In our industrial age, the handmade and the human imprint are important characteristics in the search for authenticity (Mazanti 60). Machinery continues to draw man by man out of the ranks of freedom, reducing him to a broken-spirited automaton (Adamson 130).

“The materials, tools and techniques will not grant one freedom at once...the freedom exists in the human being: one should seek freedom...in the work that emerges spontaneously when one entrusts oneself to the materials and the tools” (Yanagi 175). Inefficiency can lead to unexpected, surprising and creative results, especially in craft processes where the manual process and individual skills of the creator play an important role.

Momentum explores the relationship between efficiency and creative freedom in the context of the art of craftsmanship. It aims to capture a moment in time and acknowledge the expertise and embodied knowledge that craftsmen possess in their relationship with specific materials.

Momentum is a collection of glass blown objects that have become knowledge artefacts of my embodied knowledge within the craft of glassblowing’s symbiotic interplay of ceramics and glass.

How can I make my design a connection between mass-production and craftsmanship? Visual vibration is about intervening in the process of the production technique of slipcasting ceramics and using an external source to shape the end result. I experimented with the external source; vibration, to shape the outcome of the vessels that I casted in ceramics.

Clay has a certain density, the casted form oscillates if you place it above a vibrating source. I researched towards the ‘perfect’ frequency and vibration for my casted clay vessels. To stimulate the vibrations of the clay body even more I made my own clay recipe. Visual Vibration shows a bridge between craftsmanship and mass production were every piece is unique.