Personal Porcelain Plates (My Private Sky): The Ultimate in Custom Gifting

Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram have designed a limited-edition set of parametric hand made and hand painted dinner plates for Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg titled MY PRIVATE SKY. The project represents the ultimate in personalization: each set shows the night sky at the date and place of birth of the buyer.

When a buyer orders his set of plates he gives his date and place of birth. The buyer's personal night sky map is then calculated by a custom computer program and printed onto a set of blueprints followed by Nymphenburg's master porcelain painters. Each set of dinner plates involves the hand-painting of some 500 stars, nebulae, planets and constellations in gold and platinum.

A thorough analysis of the traditional methods at Nymphenburg, the Bavarian Kings' former porcelain manufacturer, turned the designers' attention towards utilizing and manipulating centuries old processes in a contemporary context. By designing a program rather than a single drawing, the designers combine the excellence of the master porcelain painters at Nymphenburg with the potential of custom-developed computer code.

Nymphenburg will issue an edition of 100+10 unique copies of MY PRIVATE SKY.

More images below:



You can view/download the press release here

It's White. It's Wood. It's Wonderful.

It's also long been known loosely as 'faux bois'. Belleek (the irish porcelain maker) had a series of glazed white tree trunk vases long before Roost was ever in business. But that doesn't stop these simulated trees, branches, bark and wood grain items from being in every hip tabletop and accessory store out there.


above: The Ted Muehling designed Bark vase for Nymphenburg Porcelain

The blending of inorganic materials into organic shapes is one of my favorite art forms.

Roost is company that has a log and driftwood collection (they have birds and leaves and mushrooms too) made of white porcelain.

And Nymphenburg Porcelain of Germany has Ted Muehling designed branch vases and candlesticks in white. Both are stunning and are available in different prices and sizes from the stores below.

As well as some other lesser known, but equally as beautiful, products.

From Jayson Home and Garden:



Click here to order

From Rose and Radish:

Nymphenburg's porcelain vase by Ted Meuhling available here.

Or Ted Muehling's Branch Vase with Moss, available at Moss, online for $845.00 USD:




And Roost makes a series of log vases and accessories:

Available by clicking here

And the Curiosity Shoppe seems to have the same log vase in size medium (Jayson carries the large and small):

Only 40.00 here.

And lovely white branch candlesticks by Ted Meuhling available at ER Butler:

Buy them here.

Porcelain driftwood votive from Sprout Home:

Only $15.75 here.

And Greener Grass Design also carries the driftwood vase and votive, but a bowl too!:

buy them here.

The Burls collection of subtle wood grain relief platters and dishes in Oyster are beautiful too!:



Buy them here.

Also commonly referred to as Faux Bois, this tableware is from Room Service:

buy it here.

And this faux bois bowl is on sale right now at Gumps for $34:

...and these faux bois votives are on sale for 19$ for the set of three:

buy them here.

And Ty Travis of Stonewater Studios on etsy has some faux bois products as well:


And lastly, more subtle, but still beautiful are Coe and Waito's Bark vases:

Buy them here.