HAY’s Paper Porcelain: How it’s Made

Danish brand HAY has been doing things a bit differently since husband-and-wife team Rolf and Mette Hay started creating their own furniture and home accessories in 2002. Taking Scandinavia’s (and particularly Denmark’s) long-established and celebrated approach to design – functional, timeless and still full of style and durability – the two Hay’s set out with the aim to create beautiful products that were accessible and had a use beyond looking good in somebody’s home.

As well as working with the in-house design team, HAY works with designers, craftsmen and experts in their field around the world to create unique and now-iconic products. Take the Paper Porcelain cups, for example, as designed by Dutch design duo Scholten & Baijings. Made from ceramic porcelain that resembles the appearance of coarse, recycled paper and almost cardboard-like construction, the cup is distinctive yet still manages to retain that Scandi simplicity.

Making the Paper Porcelain is no ordinary process. The products are made in Arita, Japan, where a certain type of stone is selected to make the clay, they’re moulded, and then the lines that appear around the side are made by hand before being baked in the oven, and polished by stones to remove any of the rough texture.

Watch the video above for the full process, and shop the full HAY collection on Coggles here.