‘Mommy I made an ashtray’ is a collection of brightly coloured ceramic objects. The  idea behind the collection is highly personal. Rutger de Regt goes back to his earliest memories of working with clay and creating objects based on intuition, naivety and playfulness. To translate the childlike imagery into large scale objects, he developed a new clay building process called BSA technique. Based on his inventive balloon sculpting technique

‘Mommy I made an ashtray’ refers to the way our intuition in engaging with materials is imposed by our educational system. The current system forces us to give function and meaning to the outcome of experience. The intuitive connection to the object is lost. By turning large scale ceramic objects into ashtray’s, ‘ I challenge and question conformism, morality and exclusion imposed by conventions. As conventions should serve us instead of us serving them, we need the freedom to find our own truth with an open mind and an open heart.’