ORB
Orb is a project exploring form and materiality. The brief given was to create an evocative and elegant vessel to contain a chip of Minoan pottery. Drawing from the cultural and historical significance of the Minoan civilisation, the form derives from the act of throwing pottery on a pottery wheel, where the pottery is naturally inclined to form a round shape. The Minoans were an Ancient Bronze Age civilisation, and much of their survival depended on Bronze. This vessel combines wood and bronze, key components to making a bronze age tool, in a unique way.
The bronze was CNC lathed, sandblasted and finished with a patina to give it an aged look, while the wood was manually lathed and polished. The form of the vessel is quite versatile, by joining the two hemispheres together, a vessel is created, yet on the other hand, the cut to the wooden hemisphere follows the form of the sphere so that it functions as a base for the bronze hemisphere to sit on when displaying the chip of pottery.
The vessel conveys a strong sense of preciousness through the sheer weight and feel of the bronze, it is a small size to fit in the palm, and is an elegant union of wood and bronze that creates an appropriate vessel for the context.