« My name is Mercedes Op den Camp. I’m born in the south of the Netherlands and although I loved to create all kind of 3-dimensional things, studied hotel school as I considered that a good base for independence. The creation of this serie of pots however, started after a three day layover in Japan back in March 2011. Just upon arrival at home in Spain I heard on the radio about the very heavy earthquake that had hit the coast of Japan less than 24 hours after I left Tokyo. In the following days I saw the images of the Fukushima nuclear plant starting to burst open… The next week I made the first pot of this series, one with some vertical cuts which are than pushed open from the inside. I still like to return from time to time to the shape and construction of these pots, making small variations in the cuts and colours and recently using my own ash glaze and pushing the limits by going much bigger. »