Stories

Sourcing the Perfect Imperfect Designs with The Silk Road Collection The art of sourcing the right weathered, imperfect or Wabi Sabi-like designs is both challenging and important for interior designers and design businesses. Not only do these designs add character and a unique touch to a space, but they also contribute to the overall ambiance […]

Looking for a trusted wholesale partner? We help you in your search for authentic and imperfect beauty that brings character and depth to any space. Our sourcing team has a deep appreciation for the simple yet refined elegance of antique pottery, and we’re passionate about sharing it with you. In building our collection we are […]

Wabi sabi is a Japanese aesthetic that celebrates the beauty of imperfection and the natural passage of time. This style has been gaining popularity in interior design as it offers a calm and grounding atmosphere. If you’re an interior designer looking to create a wabi sabi space, antique pottery is the perfect element to include. […]

The Silk Road Collection on the road … to Turkey! Expanding our collection with epic Turkish pottery and other treasures “It was hot and dry when my plane landed and dust choked the air when I found my car. Soon I was surrounded by Turkish desert. After hours of careful driving between sudden potholes and […]

We get so much amazing compliments on our pottery table lamps and decorative table lamps we thought we should make a list of the most beautiful table lamps we have in our stock right now! These are only ten of our favourites this year, but of course there is lots more to see in our […]

Unglazed pots make great planters because they absorb water from soggy soil. Over time this extra water will evaporate and function as a kind of air conditioning for the plant in summer. While this is ideal during hot weather, it is a disaster during winter. Make sure you clean and store these pots inside a […]

How do you keep ceramic pots from cracking? Ceramic pots left outside during winter can become damaged during freezing temperatures. This is because water expands when it freezes. The damage can come from still water at the bottom of the pot, water in the soil if you use the pot as planter, or even water […]

Tips on how to take care of antique pots and planters Antique pots as planters and decoration We can imagine you would be a little hesitant in turning an antique pot into a flower vase or planter. Fertilisers, salts in the soil, algae and water can leave behind many deposits and marks which can affect […]

History of the Bi-disc The object is flat and disc-like with a small hole in the middle; its colours could range from dark, dusty brown to translucent white; it is an ancient symbol, but its look is curiously modern: we are talking here about the Bi-Disc. This object has been hanging around in Chinese history […]

Furniture designed for sitting has a pretty recent history for a country as ancient as China. Before the introduction of chairs, Chinese people sat on the floor or sitting mats. An elevated seat, usually single, only existed as status symbols, e.g. thrones. The earliest indications of chairs came with Christian missionaries and Buddhist monks who […]

The wabi-sabi aesthetic holds an appreciation for the imperfect objects in your surroundings, whether caused by age or natural formation. This Japanese philosophy is in complete contrast with Western ideal of beauty by perfection. Take a moment to see the beauty in a repaired crack or in a weathered surface.  Many unique objects in our […]

The philosophy of wabi sabi has become an unforgettable fixture of many interior designs. The beauty of weathered nature and time has been embraced and continues to please our senses. At The Silk Road Collection, we have taken the concept of wabi sabi a step further. Beyond the aesthetic pleasures of imperfection, we find a […]

Understated elegance and beautiful imperfection, those are the words that best describe The Silk Road Collection. We are known worldwide for the subtle elegance that our collection of decorations, pottery and objets d’art adds to modern interiors and exteriors. For over fifteen years, we have been travelling around Asia, looking for new inspirations in old […]

Chinese civilisation is one of the oldest continuous civilisations in the world. Written records exist as early as 3500 years ago, while evidence of human populations around the Yellow River go back at least 100,000 years. China brought forth fascinating inventions and discoveries which changed the world: gunpowder, paper, the compass and silk, just to […]

Last August, Knack Weekend magazine featured an article about the Chinese community in Belgium with an interview with Yumi Ng, an Antwerpian author with Cantonese roots. It is a good article to gather a bit of knowledge about Chinese culture from someone who grew up in two diferent cultures. We are especially delighted that The […]

Our long time fans know that one of The Silk Road Collection specialties lies in finding beautiful and unique pots all over Asia. It is not just a big part of our business, we really LOVE finding these pots and placing them in new interiors and exteriors. You could map our journeys by the pots […]

A couple of months ago, while visiting the ancient kingdom of Lanna (Thailand), we found ourselves at a pottery in the middle of the jungle. We had decided against searching for old or antique earthenware and instead focused on newly made pots that fit our style (handmade, old looking, fitting in wildly divers interior styles, unique […]

The majority of jewelry in our collection, is from the ethnic minority tribe Miao in China. With a population of almost 9 million people, this tribe makes one of the largest minority groups in China. After immigration in a long history, today they live mainly in Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan, Hubei, Hanain and the Guangxi Zhuang […]