the story doesn’t end here...

‘tropics’ by luis ramirez, shortlisted entry of designboom and MACEF design competition
image © designboom / luis ramirez




luis ramirez in milan at the MACEF exhibition of shortlisted entries, january, 2007
the first time the designboom team had the pleasure of meeting him.
http://www.designboom.com/ceramics_exhibition.html
image © designboom / luis ramirez




at the MACEF award ceremony luis ramirez is demonstrating his fist prototype of tropics
image © designboom / luis ramirez


during his visit to milan, designboom encouraged luis to begin a small production of his ‘tropics’ and
invited him to participate at our annual mart exhibition in new york.



luis in his hometown havana, here he is explaining to the local artisans his ceramic project
image © designboom / luis ramirez




wheel forming
image © designboom / luis ramirez


gypsum molds for the various pieces of tropics
image © designboom / luis ramirez




complete chalk model
image © designboom / luis ramirez




liquid clay is poured into a mold. the water in the slip is drawn out of the slip, leaving an inside layer
of solid clay. when this is thick enough, the excess slip can be removed from the mold.
image © designboom / luis ramirez




opening the molds
image © designboom / luis ramirez




material is removed from the ceramic mold, the drying process begins
image © designboom / luis ramirez




bisque firing hardens the ware making it easier to handle without breaking during the glazing
process. clay fired at this temperature still retains its porosity however.
image © designboom / luis ramirez




fired ceramics. the batch nears its completion, all set for the designboom mart in new york.
image © designboom / luis ramirez




luis striving for a perfectly flat base
image © designboom / luis ramirez




coloring process step 1, a dipping technique is applied to the bisque pots
image © designboom / luis ramirez




coloring process step 2, luis airbrushes the pitchers
image © designboom / luis ramirez




pots are then placed on the glaze racks. the glazed pots accumulate until there are enough to
fill a kiln.when packing a glaze you must ensure that the pieces are not touching each
other as they will stick together when they flux.
image © designboom / luis ramirez






since the work has already been fired, there is no chance of it blowing up in the kiln.
the glaze firing is simply intended to bring the glaze to a temperature when it will melt,
forming a permanent coating.
image © designboom / luis ramirez




tropics are ready!
image © designboom / luis ramirez




ceramics for breakfast in cuba
image © designboom / luis ramirez




tropics and the city of la habana
image © designboom / luis ramirez


unfortunately luis and his batch of tropics never made it to the designboom mart in new york.
despite everybody’s best efforts luis was unable to obtain a visa to enter the USA.
current politics restrict the embargo of cuban goods.
however, not all is lost. you will have the opportunity to see the tropics as part of our upcoming
ceramics exhibition ‘handled with care’, during the london design festival, september 2007.

see details of the exhibition
here




---
who is luiz ramirez?
born in havana, cuba in 1968.
studied industrial design, graduated in 1991.
he is vice-president of the foundation caguayo
for applied arts and designs. ramirez works as
industrial and interior designer, mostly in the
furniture and hotel sector, in cuba and overseas.
recently he founded (with miguel garcés) the
design practise and gallery dekuba, which exhibits
and commercializes design products from cuba.