THE VILLAGE

Last week we presented what we made in our ceramics workshop and I thought I'd briefly share it with you. The project was created around a village that we chose in the beginning of the semester, with my village choice being Þingeyri, a small fishing village in the west fjords of Iceland. 

In relations to ceramics we were looking into the food traditions of the villages we had chosen. Through my research I found that Þingeyri could be sustainable and be self sufficient food producers. The people who live there have access to fresh food all year long and are at the site where the process  of the food production begins, with the ability to harvest the food and prepare it locally. 

My ceramics project centered around Þingeyri's processes and traditions, making food preparation a kind of ritual. I chose to have seaweed as my central ingredient given that it's really healthy, grows all year long along the Icelandic shore. It's current main use as feed for animals but not so much for us people. 

The product that I've designed to help utilise the seaweed of the west fjords is a bowl for laying freshly picked seaweed in for drying out in the sun. Also a mortar to grind it a little further and then allow it to be used in teas, soups, snacks and as a substitute for salt. The bowl can also be used for cooking as it is oven proof and the thought behind the foot-mortar is that you can use your hands to knit or something else while processing the seaweed.