Clay Pudding
The Flan table, designed by Gabriel Tan for Origin Made (image: courtesy of Gabriel Tan Studio).
If you have been to Portugal, chances are you have tried, or at least seen, a Portuguese flan, or Pudim de Ovos. It has a smooth, creamy texture and rich caramel sauce on top. This is what product designer Gabriel Tan had in mind when creating what he calls his Flan Table.
Tan is an industrial designer from Singapore, but relocated to Porto with his wife Cherie Er in 2020. Together, the pair founded Origin Made, a crafts-focused design studio dedicated to preserving cultural heritage through reinterpreting traditional design processes and contemporary forms. “We wanted to create a brand that tells the story of Iberian craft. That’s how it was born, collaborating with small, family run workshops and connecting them to international designers,” Tan explains.
One of the brand’s most recent designs is a ceramic side table, designed by Tan and produced by Porto-based ceramicist Joaquim Pombal, that will be showcased during Copenhahen’s Three Days of Design. Standing half a meter tall, the table poses a modest body, with soft curves and a tactile, earthen surface. The table comes in two colours – a sandy light tan which is the natural colour of the clay, and a rich bronze resulting from the clay being oxidised. “It’s not super grainy,” Tan explains. “It’s a tactile piece that you want to touch. It feels quite earthy and natural.”
The two tones of the Flan table (image: courtesy of Gabriel Tan Studio).
Tan wanted a name that connected the table to his own experiences in Portugal, explaining how “flan, or pudim, is a very typical Portuguese dessert you find in restaurants.” The table design was born from an organic encounter with materials Tan found in Pombal’s studio. “The first time we visited him we were fascinated by what he was making,” Tan recalls. “We asked him if he could make something in this brown caramel colour we saw. We wanted something that was subtle, but that let the colour itself shine,” he says. “It wasn’t an idea we already had. It was more seeing what he made and developing the idea after visiting him.”
Tan strongly believes in the importance of collaboration when working with local craftspeople to try and find a harmony between contemporary design and traditional craft. “Design is not really a world that is connected to craft in Portugal; it’s not like Japan or Italy where there is a closer collaboration between the two industries,” he explains.“When I came here, I was fascinated by entering the old world, where you have so much heritage and craft and traditions. I saw ways that I could use these ingredients to create something new.”
Tan and Pombal’s Flan table is the result of the meeting of two worlds, offering a dialogue between contemporary forms and traditional making. “I think our audience really appreciates that, because when you have old craft and rich textures applied in minimal forms, it’s easier to use in contemporary spaces,” Tan says. “We have a studio that works with a keen sense of responsibility: to preserve and carry on the human craft tradition. It’s a part of the culture of our world.”
Words Ella North