100% Design

Last week was a Red Letter week. My first experience of exhibiting at a design trade fair.

I was delighted to be invited to present my work at 100% Design at Olympia during London Design Festival, by Yourun International, our client for last term’s project.

Yourun Stand at 100% Design

We had been set a brief to come up with porcelain giftware and objects that could be used in the planned Jingdezhen Porcelain Cultural Exchange Centre, in a new development planned for the birthplace of porcelain production, Jingdezhen in China. Yourun, our clients were keen that we develop designs that would encouraged creative playfulness with porcelain, were these pieces to be manufactured by the master craftsmen of Jingdezhen.

My response was Serendipity, a slip cast coat peg and set of door pulls and handles that explored the tension between Perfection and Imperfection, sleek finishes and rough ones that can be achieved when you contrast the sharp lines of slip casting with the  roughness of clay snapped at the leatherhard stage.

Snapped clay from earlier project

Richness of snapped clay

Cast with a bullet end

Unique roughness snapped at leatherhard

Snap off end when leatherhard

Montage showing pegs with different colour tips

Line blend glaze test

Gradation of colour along pegs

Glaze to soften snapped clay

My project was designed to be contemporary, playful and bridge a cultural divide between craftsmen that seek perfection and those who embrace the happy accidents inherent in ceramics.

I was thrilled when I won a prize of £500 for my project. Thank you Yourun, for the provocation, generosity and opportunity.