See/ CraftCube: Collection: Michael Eden/
Wedgwoodn’t Tureen, Michael Eden, 2010, tall pink Wedgwood shaped tureen made using Rapid Manufacture from a plaster and gypsum material with a unique non-fired ceramic coating. H410mm x D260mm. Crafts Council Collection: P493 Photo: Adrian Sassoon, Lon
View more objects (3 total images)
CraftCube: Collection: Michael Eden
CraftCube: Collection presents a new way of experiencing contemporary craft by bringing the techniques, materials and environment behind crafted objects to life. The freestanding, 3×3 metre CraftCubes are complete, walk-in, experiential display environments containing objects and dynamic interpretation. They are compact, lightweight and are suitable for display in museums and galleries, libraries, higher education galleries, corporate environments or at events, conferences and festivals.
On display inside this cube is Michael Eden’s The Wedgwoodn’t Tureen (tall pink), acquired for the Crafts Council Collection in 2010. As an established maker of functional, domestic slip-decorated earthenware for over 20 years, the focus of Eden’s work has shifted in recent years. Today, a combination of drawing, 3D software, traditional hand skills, and digital technology form the development of his work. This CraftCube traces the journey from the iconic Wedgwood tureen used as a basis for the work, to the astonishing Wedgewoodn’t Tureen that we see on display.
During his MPhil research project at the Royal College of Art, Eden investigated the relationship between traditional craft skills new digital tools. He wanted to explore how and whether the tacit knowledge and sensibility to the three-dimensional form could be transferred to these new technologies and discovered that digital tools can be used in many of the same ways but require the refinement of existing craft skills or the development of new ones. “It is definitely not the case that the maker just has to press a button”. He concluded that the maker today has a bigger choice of tools in the toolbox and it is up to them to choose the most appropriate materials, tools and processes to realise their ideas. 3D printing or Additive Layer Manufacturing potentially allows for almost anything to be made, but Eden prefers to take advantage of the creative freedom to make objects that cannot be made by any other means. For the Wedgwoodn’t Tureen he took an iconic object from the first Industrial Revolution and redesigned it in a way in which it could not be manufactured using conventional methods.
Eden currently works with the Digital Manufacturing Centre (DMC) at the Bartlett Institute for Architecture at University College, London.
Eden Ceramics
Wedgwoodn’t Project
