CSD STUDENT MEDAL 2006: PRODUCT

SOFT LANTERNS: slipcast bone china lighting
Tamsin Van Essen
Central St. Martins College of Art & Design

"In this project, I aimed to exploit the uniquely sensitive character of bone china to create a fun product, exploring the possibility of mass-produced individuality.

The brief was to experiment with industrial production methods and design ceramic products suitable for factory manufacture.

Bone china's strong ceramic plastic memory and idiosyncratic nature leads to the tendency to warp in the kiln.

The ceramic industry usually strives to avoid such warping, with most china factories aiming for identical objects along a particular production line.

Rather than work against it, my aim was to embrace the china’s natural tendency, turning a perceived fault into a feature.

I used standard industrial manufacturing techniques (modelling, mould making and slipcasting) but subverted them in order to produce non-identical end products.

By deliberately designing pieces that would collapse on firing, I hoped to provoke thought and challenge the notion of what is 'right' or 'wrong' in ceramics.

The design is based on traditional Chinese paper lanterns. I wanted to recreate the concertina effect of these lanterns using bone china, giving the impression of softness, malleability and movement in a hard, static material.

The design incorporates curved sections of differing depths and heights, which affect the amount of collapse".