The Navigate Collection was my capstone project at Sheridan College. I intended to explore cultural fusion and international design. I eventually designed a dish set that would accommodate various cuisines from around the world.
The Result
I created a dish set with 5 different dish designs: 3 sizes of bowls, and 2 sized plates. Made from cone 6 stoneware, and decorated with Qing-Hua underglaze and Celadon G (in a yellow hue due to the atmosphere of the electric kiln being an oxidizer)
The collection is able to plate a variety of dishes from the 4 cuisines I chose to measure against. I chose 4 cuisines as a standard to measure my design against. If the collection could not plate the cuisines effectively, it was not a global design.
The 4 cuisines I chose to represent the 4 corners of the world were:
- Anglo Cuisine: Cuisine of the English speaking world. It has roots in Northern Continental Europe as well as the British Isles, taking influence from the various cultures that the English speaking powers had influence over.
- Chinese Cuisine: The various cuisines of China. China’s cuisine has influenced the cuisine of East Asia due to the cultural sway that China had held for centuries over the region.
- Thai Cuisine: The cuisine of Thailand is a mixture of the various cuisines that crossed across the Indian Ocean Trade. As such it has many references to South Asian Cuisine, as well as the spices and influences from South East Asia. Thailand also uses its cuisine as a form of diplomacy, sponsoring Thai food restaurants around the world.
- Mediterranean Cuisine: This broad category covers the various cuisines of the cultures that surround the Mediterranean. From Southern Europe, North Africa, and the Levant. However diverse the cultures of the region are, they share common ingredients and have dishes that relate and influence each other.
Ideation
When first approaching the project, I knew that I wanted to explore foodware. I had not settled exactly on my brief yet. First I tried to design something that would reflect cultural fusion, and later I focused on exploring global design.
Initially I explored concepts like fusing tea cultures from around the world. Then possibly fusing corporate culture with traditional cuisine. Various other branches were explored but eventually I settled on designing a dish set.
I sketched a variety of dish profiles to figure out a cohesive theme I would want with my dishes. Eventually I settled on one and moved onto prototyping.
Prototyping
There were many iterations that led to my final designs. For more rapid iteration, I 3d printed my dishes rather than forming them from clay. This meant my turnaround from design to prototype was about a day, as to ceramic where it could be at least a week.
With my prototypes I gathered feedback from people who ate from various cuisines, and also those who designed foodware at the ceramic studio. I wrote notes about the feedback and made more iterations of dishes.
Once I settled on my final forms, I needed to create my final prototypes for display.
Creation
I considered various methods of production, but I opted for creating my collection from a Jigger & Jolly method. This was essentially a throwing wheel with molds to shape the clay. My turnaround with this method was faster and more consistent than other methods I had looked into. With the largest vessel taking about an hour to form and demold.
First I had to make the molds for the jigger. I made plaster molds from silicone molds I had made.
Once I had the molds, I then moved onto forming the dishes. This was done by shaping clay between the mold, which turns on a wheel, and a blade. The plaster mold is the shape of the interior of the dish, while the blade is in the shape of the exterior of the dish. This leaves a negative space that the clay fills in. The plaster then helps the clay dry.
Once I had my dishes formed in clay, they were bisque fired. This would turn them into ceramic, and allow them to take on glaze. I also applied an underglaze to add more decoration to my plates.
They were then loaded into a cone 6 kiln which would melt the glaze and make the dishes more durable.
Final Reaction
From my experience and result I had a few key takeaways:
- Spend time on testing various surface finishes
- Try to contact manufacturers to learn of their methods
- Good tools make good products. Make good tools
- Be patient with yourself in creation
- Moisturize your hands when working with clay and plaster
While I am happy with what I have managed to create. I believe that I can push my designs further and create a dish set I feel confident in. The product I made was only the first step in creating a product for the market.