LAYERED: 3D PRINTED CERAMIC PIECES
HILDA NILSSON & EMRE CAN
Here we look at two designers who work in tandem with machines;
the artisan and the artificial intelligence combining to create exceptional and unusual pieces.
Swedish designer Hilda Nilsson has been working with 3D-printed ceramics for the last four years. Her experimental methods allow her to create unique-looking pieces that are both functional and highly artistic. Nilsson delights in the stark contrast between the classic crafts material of clay and the digital additive building techniques, although she always interferes with the process enough to leave a personal touch.
“It is important to me to get involved in the production process,” she says. “Whether it’s adding to, removing or deforming the pieces. It is a way for me to get a personal touch to something digitally created.”
Dancing Cylinder No2
Yellow Drip No.1
Both of Nilsson’s parents worked in the field of design and art so she grew up in a creative household. She moved to Copenhagen, Denmark to study ceramics and has since set up her studio in the Danish city. Her love for clay comes from her delight in its material versatility and its ability to take on so many different expressions.
“In the last year and a half I’ve been conducting an exploration into surface textures and material research with 3D printing,” says Nilsson. “I’ve worked with a cylinder shape – which is a nice base shape for testing surfaces while printing. I’ve tested a mixture of clays and glazes, sometimes adding them while printing.”
Dancing Cylinder No6
The pieces that feature in our Cluster Crafts online exhibition and on the store are part of the series Dancing Cylinders and Digital Coiling.
“I haven’t focused on a single shape like the cylinder like this before so that’s new. But researching possibilities with the 3D printing techniques in ceramics is something I’ve worked with for years.
Although focused on a single silhouette, Nilsson the process to be free and allows some serendipity in the process to dictate the result.
Gradient Cylinder
“I usually get a sort of flow and come up with new shapes,” she explains, “and then I end up with a series of objects. Then it’s a lot about fine tuning, using the right type of clay for each piece. I work with glaze in a similar way, I don’t decide about colours or anything like that until I see the piece in front of me.”
Emre Can also uses a 3D printer to create his ceramic work. With his pieces he hopes to capture the emotional impact that the natural world can make on its observers. The intricate shapes created by Can aim to mimic the organic and spontaneous shapes found in nature.
The combination of artificial machines used in his manufacturing and the natural forms that inspire him capture the tension between the natural and the human world.
P.O.N.2
P.O.N.1
“While nature is so organic, digital media is so artificial,” says Can. “My goal is to transform the artificial forms from a machine into an organic structure with different touches, to capture the opposition between artificial and organic, and to deform the ceramic structures produced by a machine to reveal new forms.”
Can was born in Bozüyük, Turkey, and has exhibited his work across the country and internationally. His collection Power of Nature is part of the Cluster Crafts online exhibition and can be purchased through our online shop. The sculptures are delicately layered forms, in predominantly blue colours.
P.O.N.5
P.O.N.3
Work by both Emre Can and Hilda Nilsson is available to purchase through the Cluster Crafts online store.
Thank you for reading,
Katie De Klee & Cluster Team.