Each Paper Vase is handmade by the women of the Pardeshi community in Mumbai's red light district. The workshop was founded by Pepe Heykoop and the Tiny Miracles Foundation, which was set up by his cousin. "The ultimate goal is to pull this 700-person community out of poverty by providing healthcare, education and jobs within eight years," says Heykoop.

The vase is made of coated paper and comes in white or graduated green colour blocks. It's transported in an envelope and can be rolled down to fit different sizes of bottle.

Heykoop is known for his philanthropic design work and previous projects with the Tiny Miracles Foundation include lamp shades made from a patchwork of lambskin and traditional water carriers covered in leather. See all our stories about design by Pepe Heykoop.

Other similar vases on Dezeen include one made from a thin curl of synthetic paper and another folded from a flat sheet of cardboard. See all our stories about vase designs and all our stories about paper designs.

Photos are by Annemarijne Bax

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Pepe Heykoop appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop has worked with people from one of Mumbai's poorest areas to transform traditional water carriers into leathery vases.

Based on techniques used in Heykoop's earlier Skin Collection, the project recycles Indian stainless steel water carriers called 'matkas' by covering them with high quality scrap leather.

The patchwork of leather forms random patterns which are different on every piece.

To produce them, Heykoop teamed up with Tiny Miracles Foundation, a charity that aims to raise one poor community living in Mumbai's red-light district to middle-class status within 10 years.

Locals are now employed by Heykoop to make the vases in a workshop in the neighbourhood.

Photographs are by Annemarijne Bax.

See more vases on Dezeen »

Here's some more information from Pepe Heykoop:

Using distinctive techniques from his Skin Collection, Matka Vases are designed by Pepe Heykoop and produced in his workshop located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Mumbai, India, providing meaningful jobs, income and hope for the neediest.

Matka Vase is designed using recycled Matka's (traditional Indian stainless steel water carriers) and scrap leather. Every single vase contains a unique and personal story both of its previous owner and the person who gave it new life and use. Matka Vase has just recently gone into production and proceeds from sales are partly used to send street children to school.

As a reaction to the huge amount of waste of high quality leather created by the furniture industry (25 up to 30%), Pepe has designed the Skin Collection in 2011. In 2012, the Matka vase was born. The scraps generate a unique and random pattern as every piece has a different shape, giving the Matka a new life by turning waste into a Vase.

In this way, Matka's represent a signature product of Pepe Heykoop: they tell a story of change and growth, a different one for each unique piece of hand-made furniture. Thus it makes sense that his favorite materials are recycled; they are ready to tell a story and grow into a new product.

About Pepe Heykoop:

Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop (28) recently set up a workshop together with Tiny Miracles Foundation right in the middle of the poverty stricken, red light district of Mumbai, India. In 2010, he started working with this community when he started manufacturing Leather Lampshades with jobless slum moms. These Lampshades became a global success.

Pepe graduated from the prestigious Design Academy in Eindhoven in 2008 and has been awarded with multiple awards for his designs. Pepe has exhibited his works at numerous design shows including Milan, Singapore, Tokyo, New York and London and has his home base in Amsterdam, where most new concepts and products are born, based on unique low-cost techniques.

About Tiny Miracles Foundation:

Tiny Miracles Foundation is run by Pepe's cousin Laurien Meuter and focuses on one community in Mumbai, India. This 1,000 people community lives on the pavement in the middle of the red light district. The goal is to lift this community from 'very poor' to 'middle class' within 10 years and turn it into the 'City of Miracles'. Essential to making the community self-supporting is income generation. This will be realized through production in Pepe's workshop. Part of the proceeds are donated to the foundation to fund child education.

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Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop has made a series of furniture by casting recycled tin around wooden offcuts.

Called Bits of Wood, the stools and table use offcuts from a saw mill and tin from the local recycling facilities.

The pieces are packed tightly then fused together with the molten tin, so that the ends of the scrap become part of the seat or table top.

Reuse is a key theme in Heykoop's work, with previous projects incorporating scrap leather and fabric skins for worn-out furniture.

See all our stories about his work here.

Photography is by Annemarijne Bax.

Here are some more details from Heykoop:

There is lots of beauty in materials. We, as a consuming species, are creating an enormous amount of waste in all types of production processes. ‘Bits of Wood’ is a reaction upon handling these leftovers. Pieces of wood this time, leftovers from the sawmill. All the different pieces are modified to fit in a mould where molten tin embraces them and holds them together. The tin comes from a metal recycling department where old tin pots and plates are collected. Collecting these materials can be done locally.

No glue or any screw is used in the process. It is all about the quality of shape and material.

From waste to wonder.

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Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop has created this collection of furniture by covering an assortment of old chairs in odd scraps of leather.

The leather offcuts are roughly stitched together, covering each chair entirely.

Photography by Annemarijne Bax.

More stories about Pepe Heykoop on Dezeen »

More furniture on Dezeen »

The following is from the designer:

Skin_collection

Furnitures covered up in leather leftovers. The 25-30 percent waste of leather in the furniture industry triggered me to make something beautiful. Covers out of waste.

This project is fed by leather scrap, turning it into random skin patterns, refering to cell structures and growth in nature.

The furnitures used are existing, modified and therefore sometimes slightly seem to grow.

Recycling old furnitures and leatherscrap into fairytale furnitures.

Designed and executed by: Studio Pepe Heykoop
Materials: mainly existing chairs, wood, metal, foam, glue, leather
Size: different sizes
Year: 2011

See also:

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Stitch by Pepe Heykoop	Soft Oak chair by Pepe Heykoop	Sputnik by Pepe Heykoop

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At Dutch Design Week designer Pepe Heykoop presents a collection of leather lampshades made by underprivileged women in Mumbai.

The shades are made of lambskin and can be collapsed for transportation.

Heykoop set up production of the lamps by working with the Tiny Miracles Foundation initiative, creating work for mothers living in the red light district of Mumbai and funding schooling for their daughters.

Dutch Design Week continues until 31 October.

See all our stories about Pepe Heykoop »

Photographs are by Annemarijne Bax.

The information below is from Heykoop:

Pepe Heykoop launches ‘Leather Lampshades’ in collaboration with the poor

Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop has launched the ‘Leather Lampshade’. The lampshade is fabricated of soft lambskin leather, whilst its shape refers to old industrial lamps. Pepe Heykoop has set up his own production line in collaboration with the Tiny Miracles Foundation in India with the ultimate objective to provide jobs to as many underprivileged people in the process as possible.

‘Leather Lampshades’: brighten up your life and the life of poor women

With its shape referring to old metal industrial lamps, Leather Lampshades are made for the domestic environment. The material has changed into a soft lambskin leather. A fine combination of a sometimes little rough inside with smooth contours on the outside. This leather appearance makes the lampshade lightweight and foldable so therefore easy to transport. The lampshades come in two shapes: ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’.

Leather Lampshades have been manufactured using only leather of skins that are a byproduct and tanned with as many natural materials as possible. The lampshades are handmade in a production that Pepe has setup himself in Mumbai, India.

Pepe puts high value to an ethical and right production process. In which he engages as many underprivileged people in the process as possible. Key for the assembly of the lampshades are 20 mothers living in pavement dwellings in the red light area of Mumbai. He met them through the Tiny Miracles Foundation, set up by his cousin Laurien Meuter. This foundation brightens up the life of street children. Next to creating work for their mothers, for every lampshade sold, the equivalent of 1 month of school fees is donated to send their daughters to private English school. So with the purchase of the Leather Lampshade you brighten up your life and theirs also. This is what we say to the mothers and their daughters: Go forth and set the world on fire!

Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop

Pepe Heykoop’s work is often about subtle fragility. Using alternative materials and sometimes technical structures to tell his stories.
He graduated at the prestigious Design Academy in Eindhoven in 2008 with amongst others ’A Restless Chairacter’: an archetype rubber bendable chair, looking like a simple old chair whilst having the ability at the joints (1st prize at the imm d3 contest Cologne 2009). Recently he presented ‘Brickseries’: design furniture made of children’s playing blocks (nominated during the imm cologne 2010). ’Brickseries’ will be part of Cappellini's new collection 2011.

He has been nominated during DMY Berlin 2010. In 2009, Pepe Heykoop has joined Dutch designers collective ‘Dutch Invertuals’, a collaboration of talented graduates of the Design Academy Eindhoven.

Tiny Miracles Foundation

The Tiny Miracles Foundation is an initiative of two Dutch girls Laurien Meuter and Florentine Slingeland. The foundation works mainly around the red light area in Mumbai. Needless to say, this area imposes high risks on young girls living on the street. Next to this, parents mostly see more value in these girls providing income by working than being educated. Tiny Miracles has identified young girls in this area who they support with private English education. At the same time, they provide their unemployed mothers with work, enabling them to substantially increase household income. Part of the profits of the products made by the mothers are donated to the foundation to be allocated towards education. The objective is to create a circle: to provide enough work to the mothers so that the school fees for all their daughters can be indirectly paid by their working mothers through the Tiny Miracles Foundation.

The foundation also provides for a host of other educative sessions including health awareness, HIV prevention, and vocational courses.

See also:

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Design With Conscience by Artecnica	Dolls made by Sri Lankan women	Toys made by tribe in Tanzania

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