Our Story

 

Working in design, taking trips and holidays, we always sought out workshops and studios and started hearing over and over the disconcerting news that the things we liked were the last one, not going to be made again, that the man who knows how to blow glass this way is retired and has no successor. To compound the issue a lot of these small artisan laboratories were so heavily local and busy making their beautiful work that they had no resources or time to devote to reaching out into the world. Therefore, if you were lucky enough to happen on them in a back street or behind a curtain, your experience of acquisition was limited to the time you were in the studio, after that it became almost impossible to contact them or discuss making more. The body of our project is to work with the these skilled masters and artisans to develop ways to continue producing these incredible pieces that teeter on the verge of extinction for todays market. We have also discovered new and young makers and artisans who are leading small revivals of the old ways of making and we partner with them in supporting these traditional methods.

In the light of the explosion of interest in the house and in table top, we are part of another movement. Our goal is to revive the sort of design and quality that makes the foundation of a beautiful house. Slow design celebrates the time it takes to create something special ensuring that each piece will have a place in your actual house and your memory house forever. Porcelain, linen, pigments, silver, wood, glass, beeswax and iron: these items have been used by masters and skilled craftspeople for generations. The goal for us is to buy less things, made by real people, out of real materials and live our life with them, imbuing them with memories and joy. We believe that beautiful natural things crafted by skilled human hands and cherished for years have a spirit and life of their own. it is the spirituality of things.

The Bouwerie is a place where we gather all our favorite elements of a life well lived and cultivate them into a collection. This is an organic process where we add new treasures as we discover them. We hope this will be like a little holiday, a place for you to find unexpected joy, be it a marmalade made in a friends orchard, hand stitched linens from a convent in Italy, or an arbor inspired fire screen.