After seeing the "plastic soup" accumulating in the Maas River near her hometown of Rotterdam, Dutch designer Foekje Fleur van Duin found beauty where no one else did — in the fading colors and shapes of nondescript bottles floating in the water.

"On the one hand, it was dirty, toxic and very sad," said Van Duin of the waste. "On the other hand, the colors and shapes were very beautiful." After years of floating around in the river, the bottles were no longer recognizable as cleaning agents and shampoo bottles, but rather as interesting forms with soft tones.

Shortly after, the Foekje Fleur collection of bottle vases was born from this inspiration. Using those castaway bottles as molds, Van Duin hand-made each vase in bisque porcelain, a medium which allowed her to reproduce the washed-out colors of the originals. Each vase is singed and waterproof, making it ideal to showcase a single bloom in an offbeat way.

Visit Foekje Fleur to see the whole collection. The bottle vases are currently available at Global Table in New York: 107 Sullivan Street (at Prince Street), and 471 Amsterdam Avenue (at West 83rd Street).

Via New York Times

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(Images: Foekje Fleur)