Our bet on design

To say someone is pioneering craftsmanship might seem an oxymoron, but todobarro has restored production means that, in our view, never should have been abandoned in the first place. To keep traditions alive we have to adapt them to the world we currently live in, and is precisely what we do in our work: to translate fired clay’s language into something that is understood by our contemporaries, and the translation tool we use is design.

leblume and carlos jiménez: an organic collaboration

In our last collaboration we went one step beyond and we counted with not one but two young Andalusian designers for our new collections. Damián López, head of the LEBLUME studio, and Carlos Jiménez joined forces to design, respectively, Vélez and Nerja, two collections inspired in architectural features and landscapes from the Malaga region.

With two distinct styles and philosophies, one of the things they have in common is that they both have a background in industrial design. In this collaboration with todobarro, both LEBLUME and Carlos Jiménez have applied everything they know and everything they are as designers into the needs of a material and of a company that have requirements specific to them.

“We are used to working on projects where the materials behave in an exact and predictable way, and where processes are technological and production times are fast-paced. Working with todobarro meant letting go of all of that”, says Carlos Jiménez. “I realized that working with clay or terracotta is a hands-on process, since it is a relatively unpredictable material. To get to the final result one must adjust little details all the time, on the go, so that the final pieces are as perfect as possible. This means long waiting periods and a great deal of work to be done by a lot of people, particularly the master craftsmen”.

To Damián López, having the chance to work on and get close to the production process is a fascinating experience: “To have the opportunity to collect this great legacy and create something new from it is a unique experience that, for me and my team, meant a growth in perspective”.

local investment from beginning to end

The two new collections of these young designers find their source of inspiration on the local architectural and landscape scene. The Vélez collection, signed by LEBLUME, rethinks the classics of Mudejar architecture: the circle and semi-circular arch, to create modular tessellations.

Combining the six pieces that made the final cut, patterns that can evoke different historical periods, artistic and architectural movements can be created, using only classic elements of ancient Andalusian tradition.

Through the exploration of geometry, LEBLUME has designed a collection that puts the classic elements into dialogue with the different historical languages that facilitate their combinations.

Carlos Jiménez, however, has opted to draw from popular culture items. The designs in Nerja are inspired by the iconic terrazzo floors found in this city near Málaga, where the widely popular Spanish TV show Verano azul (Blue Summer) was shot in 1981.

With two triangles and two trapezes, the Nerja collection imitates a big-scale terrazzo. This kind of material was first used in the XVth century by the popular classes to make use of the scrapes of construction materials. Carlos Jiménez reimagines the popular aesthetic of terrazzo to create geometric patterns that appear irregular at first glance, but answer to a carefully crafted planning of shapes.

neo-craftsmanship, green conscience and design

the label of neo-craftmanship got to us by external judgment. The techniques we use do not only bring back production processes that have been used for terracotta for over a millenia, but evolve those same techniques with the incorporation of extensive i+D and new tech.

Our team is formed by a multidisciplinary staff of craftsmen, specialists, technicians, designers and marketing professionals. We lean on a philosophy based on awareness. Meaning, we are a company turned towards creating value for our society and our community, through sustainable products developed collaboratively within a circular economy strategy.

We have placed a strong bet on being a conscious company. We have gotten rid of 90% of all plastic used for shipping and packing. The tiles are stored and transported in wooden pallets with reusable rims that the clients can return.

The fuel that feeds the kilns where we cook our tiles is made of olive pits and pruning waste from the surrounding avocado plantations.

To make up for the CO2 emissions that come out of our traditional arab ovens, we have started a campaign for planting and nurturing Alboranic biodiversity islands around our shop, which will serve both to placate the wind and benefit the air-drying process of our tiles and to serve as shelter for the local avi-fauna.