HAY’s W&S Soft candleholder is part of a collection by design duo Wang & Söderström, consisting of ceramic accessories and objects with distinctive, sculptural forms and fascinating textures. The playful shape of the Soft candleholder looks as if squeezed from a tube, like thick paint or toothpaste, with a glossy glaze on top.

With the collection, Wang & Söderström aim to blur the lines between the digital and the physical. The objects have first been created digitally, then 3D printed and, lastly, moulded in porcelain or stoneware. The shapes are intentionally curious: “We wanted to give the objects organic forms as if they’ve been part of a plant or animal but keep the alien unfamiliarity that comes from their digital roots. What makes them ordinary or what makes them strange depends on who is looking at them,” the designers have said.