Since 2013, product designer Ariane Prin keeps on developing and making RUST, the studio’s first homeware collection launched in 2015 during the London Design Festival. She then introduced the RUSTILES as part of the "Material of the Year" installation at the London Design Fair in 2017.
The RUST and RUSTILES ranges are created by mixing metal particles originating from key cutting and other metalworking workshops across London, with gypsum and acrylic.
No two items or tiles can be the same: each being made by hand and the metal dust oxidation giving a unique texture, varying in colour and intensity.
It takes time to make RUST and RUSTILES, that is considering the oxidation period – from weeks, to months – and the high variability of the process.
All items – except for the tiles, Timepieces and Mini cachepots – are coated to reduce further oxidisation. However, the material may continue to change slowly over time.
THE DESIGNER
French-born Ariane Prin’s work spans across the experimentation and desire to create new form and utility out of commonly disregarded waste materials, and her work as industrial designer with various clients.
Ariane Prin graduated from the Royal College of Art (MA, design products) in 2011. Her work has been seen internationally since 2004, including Mint Gallery, The Aram Gallery and Heal’s in London, Centre Pompidou-Metz and S.Bensimon Gallery in Paris, 5Vie district in Milan, A/D/O in Brooklyn and The Future Perfect in San Francisco and New York.
Prin regularly hosts workshops to share her creative process with a broader audience in collaboration with companies and institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Institute of Making, The Dock of Tom Dixon in London.
Ariane Prin has been awarded the 2014 prize at the Vallauris International Biennale of Ceramic for her project Water Cups Fountain.