We don't need more stuff - not even more handmade ceramic items.

Reflections by Anke Buchmann

Photo by Anastasia Potapova

It was never really about the object. But let me start from the beginning.

It is no news, we tend to have too much stuff, and we seem to struggle with putting an end to it. From fast fashion and rapid tech upgrade cycles to endless discount chains, impulse buys, “2‑for‑1” promotions, growing food waste, booming storage‑unit demand, and digital overload, nearly every corner of our lives reflects how deeply we’ve normalised consuming far more than we need.

The ceramic movement started with the intention to take a different turn, to consume less and create more. It was informed by our need for connection to natural matter and one self, while slowing down and observing more, as a detox from the digital fast paced rush. What started with good intentions seems to slowly get out of hand. When I look around I see new Instagram and TikTok reels every minute, sharing the latest tricks on how to trimm a bowl on the wheel faster and more precise, tips on how to create your own table ware supposedly mindful or how to imitate the natural textures in clay. Alone in Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg there have been 10 new ceramic studios popping up in the last year. Multiple studios offering hand-building and wheel throwing classes and promise instand success and a fast lane to create your own ceramic dinner set. Forgotten seem the notion of slow craft and the initial understanding that learning a new skill takes time and practice.

Now exactly that new makers trend contributes to the massive growth of landfill sites. All these studios have shelves of unused bowls, boxes of half‑forgotten objects, cupboards of pieces people once made with excitement and then never picked up.

Gabriel Yoran calls it out by saying: „Wir sind umzingelt von Schrott.“ When he describes the „Verkrempelung der Welt“, the slow, quiet cluttering of our lives with objects that had meaning for a moment and then simply became… more things - he didn’t yet talk about the endless handmade ceramics created in multiple studios across the city. But the truth is, a lot of handmade ceramic objects, that were created in a rush with high expectations and a lack of awareness and attention for detail are contributing to this pollution.

And we seem to forget, that once clay is fired, it not only used up to 60–120 kWh of energy per firing to reach the temperatures in the kiln, more importantly it looses its biodegradability. Once clay is fired into ceramic, it becomes chemically stable. It can take thousands to tens of thousands of years to break down naturally. Remember, archaeological ceramic fragments from 20,000+ years ago are still intact today.

We don’t need more stuff. Not more products, not more decorative items, not more physical output masquerading as creativity. What we need is intention. Purpose. Responsibility. Continuity. I have to agree with the Design Museum in London that made this way of thinking their credo.

It is time to slow down again, to pause and look around. Creating with clay should never just be about the physical outcome. It shouldn’t be about producing endless bowls or copying ceramic designs that are already out there. I suggest, let’s take a moment and recognise the potential of clay - it’s potential to ground us, to reconnect us with nature and ourselves, to teach us about slowness and patience, about presence and care.

Photo by Anastasia Potapova

Working with clay since the age of 6 taught me so much and keeps educating me up to this day. Clay is my teacher and I owe this body-like material a lot. Let clay inspire us again, teach us to accept the unexpected, challenge us to listen and to let go.

Instead of over‑production, of momentary enthusiasm, of a disconnect between the experience and the object left behind I pledge for a more conscious approach to making and creating with clay.

In my ceramic workshops I put big empathise on the process, the observation and the materiality. I help people to slow down and to look more closely when creating with the intention to create less but with meaning. Often the results are deeply appreciated and bring joy and pride to its maker. But still once in a while people never come back for their fired ceramics. Thanks to Spring being around the corner, I started with spring cleaning in the studio. I organised 120 handmade ceramic items that were once fired but never finished, glazed or picked up by its maker.

To create awareness for this fast paced development in the ceramic field with its side-effects, I am planning the HANDFUL Scavenger Hunt. A gesture against the Verkrempelung. A reminder that recycling isn’t only melting down materials or watering down dried clay, it can also be reimagining the purpose of an object that already carries a story.

With this initiative I want to turn ceramic waste into possibility. To transform leftovers into shared experience. To show how community is built not through accumulation, but through circulation.

No one needs more things. But something meaningful happens when an existing object finds the right person. Someone who will use it, appreciate it, or simply enjoy the small joy of discovering it in the city. I see it as a community gesture that says: there is already enough. Let’s work with what we have.

The HANDFUL Scavenger Hunt is just one small step. But it’s a start. And maybe, in finding these pieces around the city, we’ll also rediscover something in ourselves: the joy of receiving without buying, appreciating without owning more, and giving an object the second life it deserves.

And maybe, if Berlin’s ceramic scene embraces this shift, we can build a creative culture that truly feels alive, responsible, and connected.

For all those that want to put empathise on the creative process instead of the final physical outcome, I recommend to check out my new workshop format Create & Release - a 5 hr workshop with clay, in which we consciously create, express and experiment with the intention to letting go of the final creation by destroying and recycling the clay, for another use another time.

Because what matters most, is this very moment, nothing else