Nina Meldgaard Studio
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Nina Meldgaard Studio

“When aesthetic items have a function they’re so much easier to relate to. If we can use them in our every day life, they achieve a special relevance that I think is interesting to work with. You could call it function based aesthetic.” says Nina Meldgaard, the self taught ceramist based in Copenhagen.

Her multifaceted tales bowls and vases are envyingly sculptural, geometric and handmade. After an internship at an architecture firm that brought her to the city, six years later and she is still in Copenhagen embracing the creative energy the city has to offer. Her move from a well-paid job to launching her studio evolved over several years, but in 2012, she quit her job and opened her business. Nina describes her works as “the result of her priority to choose the tradition and slow production” making her items unique.

WATCH “Made By Hand”:

Made by Hand – Nina Meldgaard Studio from Jakob Christensen on Vimeo.

One of the benefits of being a self taught artist is not being bound by convention, theory or a ‘this is how you do it’ type pressure. Trial and error has benefited her learning and approach to working with clay and molds.  “Because I’m self-taught my creations never follow a straight design line but instead they often meet great challenges before reaching the world as finished products. I work from a kind of intuitive approach where the idea precedes the technical details, which make my design process very impulsive. I don’t plan and sketch everything before I start the actual designing, I just dive right into it. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it ends in the bin.”

Nina Meldgaard Studio

INTERVIEW: Nina Meldgaard, Ceramist {Copenhagen}

01 How would you describe the aesthetic of your brand?
All my products are handmade. Every detail is nurtured and that puts some kind of time-dimension into the aesthetic. Besides from that, I love experimenting with the material and bend it into new forms and expressions than you might expect from porcelain. I think that the aesthetic of my brand can be described as geometric and feminine, and my designs somehow alternate between the nostalgic and the unsentimental at the same time.

02 Whose work do you admire?
There are so many talented ceramic artists, but I don’t have any specific role models. I’m probably more inspired by a very popular Danish architect / designer, Arne Jacobsen, who designed everything from buildings to furniture and interior design back in the 60s. His designs are so distinct and personal and I’ve always admired his ability to create timeless design without being trivial or indifferent.

Nina Meldgaard Studio

03 How often do you produce new designs?
It varies. It takes a lot of energy to be an entrepreneur and the challenges associated with developing a new design takes time. Besides, I need to keep up with the production of my existing designs. However, sometimes new ideas have to be realized and I like the energy and creativity around launching new items. At the moment, I launch about four to five new items a year and have a lot of almost finished (work-in-progress) designs in my studio.

04 From where do you draw inspiration? 
I draw inspiration from all sorts of textures, shapes and patterns that I, more or less, randomly come across in my everyday life. I work from an intuitive approach, and I don’t always know where the inspiration comes from.

05 Do you entertain at home? 
It’s very common to host dinner parties in Denmark, and I have these ‘dinner or cooking clubs’ with different friends two times a week. It’s a very nice way to keep updated on your friends lives. I serve all sorts of food. I love Thai and Vietnamese food. And after dinner we drink a lot of tea…or red wine depending on the circumstances.

Nina Meldgaard Studio
Photo Source: Nina Meldgaard

06 Are there any Danish entertaining traditions that you can share with us that are unique to Copenhagen?
I’m not sure that we have any entertaining traditions in Copenhagen or Denmark, but dinners and lunches are very important to us. Eating together is a way we socialize and we have a lot of traditions including food during the holidays, for example Christmas parties and Easter lunches. On an ordinary day, expect that there has been a great effort put into the cooking of a meal, if you’re invited to some Copenhagener’s home. Besides from that, our term ‘hygge’, which means that something is cozy, is very important to us.

07 Where do you sell your work?
Very soon, I will launch a webshop and showroom in Copenhagen. Outside from that, I sell my work through design stores in Denmark. I don’t ship internationally – yet. However, my work is sold through this webshop, and it ships internationally.

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