Swallow
Swallow is a collection that places two materials with very different histories and meanings side by side – porcelain and plastic.
Porcelain is associated with tradition, craftsmanship, and a form of production that requires time and care. Plastic, on the other hand, represents speed, mass production, and a material that has become an integral part of everyday life. At the same time, its production and consumption are placing an increasing burden on the environment we live in.
The collection explores the tension between these two materials. Plastic enters the traditional porcelain object, and its structure becomes part of its surface. What originally exists as packaging, a disposable object, or a product of rapid consumption is transferred into a material historically associated with durability and craftsmanship.
The name Swallow refers to a process in which contemporary production gradually swallows traditional materials and methods of making. Plastic does not appear simply as another material alongside porcelain, but as an element that penetrates it and gradually covers it.
2016 / Photo: Sergey Lelyukh
Swallow / 2016
The first series was created in 2016. It worked with plastic in a very subtle form. The relief was delicate and almost blended into the surface of the porcelain. This restraint was an important part of the original collection. Plastic was not immediately dominant – it was present more as a trace, gradually entering the traditional material.
The collection thus raised the question of what happens when a material associated with mass production enters the world of slow craftsmanship.
Swallow / 2021
Five years later, we returned to the subject. The original question had not lost any of its relevance – quite the opposite. The amount of plastic and the speed of its production continued to increase.
Swallow² therefore intensifies the original principle. The relief becomes larger and more pronounced, and the trace of plastic is no longer merely a subtle intervention into the surface of the porcelain. The expanded collection also works with specific objects and materials from everyday consumption – plastic bags, fragments of PET bottles, packaging, and paper.
What was merely a hint in the first series becomes a dominant element.
Swallow² is therefore not a new collection, but a development of the original theme. It responds to a situation that, rather than receding, has continued to deepen.
2021 / Photo: Michal Ureš
Two materials, one conflict
Swallow does not simply set porcelain and plastic against each other. Their combination creates a tension between two different approaches to production and consumption.
On one side is a material with a long tradition, whose making is based on time, experience, and repetition. On the other is a material associated with speed, accessibility, and enormous volumes of production.
The collection captures the moment when these two worlds meet.
Plastic becomes the relief of porcelain. The traditional object carries the trace of a material that is simultaneously, symbolically, pushing it aside.
Swallow is therefore not merely a collection of vessels. It is an image of the clash between tradition and progressive contemporary culture, between slow production and rapid consumption – and between materials to which we attribute permanence and value, and those we regard as almost insignificant, despite gradually filling the world with them.
Collection today
Over time, Swallow has become one of our signature collections. What began as an experiment gradually developed into a whole range of vessels in different sizes and shapes – from small cups for espresso and coffee to larger vessels and vases.
What originally emerged as a reflection on the clash between traditional porcelain and contemporary plastic production has thus become part of our everyday range.
2025 / Photo: Michal Ureš
