A delight in colour. The vibrant tones of the “Hot Spots” vases add a touch of brightness to any interior. Designer Christine Rathmann explained to us at Ambiente how she arrived at this shape and these colours and why these one-off pieces created for Rosenthal are genuine decoration all-rounders.
Perfect shape
According to Christine Rathmann, she never had a real concept of how her vases would look in the end. “I had a sort of picture in mind. Nothing concrete, more a vague idea of colours that are changing.” This idea brought up questions, remembers the young Kiel-based designer, “particularly in terms of the shape. The most important question was: What shape allows colours to appear in different shades depending on the viewing angle and how the light falls on it. This is how I came upon the faceted surface.” She takes a vase in her hand, turns it and shows us how it appears sometimes in delicate lilac and then in deep orange. This demonstrates the second design question she had to answer: How best to combine different colours?
Learning by doing
“The key thing was to find colours that get along with each other or at least don’t clash totally,” explains Christine Rathmann. “That was really quite a challenge, as I subsequently discovered. Countless prototypes were created before I had the five colour combinations that are now in the collection. These are “Coastal Shades”, “Juicy Purple”, “Flashy Red”, “Lime Flush” and “Pacific Vibes”. It was a case of “learning by doing” when it came to applying the colour. The result is a technically sophisticated spraying technique that makes each porcelain vase a one-off object.
Multi-tasking decoration
“I want to encourage people to play. These vases are for handling and for constantly repositioning, perhaps in combination with other vases from the collection or with other decorative elements.” A bunch of gerbera daisies for joyful splashes of colour or individual dried branches as a contrast to the shimmering porcelain – the possibilities are unlimited. You can let these multi-tasking vases work on their own, or perhaps use them for storing other things, for instance in the bathroom, hall or dining room. Christine Rathmann emphasises this point: “I’d like the user to interact with the objects and to be able to make them a reflection of his or her personality.”
