Dutch designer Esther Derkx (Roermond, 1968) breathes a new lease of life into
used crockery and glassware under the name Vernieuwd!, which roughly
translates as “Improved!". The designer gives second-hand cups, saucers,
teapots and soup bowls a new exterior using ceramic silk-screen printing
techniques. The bodies of dancers, athletes, body-builders and sportspeople
now populate the porcelain. Flowers in blue and red mix with the old patterns
on the crockery, producing a fresh, unexpected image. This mixing of old and
new produces a tension that gives her recycled designs an attractive character.
Experiments with silk-screen printing, combinations of materials, raw
materials and a touch of nostalgia form the basis for new ideas by Esther
Derkx. Esther uses these ideas not just on crockery and glassware but also on
bathroom fixtures, bags and curtains. The curtains, which look a bit like net
curtains, she makes from discarded façade netting. The netting is printed
using a special silk-screen printing technique that produces a silicone-rubber
pattern on the cloth, resulting in open and closed areas in the cloth. The
effect of the light brings the original print and the new printing to greater
or lesser extents to the fore.
Esther Derkx’s project, called New & Old and Old & New, has given a new look
to 1,000 pieces of crockery at DSM’s head-office restaurant. Esther has given
the famous Mosa cup by designer Piet Stockman a completely new character, with
cheerful clusters of red and blue flowers that seem to grow over the rim.
“Improved” by Esther Derkx. Plates, soup bowls and dishes have also been given
complementary flower motifs. The designer’s aim is to break familiar patterns
and get everybody who has a cup of coffee or a cheese roll at the restaurant
from 18 January to see the familiar crockery with fresh eyes.
Esther Derkx trained as a graphics designer and gold/silversmith in Amsterdam
and worked at Mobach pottery and Zeefdrukkerij Prent. Since 1999 she has been
working as a self-employed product designer in Utrecht. She has had her work
exhibited at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, at the Vivid gallery in
Rotterdam, at the Frozen Fountain gallery in Amsterdam and at Intermezzo in
Dordrecht, among other places.
