The renowned German porcelain manufacturer Meissen invited me to collaborate with them on a series of vessels. Working in the Meissen factory with the staff I developed a series of pieces derived from the existing plaster moulds that I found there.

I was interested in the possibility of adding my own marks to the existing pieces almost as ‘noise’ rather than designing from zero. After choosing the moulds for different vessels, I began scratching at the finely modelled negative surfaces and then casting them once again. This process was repeated several times, making deeper and deeper scratches and clawing digs into the moulds, casting each subsequent excavation until the mould reached the edge of its usability.

The resulting series of casts show the evidence of my hand made marks as they distort the original form. The marks have an ambiguity between destruction and creation - on the one hand they are aggressive, arbitrary attacks on the mould, but when turned in negative they become bubbling creative growths, almost organic and tree like.

I am very intrigued by the idea of working in negative and so in 2013 I wanted to repeat this process for an exhibition during the London Design Festival titled ‘Blanks in Between’ at which I worked with cast plastic soldiers. Please click here to view this project.

My original interest in the idea of working in negative started in 2010 when I created the objects ‘Dug and Stuff’ for the exhibition ‘Objects with a Void’. Please click here to view this project.