Tableware Commission, MIMA; 550 sets (3,850 items)

As part of the Percent for Art project I was commissioned to design and manufacture a range of tableware suitable for use in the restaurant and for retail in the museum shop. The total requirement was for 550 sets of a 7-piece place setting (3,850 items). Industrial processes were favoured for production taking me into a new territory in technical and material research.

For the past 20 years my activity as a ceramic studio artist has been an assessment of the potter's wheel as an expressive tool, when needs of mass production was no longer the priority.

The commission for mass-produced tableware saw the opportunity to extend my research into the industrial process. Both slip cast and jigger and jolly methods, new skills for me, were employed for production. Historical research into early industrial processes led to systematic testing to reveal any possible opportunity for creative input at each transitional step within the positive and negative mould making process required for the production of industrial moulds. Of significance is the distinctive character and personal voice of the ware with its hand carving into the mould to create handles being (for example) an original concept. Evidence in the production, of the artist's hand, is an important aspect of the overall aesthetic quality of the object. The research sought to enrich Industrial production, adding a more humane and individual quality to the product, distinguishing it from available mass-produced tableware.

Early stages of the design were exhibited at Table Manners an International touring exhibition at the Crafts Council Gallery, London 8 Dec - 26 Feb 2006. Reviewed by Edmund de Vaal, Ceramic Review No: 218 March /April 2006.

Produced in China the tableware commission will be launched at MlMA December 2007 and followed by a major retrospective exhibition of my work.