The Pursuit of Imperfection – Glitch Ceramics by Industrial Designer Tim Defleur

Craftsmen tend to be a little scared of new technologies, shunning these in favour of the traditional techniques that they’ve always used or have been taught. As a younger designer my interest isn’t purely in the traditional, I’m also intrigued how they can work in collaboration with modern technology to create better things for humans to use in the future. Obviously there are many considerations, including the warmth that radiates from these objects which tends to come from the human hands that have been used to make them. This series by Tim Defleur is of interest thanks to his concept of using 3D Printing to produce a machine-made shape that mimics the imperfection of craft.

Even when I see mass-produced ceramics in everyday life they are often very cold and sturdy but have little to no character, which is a great shame. There’s a different kind of energy that exudes from the pottery. On the flip side, mass production can mean affordability, that in turn brings these objects to a wider audience and can bring more joy to those people. In my opinion craft doesn’t always have to come at a cost, there has to be a middle ground.

With this ‘balance’ in mind designer Tim Defleur sketched these objects whilst on a train from France to Brussels, where the drawings happened to be altered by the movement of the carriage. He chose to embrace these flaws and experiment with 3D Printing in porcelain, the result is a series of objects that plays with asymmetry. I hope you like them and will view more on his website linked below, this has some real potential. At the moment these pieces are available to purchase on othr.com.

timdefleur.com

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