Marit Meisler

Marit Meisler was born and raised in the Old City of Jaffa, Israel. She is a Product Design graduate with distinction of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Marit founded ceMMent Design in Brooklyn and is now designing and manufacturing her creations. After living in New York for six years, she is now living and working in Jaffa. Her work has been exhibited in the Jewish Museums in New-York, in Berlin, San Francisco Philadelphia and more. The Jewish Museum in New York purchased the ceMMent Mezuzah and the ceMMent Menorah for their permanent collection, New York, 2008. While in New York, Marit taught at the Pratt Institute in New York and is teaching currently in Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Israel and in Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Meisler and ceMMent Design aim to create unique household items and Judaica using materials that are generally found in large scale architectural settings, such as concrete, metal and polymers. Her goal is to challenge the way the average person perceives these traditional household and Judaica items and redefine these views by elevating the pieces with a contemporary design. She creates religious artifacts that are typically found in Jewish households, such as Judaica items used for holidays. Each piece is handmade in the studio using a special blend of concrete and other ingredients to create a warm, tactile finish that is also easy to care for.

ceMMent Design is a design studio in the Old City of Jaffa Israel featuring contemporary household objects, home decor and Modern Judaica. Designed by Marit Meisler the objects are hand made from concrete, bringing an architectural quality to household objects. Normally perceived as mundane, this ancient material is used to create everyday objects as well as holy artifacts. Used primarily in architecture on a large scale, concrete is introduced into the home as a small, intimate object. Although concrete is often thought of as a cold and industrial material, the ceMMent designs are warm and tactile.

The purpose of these designs is to rethink and redefine formal preconceptions of traditional objects which have been taken for granted. ceMMent design questions formal notions about such objects and challenges common assumptions about how certain forms, rooted in our collective psyches, are supposed to look, what materials they are made from, and how we use them. ceMMent creates a synthesis of everyday life with religious artifacts. The modern designs allows people to identify with a religious artifact and incorporate contemporary aesthetics into their homes. A unique mixture of cement is used in the studio that achieves specific qualities of strength, colour and texture. Each piece is hand-made and individually processed in the studio, providing the products with their unique qualities.