the story of
tembo
Craft
DESIGN
Art for our everyday rituals.
I start every morning with an espresso. I choose a beautiful cup and watch the coffee pouring in. Then I put it down on a small table and sit on the couch. As I scan the news, I take a look at it and then take a sip. Every time I repeat that it fills me with satisfaction.
It is perfect as it is!
Drinking a coffee is not only about coffee, but the moment, the taste, the aroma and the sight. Likewise, a cup of steaming tea with its unique fragrance. The perfect way to slow down the day. Why shouldn’t it be even more beautiful, more unique?
For a while now, I have taken my own cups in my hand. Each of them makes the moment more special in a different way. The geometry of regularity and irregularity, the most perfect shapes of the universe, or the million-year-old wonders of the animal world.
Ceramics is creation, the cup is its realization. The coffee or tea in your hand is the experience.
I was born into a society full of shortages. Materially we had very little, yet I had everything. I created toy aircraft and robots from bits and pieces of scrap. I drew on asphalt when lacking paper, with stone or brick when lacking chalk. Not much has changed since, except the means for making the invisible visible became more timeless.
Porcelain is the most noble and most durable of all ceramics. A simple mixture of a few natural raw materials, but it’s potential is limitless. I like the neatness of its off white color as it sparkles under a crystal clear transparent glaze. It provides a perfect basis for something else, something more.
When touched by purpose, the small becomes great, and the overlooked becomes meaningful.
My ceramics are a manifestation of my diverse interests and my desire to create something special. And as I am anxiously watching if we all, as a global community can pull the handbrake to stop the exploitation of nature in time, I decided to give a mission to my No Planet B Design collection that resonates most with this important topic. I started to donate 10% of the sale price to the Jane Goodall Institute every time a cup with a magnificent, yet endangered animal finds its new owner, new companion. I believe these small donations couldn't be in a better place. Jane Goodall spent more than half a century working for a world where we can share our planet with nature in harmony. The institute she founded continues this mission globally.