Object Timeline

2012

  • Work on this object began.

2013

2014

2018

2024

  • You found it!

Tall Green Bloom Urn Urn

This is a urn. It was designed by Michael Eden. It is dated 2012 and we acquired it in 2013. Its medium is nylon. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

Michael Eden, an important British studio ceramicist who spent over 20 years creating a variety of traditionally-fired ceramic forms—predominantly in slip cast earthenware—turned his attention to ceramic-inspired rapid-prototyped (3D-printed) objects in 2006. He was excited by the possibilities the process held for ceramic design beyond the cosntraints of conventional manufacturing. While at the Royal College of Art in London, he saw the potential for CAD drawing to realize designs that could not be made by hand and that could redefine the creative process. His exploration of new processes resulted in a piece called The Wedgwoodn’t Tureen.
The Wedgwoodn’t Tureen, which draws a correlation between the future of ceramic design and Josiah Wedgwood’s role at a pivotal moment in the first wave of industrialized ceramic manufacturing in the late 18th century, is a demonstration of rapid prototyping’s circumvention of the material and technical limitations of ceramics. It is from the success of this initial piece that Tall Green Bloom developed. Eden describes these new works as the beginning of “a new ceramic language... where the pre-industrial craft meets post-industrial manufacturing.”[1]
Tall Green Bloom, created using additive manufacturing (3D printing), is part of a series based on iconic ceramic objects from the first industrial revolution; Eden intentionally creates complex structures in bright colors that would be impossible to produce with traditional ceramic techniques and materials. Eden's use of 3D-printing technology demonstrates a strong, clear voice speaking to the world in the new ceramic language of his own invention.

It is credited Museum purchase through gift of Elizabeth and Lee Ainslie and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund .

  • Textile, Cloned Line
  • cotton.
  • Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. Florence Matthews, Mrs. Edward Stern,....
  • 1996-105-1

Our curators have highlighted 35 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

Its dimensions are

H x diam.: 41 × 18 cm (16 1/8 × 7 1/16 in.)

Cite this object as

Tall Green Bloom Urn Urn; Designed by Michael Eden (English, b. 1955); England; nylon; H x diam.: 41 × 18 cm (16 1/8 × 7 1/16 in.); Museum purchase through gift of Elizabeth and Lee Ainslie and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund ; 2013-53-1

We have 2 videos that feature Tall Green Bloom Urn Urn.

Rotating View of Tall Green Bloom

A screen capture of the urn being rotated in Rhinoceros 3D, a type of 3D modeling software.

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibitions Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color and Making Design.

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

For higher resolution or commercial use contact ArtResource.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/51685031/ |title=Tall Green Bloom Urn Urn |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=23 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>