Drying Stone™ Dish Drying Mat

Origin

In the autumn of 2017 I went to China with two colleagues to attend the Canton Import and Export Fair. We saw a lot of interesting displays among the tens of thousands of booths, but one material in particular drew my attention. It was a flat board made from compressed earth. It absorbed water like a sponge, but its strong anti-microbial properties prevented it from becoming moldy.

We weren’t initially sure what to do with it, but upon returning to the USA we brainstormed all the different applications it could be used for. Designer Ryne Anderson was assigned to design the project and I was assigned to do the engineering.

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Manufacture

Of our various concepts, we ended up putting five of them into production - two sink stations, a dish rack, a small mat for sponges, and a larger mat for drying dishes.

Doing so proved to be quite a challenge. We had never worked with the material before, and our overseas manufacturers were very reluctant to work so far out of their comfort zone. I worked closely with them, however, helping them figure out how to shape the material efficiently.

Then our first production samples revealed a small disaster. When the mat products were stacked in their master cases, the absorbent Drying Stone™ pulled oil from the rubber feet, leaving minor stains! I redesigned the belly band packaging to add a corrugate spacer. The spacers were hidden by the belly bands, but lifted the mats just high enough so the rubber feet no longer touched the Drying Stone™.

Results

We submitted the Drying Stone™ collection to the 2020 German Innovation Award competition in the kitchen category. To our great satisfaction, the Dish Drying Mat won!