Porcelain containers based on insect eggs by Dutch designer Anke Weiss are on show as part of Eat Drink Design at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven this week. 

Called The Incubator Series, the pieces were developed from microscopic photographs of eggs.

Eat Drink Design is a temporary restaurant furnished with designers' work. See our story about last year's Eat Drink Design here.

Dutch Design Week continues until 31 October.

See all our stories about Anke Weiss »

The information below is from Weiss:

Eat Drink Design is presenting the series 'Incubators' by Anke Weiss at the Dutch Design Week Eindhoven.

The Incubator Series are a collection of porcelain vessels based on the aesthetics of insect eggs.

Strangely familiar yet very alien these shapes evoke a feeling of unsettling attraction.

In this work science meets imagination. While originally based on microscopic photography, the objects remain products of the mind.

Combining its scientific meaning of developing a life form for a particular purpose or quality, the term 'incubation' refers to the development of an idea or a dream as well.

The objects show an offensive expansion resembling prehistoric depictions of fertility gods and the very general impression of potent breeding power.

The elementary and primitive shapes of the Incubator Series create a tension that touches rudimentary emotions while describing the essential process of creation.

See also:

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Table with a View by Anke Weiss	Bonsai Tree Table by Anke Weiss	Packaging Lights by Anke Weiss

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Dutch Design Week: design studio Moon/En/Co curated a pop-up restaurant furnished with objects by designers including Maarten Baptist and Joost van Bleiswijk in Eindhoven last week.

Called Eat Drink Design, the restaurant served food on plates by Kiki van Eijk, and work by Anke Weiss and Amsterdam artists Idiots was also on display.

A lighting installation called Flylight by Amsterdam office Drift comprised 160 illuminated glass tubes that reacted to the surroundings and visitors' movements.

Photographs are by Ruud Balk Fotografie.

See all our stories about Dutch Design Week in our special category.

Here's some more information from the organisers:

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MOON/EN/CO - EAT DRINK DESIGN

EAT DRINK DESIGN is an exclusive pop-up restaurant with exhibition, an innovative platform for the creative industries.

As a satellite of international cultural events, we create a temporary restaurant, furnish it with the work of designers and artists, curate an exhibition and invent a project between the creative industries and other economical sectors. Each time different.

We combine haute cuisine, contemporary design and (applied) arts to a total experience. In a high-end/informal/guerrilla setting we let both public and press enjoy, while sitting on, between, and eating of all the beautiful pieces. EAT DRINK DESIGN is more than just catering, more than just a static exhibition, but a cultural meeting place with added value. According to many (prominent) guests: an exceptional experience, hard to capture in words or images.

At Dutch Design Week 2009, in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, we are very proud to present new work by Maarten Bapist (Single Sofa, Simple table and Jane glasses), Maaike Bertens (the purification of water), Joost van Bleiswijk (No screw, No glue BBQ), Jennifer Bruinendaal (Horeo Light), Lonneke Gordijn & Ralph Nauta (Fly Light), Thomas Eurlings (My Keys), and Wieland Vogel (Light: Jane).

Especially the Fly Light, an interactive light installation, gets a lot of attention.

Starting point is animal group behaviour.

If you come to close, they withdraw. If they feel threatened, they attack.

The design exhibited is to be used as much as possible.

Our guests are seated at Gispen Chairs by Anke Bernotat, the rabbit with duck liver and salsify we serve in rice bowls by Alexa Lixfield and the taling (a little wild duck) is served in decorated plates by Kiki van Eijk.

We scouted some freshly graduated talent: Eva Gevaert, Antoinette van Leguit and Caroline van Pagee and show some recent work by the Idiots, Grondvormen, Kranen/Gille, Alexa Lixfield, Sander Lucas, Jonas Samson and Anke Weiss.

EDD is an initiative and production by designers Moon/en/co (Annemoon Geurts and Koen Rijnbeek) and culinary phenomenon Sot-l'y-laisse (Edwin Severijn). Due to our personal passion and social involvement we want to contribute to the broadening of the creative culture.

By presenting the creative industries, initiating impulses, offering an exceptional experience and valuable stories we want to inspire and stimulate, let people enjoy.

MOON/EN/CO is a design studio. Annemoon Geurts and Koen Rijnbeek create the appearance to a number of different businesses, products, services and events; either to total corporate identities or to parts thereof. For instance: house styles, websites, interiors and practical use of art on float glass.

SOT-L’Y-LAISSE: ‘it’s a fool who leaves it’. Drifting through Holland as well as abroad, Edwin Severijn is specialized in gourmet dinners, cooking classes and cooks at business incentives and retreats.

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A table covered with charcoal by Dutch designer Anke Weiss is on show at Eat Drink Design as part of Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Weiss covered the MDF table top with fixative-treated charcoal sticks by hand.

An area of the table's surface is leveled while the rest is raised and bumpy. "That is the place for a person to sit down and enjoy the view on this hypnotic structure," says Weiss.

Weiss claims that the technique is derived from a traditional Dutch technique called oyster veneer, where twigs are sliced into rings and assembled into decorative patterns.

Here's some text from Weiss:
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Title: ‘Table With A View’
Of the ‘Refined’-Series
Year: 2008
Material: Charcoal on MDF, wood
Technique: Oyster Veneer Technique
Dimensions: 60 x 120 x h70 cm

‘Table With A View’ is the first piece of the new ‘Refined’–series by Anke Weiss. The goal of the series is to produce valuable objects by refinement. Through the process of refinement value is added to previously non-precious materials. This can be achieved through the use of another, more precious material or through the manner material is applied or treated.

‘Table With A View’ consists of a MDF plate covered with charcoal that is treated with a fixative. In this work it is obvious that the charcoal as a material only does not refine the MDF by itself; it is the way the thousands of pieces are put together that produces the effect of refinement.

The formal aesthetic of an organic, molecular/cell-based structure is used to create a pattern that is recognizable from Weiss’ earlier work. The work is done by hand, in a meticulous effort, taking its time to evolve over time.

The virtuous and wavelike surface gained by the process is three-dimensional. On one side the table surface is flattened. That is the place for a person to sit down and enjoy the view on this hypnotic structure.

The pattern is achieved by using a technique based on the traditional oyster veneer technique. Oyster veneer is produced by transversed slicing / sawing of wooden twigs or stems. The slices of this sawn veneer show the year rings of the wood. By placing these thin stems in an orderly way, intriguing patterns can be formed.

This technique has a Dutch origin and has been applied often in the mid 17th century on cabinets and drawers. The used woods for this purpose are normally olive or nut.
The end result of this process is an intricately patterned and interesting veneer that is extremely beautiful to look at, even before polishing.

Working with oysters today is rare.

'Table With A View’ is shown at

EAT DRINK DESIGN @ DUTCH DESIGN WEEK
EDD INSIDE @ Catharinaplein 27
Eindhoven 18 - 26 October 2008

EAT DRINK DESIGN CONCEPT
Moon/en/co (Annemoon Geurts en Koen Rijnbeek)
and Sot-l'y-laisse (Edwin Severijn).

More Dezeen stories about Anke Weiss:

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Bonsai tree table

Packaging lights

Extra ID jewellery

Love in the city

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Extra ID jewellery by Dutch designer Anke Weiss imitates the security tags attached to items of clothing in shops to prevent them from being stolen.

The pieces are made from sterling silver and include security alarm parts.

The project is a comment on the ubiquitous presence of surveillance and security systems in the urban environmment: "If you are being watched anyways, you might as well get the full attention!" says Weiss.

Weiss also designed the Bonsai Tree table, Love in the City concept and Packaging Lights featured in our previous stories.

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Here's another project from Dutch designer Anke Weiss, this time a table made from 150 bonsai trees.

The trees take seven years to grow. Weiss then joins them using traditional carpentry techniques and coats the structure with epoxy resin.

The flat top of the table exposes the structure of the wood itself, achieved through years of compressed growth.

Weiss also created the Packaging Lights we featured a few months ago, and the Love in the City project we posted on Valentines day.

Here's an explanation from Weiss:

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Bonsai - Structure #2 or Bonsai Tree table

material: 150 bonsai trees, epoxy
technique: carpentry (wood-on-wood connections)
measurements: h 50 cm, d 80 cm

This work is the result of a research project about scale. The “network” structure can be found in every scale: by looking in as far as possible (cells, molecules, etc.), or by looking on the natural human scale (veins, lungs, trees, riverbeds, maps etc.), or by looking as far out as possible (solar system, galaxies). Even representations of the virtual world (the internet) resemble this structure.

"Bonsai Structure #2” is a constructed-grown structure resembling my idea of a general aesthetic that should evoke a feeling of recognition and beauty, because it is the product of a ‘new nature’ or cultivated nature.

Another aspect of this work is that it is pure crafts. All 150 trees are hand-cut and assembled by wood-on-wood connections. The epoxy layer covering the wood is also applied by hand with a brush. Not to mention the seven years of bonsai shaping every single tree had to go through.

The surface coating gives the table a very industrial look. On the top, where the material is cut off straight, the underlying wood with its very virtuous and expressive structure (achieved through the years of compressed growth) is visible.

As a material choice the bonsai tree serves as a symbol for scale and heightens the quality of the work with it’s special characteristics. Every single tree is by itself already a design object.

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