OBAstudios Handmade · Berlin, Germany
The dish that keeps the soap dry
Oba Studios makes stoneware for the bath and kitchen, starting with a soap dish whose zigzag profile keeps the bar dry. Barbara Jenner runs it from Berlin, and the pieces are made at a Brandenburg workshop for people with disabilities.
Oba Studios began with a small, daily irritation. Barbara Jenner liked bar soap and kept watching it soften and dissolve in its own pooled water. She comes from the art field, and the studio started as her own fix for it. Working in clay, she shaped a simple zigzag that let the water run off and held the bar above it. It worked on the first attempt.
A summer in Famalicão
She and Birgit Ostermeier, a fellow artist, spent a summer in Famalicão, a village in northern Portugal, and decided there to turn the dish into a business rather than an occasional thing.
Made in Fürstenwalde
The pieces are made at the Christophorus workshops in Fürstenwalde, a recognised workshop for people with disabilities where more than four hundred people work. Every piece is stoneware, high-fired and glazed by hand, so colour and surface come out a little differently each time. Packing and shipping are plastic-free.
From one dish to a range
The dish became a range: the STELLA aroma stone, a sphere that takes up essential oils; the CIDRA, a citrus press and ginger grater in one; wall hooks and candleholders. Barbara Jenner has run all of it alone since the start of 2023.
Stoneware from Fürstenwalde, glazed by hand, and the soap stays dry.
