Crates full of glass

It took a while (remember?) and it involved a lot of e-mailing back and forth as well as sending the occasional model to the other side of the world, but the moment is almost there:  the first batch of glass reservoirs will be shipped to the Netherlands soon.

photograph by Ravikumar

If all goes according to (often adapted) plan, the glasswork should be on its way to the airport by Friday, which means it's at our studio next week Thursday (-ish).

We're trying to get some work done while keeping our fingers crossed, hoping all will be well.
Will keep you posted!

-edit Monday July 7th: sadly the glass had not been shipped yet, but it should be picked up at the factory Tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Other things: 30 hours in Geneva

Although Waterworks takes up a lot of our time at the moment, we do have other things to work on as well, things that take us out of our workshop every now and then.

Studio Thol's bathtub needed to be installed last week, for example.

In Geneva.

We were only there for a little over 30 hours: Flying in Friday morning and back Saturday afternoon. The mansion where the installation took place is not finished yet, so after installation we packed the bathtub back up. Sadly no pretty pictures of a finished bathroom.
A few photographs of the work:

Lovely, no? Did you catch the view?
It turned out the whole city of Geneva is lovely.
I guess this cloud pretty much says it all:

The story of the cone | part II

finished cones

Remember we had to set up our own terracotta production line (click)?

Well, it's up and running now!
It takes a lot of work and involves a lot of going back to the studio at night to prepare batches for firing, but so far all is going pretty well and we're close to the number we need to cover the first orders.

That said, we're still looking for a production facility for future batches, and we're hoping to have more news about that within the next couple of months.
Meanwhile, a couple of snapshots of the cones in the kiln, before and after firing, and (above) the first boxes full of finished cones.

photographs by Masha Bakker

A while ago we went to Arnhem for a Waterworks photoshoot with photographer Masha Bakker (click).

We're extremely happy with the images Masha shot that day. The freshness and crispness she captured is exactly what we were looking for.

Like what you're seeing? 

Get in touch for high resolution images.

all photographs by Masha Bakker

The story of the cone

This is a photograph of ten molds for the ceramic cone drying in the backyard of our studio.
And that is not at all what we planned.

We planned to have the cones made in China, where they're great with ceramics and can easily produce large amounts of ... well... anything.
After sending a package containing several ceramic cones + a mothershape to cast a mold around to the manufacturer we had been in touch with, we were confident nothing could go wrong.

Photographs of the first batch of samples we received
read about it here

The first batch we received was not quite there yet, but promising nevertheless (remember), so Thomas made a lovely sheet to communicate the adjustments we were looking for (thinner walls, different glaze-heigths, darker and redder terracotta a.o.), which we e-mailed to the manufacturer that same week.

We didn't hear anything for a little while, but weren't alarmed, thinking that -after the adjustments were made- we were pretty much ready to order a first batch.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, we received this photograph:

photograph we got from the manufacturer

Slightly baffled, we immediately replied with a new sheet with adjustments, stressing the parts that were most important to us.  
And that's the last we heard of this manufacturer.

Having no time to start this process again with a new manufacturer before the first Waterworks batch is due, we decided to take matters into our own hands and set up an in-house production-line.

So that's where we stand: we're waiting for the molds to dry so we can start casting the first cones soon.
There is one plus to this whole situation: The money saved on shipment is now used instead to buy a kiln that can hopefully be put to good use for many future House of Thol projects.

Photoshoot day in Arnhem

Masha Bakker during the Waterworks photoshoot (With Thomas assisting)

The official Waterworks launch is getting closer and closer, which means we were in dire need of professional product photographs. The pics we've used so far are ok(-ish), but lack crispness and professionality.

Since we were highly impressed with Photographer Masha Bakkers' work, we thought she would be perfect for the job. We got in touch with her a couple of months ago and yesterday we drove to the other side of the country to work with Masha in her studio in Arhem.

Here's a example of Masha's work:

Masha Bakker Photography for Lenneke Wispelwey

Once we got there, it took Masha only about 15 minutes to set up and shoot the first photographs, which were already right up to the mark.
After shooting in the studio for about an hour we packed up our plants and Waterworks-sets and went to 'Kweekland' (a little urban-gardening centre 5 minutes from Masha's studio) for a few location-shots in a little greenhouse.

This morning we received low res versions of the many many photographs that were shot yesterday: it's up to us to make a first selection.
Alright...      This might take us a while....

Interested to see more of Masha's work? Check out her website.

Publication in this months' EH&I

Check out this full page of Waterworks in this months' 'Eigen Huis & Interieur'. :-D

Can't make out the text? Here's a close-up: