‘Mommy I made an ashtray’ Stool

Designer: Rutger de Regt

Bio of the designer:

Rutger de Regt

My practice is driven by an ongoing resistance to prefabricated conventions and an innate desire to build my own paths forward, shaping the unknown with my own hands.

I am fascinated by the restrictions human beings impose upon themselves, and how these shape our social structures, identities, and interactions. In a digital era where automated production chains increasingly detach us from our physical environment, my ambition as an artist is to reclaim the sensory, tactile relationship between the human body and material form.

Through an intuitive, process-led balloon sculpting method, I explore the physical interaction between body and material. The resulting forms capture traces of this exchange, embracing tension, unpredictability, and the unexpected.

This approach has naturally evolved into my ceramic works, where familiar forms are pushed beyond their expected boundaries. By questioning the conventions of ceramics, I explore the space between form, colour, and function, creating objects that challenge their own definitions.

Through this interplay, an ever-growing family of misfits, one-off characters, and objects of architectural scale emerges. Rooted in human interaction, the works carry a subtle sense of humour and social commentary, embedded in their forms and titles rather than explicitly stated.

title: ‘Mommy I made an ashtray’

short description:

‘Mommy I made an ashtray’ is a collection of brightly coloured ceramic objects. The

idea behind the collection is highly personal. Rutger de Regt goes back to his earliest

memories of working with clay and creating objects based on intuition, naivety and

playfulness. To translate the childlike imagery into large scale ceramic objects, he

developed a new clay building technique, based on his inventive balloon sculpting

process.

Mommy I made an ashtray’ refers to the way our intuition in engaging with materials is

imposed by our educational system. The current system forces us to give function and

meaning to the outcome of experience. By focussing on the result, there is little room

for intuitive connection and personal interpretation. By turning large scale ceramic

objects into ashtray’s, ‘ I challenge and question these conventions, as conventions

should serve instead of restricting us’, we need the freedom to find our

own truth with an open mind and an open heart.’

materials used:

Glazed stoneware

measurements: 

Chair 60x60xH75cm seating height 40cm 

Stool Ø35xH48cm

Ashtray Ø25xH60cm

selling price:

Chair € 7.500,-

Stool € 1.800,-

Ashtray € 1.100,-