scribd.

So for all of you who are interested in the exact amount of benzene a Golden Pothos plant filters out of the air in two hours and other scientific results: read the report.

Location Sectie C

Image from Smalle Haven.com

Our exhibition during the Dutch Design Week is at Sectie C, at the Daalakkersweg in Eindhoven.

Never heard of it?
To tell you the truth: neither had i.
As a matter of fact, when we first drove toward sectie C and left Eindhovens' city centre way behind us, i became less and less sure about whether people would actually come to visit us....

As it turned out Sectie C is a great and bustling location that comes to life in the afternoon with all kinds of little pop-up restaurants and wood-fires everywhere.
The location might not be as well-visited as Strijp S, where people were waiting in line last Sunday, but the whole place has a brilliant underground vibe to it and there is loads to see.

And it's so easy to get to: all you need to do is get into one of those Mini Design Rides and you're dropped off right at the front gate. Or, if you're driving into the city: there's plenty of free parking space available.

To make sure everyone will be able to find us, this is where we are:

Sectie C is open from 16:00 till 22:00 from Monday to Friday and from 12:00 till 22:00 on Saturday and Sunday.
Check out what's going on here.

See you there?

WATERWORKS @ Dutch Design Week Eindhoven

Day 2 of the Dutch Design Week has come and gone.

You should know i started writing this post as soon as we arrived at the exhibition early in the afternoon, but didn't finish it until now, and we're about to leave!

Reason: we're talking to people all the time.
My throat feels kinda dry and my feet are killing me, but man, it's a rush!

So far the reactions have been great and we've already had pre-orders for 30 oh... wait: 31 WATERWORKS sets!
-Edit late Sunday Night : 34 now !-

But it only just started: The DDW runs until next Sunday so there's still plenty of time to visit us.
Sadly we won't be able to be at the exhibition all the time, so let us know if you're planning on stepping by, we'd love to see you!

Waterworks - Help us make it happen

YES, we made it!

Our WATERWORKS movie premiered today and our campaign is online. CHECK-IT-OUT!

We have until the 19th of january to reach our target of €6250,- which is just enough for a first WATERWORKS production-run.

HELP us towards that goal and pre-order now.

SPREAD THE WORD and share our campaign with friends and family.

We're so enthusiastic about this product and hope you are too.

Together we can get WATERWORKS produced and contribute to greener homes and cleaner air everywhere!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

PRE-ORDER NOW!

Glass magic: the making of the WATERWORKS bulb

Ted talk by Kamal Meattle: How to grow fresh air

As easy as one-two-three

Waterworks manual by House of Thol

(or: what we were doing last night until 03:00 am)

The making of WATERWORKS - the movie

WATERWORKS set up - notice the cat?

A crowdfunding-project without a cool video is like a living room without houseplants.. right?

Luckily one of our very talented friends agreed to help us out, and last Friday our home was turned into a small filmset to shoot WATERWORKS-the movie.

We started off feeling ill at ease, but with coaching from our professional director/camera-woman we quickly settled down, and as we got used to having a lens in our face the giggles subsided and we were able to shoot quite some useful footage.

A small glimpse of what went on: Thomas telling all about WATERWORKS

There's still a lot of cutting and editing to be done, but we're hoping for a premier on Saturday October 19th.

Sign up for our newsletter and keep an eye on this blog to be the first to see 'WATERWORKS' the movie.

We'll be at the Dutch Design Week - see you there?

During the Dutch Design Week we'll officially launch the WATERWORKS crowdfunding campaign and we'll be part of the exhibition of Dutch Design Starter at Sectie-C.

For more information about the Dutch Design Starter exhibit during the Dutch Design Week click here.

We're going to be at the exhibition as much as we can and would love to see you there.
Let us know if you're planning to stop by, it would be a shame if we'd miss each other!

Thinking about packaging

Working on the packaging design.
(we'd like to keep it simple yet chique - and sturdy of course)

freshly baked cones

no glaze - matte - gloss - white gloss

Look at these beauties!
Thomas picked up the first batch of fired cones today, fresh out of the kiln.

Don't they look lovely? And they feel so real too, making a clinging sound when they accidentally strike against each other

The main idea of this test-batch was to determine which glaze we're going to use.
Before firing i was pretty certain we should go for the white gloss, but now they cones are out of the kiln i'm tending more towards the matte version. Thomas, on the other hand, likes the darker glossy finish.

While we're both waiting for the other to change his mind: What do you think? Matte or gloss?

Waiting for the kiln

...glaze and all.