BALLOON BOWLS BRING AIRY SERENDIPITY TO THE TABLE

Maarten de Ceulaer finds beauty in a balloon. The Belgian artist, part of the recently opened Brussels design collective Studio With A View, happened on a unique method for creating gorgeous, richly layered bowls. As he explains in an engaging video from Victor Hunt Designart Dealer (where de Ceulaer’s designs are sold), he wanted to work with plaster, “Usually considered an inferior material.” Finding a balloon in his studio, he poured an extra-strong synthetic plaster inside and was delighted by the perfectly smooth finish. Another inspiration came when he found some “used previously” food coloring, which he now uses to create each bowl’s stunning gradients of color. His final process: de Ceulaer pours colored plaster inside a balloon, inserts a second, blown-up balloon, then lets gravity and spontaneous color mixing do the rest. When hardened, Balloon Bowls are porous and fragile, so de Ceulaer breaks off the thinnest edges, then finishes the bowls with a coating to make them not just beautiful, but functional. Learn more about de Ceulaer at his personal site or at Studio With A View, or visit Victor Hunt Designart Dealer to purchase a Balloon Bowl of your own.