bioceramic: food waste, 2021

This material was not found. It was built, slowly and deliberately, by hand.

What began in 2021 as an experiment with discarded food became the foundation of Atelier Barb. It was our beginning. A material search that taught us how to listen, how to shape, and how to stay with something until it reveals its form.

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We weren’t trying to make ceramic. In fact, what we made has nothing to do with ceramic. But we needed a name, and bioceramic was the closest to describe what we were forming: a new material between stone, shell, and pressed pulp.

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The intention was simple but ambitious: to find the material of the future. And we did. Every part of this process was developed at Atelier Barb. The material is made entirely from food waste and a plant-based binder we invented through two years of in-house research. It is biodegradable, heat-safe, water-resistant, and durable — a composite that can be pressed, shaped, and finished without industrial tooling. There are no petrochemicals, no filler, no coating. Just waste, time, and formulation.

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The forms are molded and cast one by one in our atelier. Each piece carries the memory of its origin — eggshell, artichoke bracts, coffee grounds. It does not pretend to be eternal. It was designed to return. And yet, with care, these objects are remarkably strong. They have lived in homes, restaurants, and studios around the world. They have been used, washed, and loved. Many will last for generations.

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To date, this material has given new form to nearly 10,000 eggshells and kilos of food scraps. This is what success looks like to us: beauty grounded in responsibility, and design built from what would have been thrown away.

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This project shaped us as much as we shaped it. It deepened our relationship to food, time, and process. It asked us to listen, not to the language of design, but to the voice of material. 

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Composed to Decompose is not a product line. It is an ongoing search. A refusal to separate aesthetics from responsibility. And a quiet reminder that the future may be built from the scraps of our present, if we learn to pay attention

 

Objects in the Collection:

 

Eggshell Egg Cup

Artichoke Candle Holder

Wall Tile Series