Potato Family Shelving by Studio Floris Wubbe

Potato is a reliable product. Typically, pretty easy and incredibly cheap to grow, they multiply ridiculously turning one into three plants which then matures into 20 some potatoes. Then you just store them in a cool, dark place. Once you have tasted creamy farm fresh potatoes, it really is difficult to ever go back.Potato Family Shelving turns a childhood experiment into a rustic shelf unit. Floris Wubben along with artist Bauke Fokkema imagine possibilities that might unfold if you left a child to create artistically with the common potato. Made of Dutch Fir Tree wood, the thick cut outs and rounded exterior edges of the potato shell is a unique contrast. The potatoes are “stabbed” with spears of polished stainless steel to hold them off the ground. You get the full affect of how hard their raw flesh really is in the way the cut outs are jagged and imperfect. She has truly captured the potato with all its physical characteristics, an odd shaped body that is hard to carve at when uncooked, the pale color and even the knots in the wood reminds us of forming eyes. Bringing the farm into the home in this way can make you feel closer to the source. It’s a displaying symbolism of survival, hard work and even play.

Her studio in the Netherlands has an interesting approach to design. “The designs of “Studio Floris Wubben” enable furniture and nature to co-operate together into ultimate harmony. One uses the other, since they need each other to create the whole and final design.”