a HELLA JONGERIUS for 39.00 u.s.dollars  

I actually ran into them
yesterday...I am not impressed. Somehow the high hopes created by "Droog" seem to fall flat, deflate or fail to deliver. I don't know, but I can hardly get excited by it. There seems to be an overall lack of purpose...

from Icon magazine...
This August sees the launch of Jongerius's first venture into the global mass market - four vases for Ikea's PS range. "Initially I was afraid to take the job with Ikea," she admits, "but I decided to work in ceramics because it's a field I know. So I thought I'd design some vases, nothing special, but I'd like to see if it's possible to keep my handwriting, my style, my grammar, if they're mass-produced." Currently in production in China in an initial run of 100,000, the designs are still secret at this stage. But what Jongerius can reveal is that the vases are very large and that they are decorated by hand with perforated patterns, an idea derived from her earlier one-off embroidered ceramics. "It's a kind of craftsmanship in mass-production," she explains.
"In the end, craft is not about making one. The challenge was to design a vase that could be made in huge quantities, but to make it in a very crafty way. This is possible today because there are Chinese companies who are willing to do jobs that take many hours, but the costs are very low." She is proud of the fact that these pieces will cost less than $50 (£33), but says that cost considerations shouldn't always be the deciding factor in design. "The world gets so poor if we only listen to money."
n-magazine.co.uk/issues/026/jongerius.htm

The emperor has no clothes!!
Sorry Hella, but this has nothing to do with "....a kind of craftsmanship in mass-production" The poor people that have to do this put a template on the vase with holes and make as many holes in the vase as they can find on the template. It is tedious, degrading work that has been eliminated in the industrialized countries by reasonable wages and re-distribution of wealth.
The real challenge is not "...to design a vase that could be made in huge quantities, but in a very crafty way" the cahllenge is to design meaningfull products without exploiting other people's social and economical conditions. To state that "...This is possible today because there are Chinese companies who are willing to do jobs that take many hours, but the costs are very low." is simply hiding that there are people behind these "companies" that , given the same choices that Hella has in Holland, would not be willing to do that job.
Let me be clear. I have no objections at all about exploring the possibilities that Hella Jongerius is exploring. But I think it should be done within a real context, which is as far as Hella is concerned, Dutch gouverment support, high cost production at Cor Unum or any other Dutch or European manufacturer, and sold at high prices to musea and those who choose to support experimentation in design.

Yeah, Koen! - rock on with...
Yeah, Koen! - rock on with your bad self 🙂
I really enjoyed your reply to the Jongerius quote. I like when things heat up a bit.

.
I was impressed with the SCALE.The shape is classic,subtle/ bold.The vases do standout(in a good way) from the generally bland fare to be had in ikea stores.At first glance I said ,to a friend, look at the Jongerius knock offs.History shows us craftsmen/workers have never been properly paid.Speaking from a purely formal viewpoint are the vases that bad?Think about the basket work from many of the countries and the unreal low prices...

dearest Texan eggproducer....
If I disregard the production context I tend to agree with you. It is a nice large scale and looks a little bit like a Jongerius knock-off. The knock-off look comes from both the wall thickness and the sleek industrial production process. You as a keen observer of the international design scene must have seen Hella's red vases that were kept exactly the way they came out of the mould...and then slightly deformed...for the fun of handling a soft material. These Ikea vases do not have the refinement and false fragility that she reached with the red vases. Even the stitches do not look as good as the previous ones shown a.o. in London. They still invite the user to complete the vase with some coloured thread, very much like the originals did. As I mentioned, I have no objection at all for that kind of design exploration. I can not get excited about it but that means nothing in the bigger context. My reference to the emperor's clothing was about the way the product is "packaged" into a pseudo-double bottomed story that refers to all kind of other things than what is really happening. I know, everything is the result of how we see it and as such there is no "truth", but in a case like this we should try harder....we should have or take some responsibility