Atelier Max Lipsey

Sandblasted tableware and terrazzo from broken ceramics, commissioned by Circulair Warenhuis Leiden.

Mugs inscribed ‘The best grandpa’, teacups from Disneyland Paris and chipped saucers. These dishes might once have been someone’s treasured possession, but now sit unsold and unused on the shelves of a thrift shop. Ceramic is a high-quality material and can fundamentally last for generations, but how do we deal with the excess and with the broken crockery? Designer Max Lipsey was confronted with this issue when, during a visit to Circulair Warenhuis Leiden, he came face to face the enourmous quantities of ceramics they had to throw away. ‘There is a huge, constant stream of waste from ceramics and the cycles don’t know what to do with it,’ he says.

Het Circulair Warenhuis Leiden is a circular hub, where everything consumers hand to them is sorted either for sale, reuse or waste. The store receives a subsidy from the municipality of Leiden for every kilo of returned material that does not end up in a landfill. It is for this reason the department store brings in designers, like Max, to find new uses for this so called “waste”. ‘This is a unique opportunity as a designer to truly contribute towards solving a problem’. Max focused on the recycling and reuse possibilities for tableware in particular.

From surplus tableware to crockery with a unique look

‘When reusing materials, it is important to make sure you work as efficiently as possible. Using as little new material, money, and exertion as possible, how can you give the product value again? The solutions I found are very simple, actually.’ Max separates the broken crockery from the crockery that is intact but not sold. This unsold crockery he sandblasts on the outside- the inner glaze remains intact, meaning it is still safe to drink from, but the outside glaze disappears. This brings out the white ceramic underneath and gives all the mugs and cups a luxurious, unique look. The tableware becomes attractive to use and even combine with other pieces again- ‘single’ pieces of crockery start to come together easily, as a set.

For broken crockery, he takes a different approach. ‘With a huge machine, which is called a jaw crusher, we grind everything into tiny pieces. To that, I add a tiny bit of cement, creating a ceramic terrazzo.’ Terrazzo, the well-known speckled material commonly used for kitchen surfaces and floors, was developed in Italian marble quarries as a destination for all the small leftover pieces of marble. Mixing these with cement creates a stone material that has almost the same properties as marble: smooth, durable and rock hard..

Waste breccia

From his handmade ceramic terrazzo, Max designed a table with a polished tabletop in which the small pieces of crockery can be seen in an array of colours. The base of the table is made of unpolished terrazzo, in which larger, recognisable pieces of crockery can be found. ‘This way, you keep being reminded of what the table was created from, namely from that endless waste stream of ceramics,’ he says. This texture is also reminiscent of breccia, a naturally occurring rock composed of small pieces of older stone that have been pressedtogether over time. Max thus refers to the waste stream as a transformative process: ‘A stream keeps going. Just as a river erodes a rock by its continuous flow, this endless stream of waste also changes our landscape bit by bit.’

A stream keeps going. Just as a river erodes a rock by its continuous flow, this endless stream of waste also changes our landscape bit by bit.

Making a small difference with design

Max enjoys working with existing materials in the process of making his designs. Previously, he has worked with parts of frames from racing bikes and created a design for several chairs made from these parts- The Acciaio Series. ‘It’s a fun puzzle to work with an existing form. You surprise yourself with shapes that you wouldn’t otherwise be so quick to draw yourself.’ Max also approached unused crockery as a new form to design with, as a raw material. ‘I am not a ceramist and I was new to the material, so it was possible for me to look at its possibilities with an outsider’s perspective. I learnt a lot from the (w)aardwerk Community of practice, both technically about ceramics but also about questioning oneself critically in every step of the making process.’

According to Max, a big issue for the design world lies in future-proofing the sector. ‘Design as an industry is focused on selling new products all the time. However, makers also have the tools to apply their design mindset to solve all kinds of concrete problems.’ Max would like to see more projects similar to his collaboration with Circulair Warenhuis Leiden be launched. ‘It’s very nice to be able to make a small difference with design.’

@maxlipsey
@circulairwarenhuis

Text: Anke Vromen 
Photography: Fan Liao 

Read more

Sandblasted tableware and terrazzo from broken ceramics, commissioned by Circulair Warenhuis Leiden.

Sandblasted tableware and terrazzo from broken ceramics, commissioned by Circulair Warenhuis Leiden.

Sandblasted tableware and terrazzo from broken ceramics, commissioned by Circulair Warenhuis Leiden.