Kim Blekkenhorst

Many of the products we consume come from abroad, and many are aware that the vegetables we eat are grown all over the world. Increasingly, people are trying to change their buying habits by purchasing seasonal and locally grown vegetables. But what about the plates we eat from? Where do they come from? And can they also be produced locally? These are the central questions in Kim Blekkenhorst’s research for the (w)aardewerk project by Crafts Council Nederland.

Kim studied illustration at HKU, and in her studio in Amsterdam, she combines this discipline with ceramics. In her quest to make her practice more sustainable, Kim began to wonder where the materials that she uses in her work, daily, come from. “It actually surprised me that even as a ceramicist, someone who works with clay and tableware every day, I didn’t know where the clay came from. When I called the clay wholesaler to find out, they didn’t really know either.”

From Dutch Soil

Kim started on the path of using sustainable, local products through another field of work: “I worked in a restaurant in Amsterdam where the chef used many local, seasonal vegetables and preserved a lot of them. This prompted me to start thinking about the raw materials I myself use, and where they come from. It gave me an appreciation for established, traditional knowledge about what is possible with our soil, knowledge I didn’t have myself.” This sparked Kim’s curiosity about what else she could harvest from Dutch soil.

To make ceramics, clay is needed, and it is found in abundance in the Netherlands in the form of both river and heavy sea clay. For example, the famous Dutch red bricks are made from river clay, which is rich in minerals and iron oxides. Kim consulted soil scientists from Wageningen University and came across the Dutch Soil Map. This map shows what type of soil can be found in each region of the Netherlands. Using this as a guide, she grabbed her shovel and dug up river clay in Wageningen and sea clay in Enkhuizen. “It’s amazing to realize that finding and excavating your own clay is actually quite simple.”

Traditional Knowledge

After being excavated, the clay needs to be washed, dried, ground, and sieved before it can be used to make ceramic pieces. Kim had already been using these steps in her workshop, in reprocessing leftover clay which had become unworkable back into usable material. This is something many ceramicists do to use the material as sparingly as possible. “I often run ceramics workshops, and I find it important to teach my students how to handle clay sustainably.”

Passing on her knowledge is a major motivation for Kim. “I want to make people aware of what we can harvest from our own backyard. Traditional knowledge about how we can find, process, and preserve resources locally has faded into the background. That’s a shame because it can truly help us to live more sustainably.” For (w)aardewerk, Kim combines her knowledge of seasonal vegetables and local clay.