Wild Bone China by Christien Meindertsma

Christien Meindertsma
Wild Bone China, 2011

The Wild Bone China project is the second commission made by Meindertsma in response to a brief from Droog Design to reflect on the landscape of northern Canada. Traditional bone china commonly uses animal bone from the meat industry. Meindertsma took inspiration from the bones of wild animals she had found in the landscape and instead used bone found in a nature reserve in the Netherlands to make this porcelain collection.

The resourcefulness of the local communities in north Canada, how they waste nothing and find ingenious ways to use the raw materials around them, was at the forefront of Meindertsma’s mind. The bones of animals that have been hunted or died naturally are the last remains after everything else has been expertly used.  Meindertsma’s experiment in using the leftovers from nature saw her turn the bones of a wild boar, deer and badger into bone ash (making up 60% of the compound) and subsequent collection of porcelain vessels and objects.

Wild Bone China is in the collection of the Centraal Museum Utrecht as a part of their Droog Design collection.