Barbara Jenner is a Berlin based artist and designer and the founder of OBAstudios, a ceramics studio focused on functional objects for everyday life. She studied tapestry at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and later completed a PhD in Art History and Media Studies. Barbara came to ceramics later, drawn to the immediacy of the material and the possibility of quickly testing an idea through making.

OBAstudios began with a soap dish, created after she became frustrated with a design that allowed the soap to sit in water. This approach continues to guide her work today. Many of her objects begin with a simple everyday problem and develop through making, testing and refining until she finds the simplest solution.

Her collection includes soap dishes, wall hooks, aroma diffusers and kitchen objects, all designed to make everyday routines more practical while remaining considered in their form and use. Rather than adding unnecessary objects, Barbara is interested in understanding what an object genuinely needs to do and how little material and form is needed to achieve it.

Read our interview with her.