Maddalena Selvini: S-Pot

In the winter warming up our hands with a cup of tea is a comfort to our minds, but nowadays it’s normal to set the heating on 22° wasting money, energy, and even worst, forgetting that it’s actually cold outside.

By doing so we end up being completely detached from our surroundings and ourselves. Back in the past people gathered around the chimney, with food always rumbling on top of a stove and burning charcoal put in their beds before going to sleep.

From this nostalgic image Maddalena Selvini has created a set of pots that behaves like a stove. The lid is made out of three circles which allows the user to decide what to warm up on top of the pot while this is cooking. The material used is called “Pietra Ollare”, which is a serpentine soft stone from Valtellina, Italy, where each piece is handmade according to an old craft that is slowly being forgotten. It’s a great material to cook with because it’s naturally lubricated (from the talco), it’s nice to touch and it keeps its warmth for very long. Because of the properties of this stone the designer could use the sand left over by the lathe to create a new kind of stoneware and glaze. By using different percentages of stone mixed with porcelain she created a range of colors and textures. Therefore nothing gets wasted and bowls, cups and teapot become part of the S-Pot The lid of the tea pot is made out of stone and the user can put it in his bed to warm it up. With this project Selvini hopes to bring the intimate feeling of a stove back into our homes.

S-Pot
Design: Maddalena Selvini