Ceramicist Gurli Elbækgaard
Inspired by the rough and beautiful nature of Norway the Danish ceramicist Gurli Elbækgaard creates tableware for international michelin restaurants as well as unique sculptures that can be acquired from her small studio located by Copenhagen Harbour.
Gurli is part of the small designermaker collective Formverk that consists of jewellery designers and ceramicists. Her tableware and sculptures are on display at several of Copenhagen’s leading design shops. But Gurli is working on something much bigger at the moment.
A while ago Gurli was contacted by a norwegian chef come restaurateur. He had seen her tableware at a high end restaurant in London and wanted her to create pieces for his new restaurant in Norway. This includes plates, bowls, specially designed urchin “holders” as well as several sculptures and vases to decorate the place.
After recently having experienced that both newly opened Amass by Matt Orlando and Almanak by Claus Meyer having plates and coffee cups custommade by local ceramicists, I’m beginning to see a starting trend. And I think it’s great!
Not only do the chefs want to serve locally sourced ingredients – they also want the tableware to tell a story. This both creates some great and unusual experiences for the guests of the restaurants. It suddenly also gives the small craftmaker studios work possibilities that haven’t been available earlier as the large mass manufacturers always would succeed in offering the goods for less money and with more accurate delivery dates.
I hope to see much more of this.
Read more: Gurli Elbækgaard
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