Designer Andrea Mancuso and architect Emilia Serra have collaborated with ceramicist Alessio Sarri to create vases in a curious way. To create the Booming Vases, white refractory ceramic clay is hand-formed into hollow geometric shapes and colored slips are applied to the outside of the resulting blocks. Gunpowder is placed inside and detonated while the fresh clay is still wet and therefore malleable, opening the top when it explodes. This transforms the column into a vase and reveals the white clay beneath the colored slip. The pieces are then dried and fired following a more conventional ceramic process. A new exploration of one of the most traditional hand-making processes makes the vases so unexpected.
