My first thoughts on this project brought some strong memories for me of my parents. The boxes will represent their strong sense of place.
My mother’s box will represent her love of hearth and home.
My father’s box will represent his love of India and his time in Jodhpur.
I recently came across a “cottage ware” biscuit barrel belonging to my mother. It was made by the Price Brothers in Burslem in the 1940’s. The firm began in 1896, initially making tea sets in the shape of stately homes and Victorian houses for the East India Company to sell to the English abroad. After WW2 they re-emerged with a nostalgic look at rural life and the cosy cultural associations of the thatched cottage with roses round the door images which held magic for town and city dwellers at the time.
My mother had a poor urban childhood. When she married and had her own home, she treasured her tableware and ornaments like the biscuit barrel. The treasure I found inside it was a tiny silver shoe, kept from her wedding cake. How she treasured the little shoe, this precious keepsake and its memories of her wedding day all those years ago.
Worthless in monetary terms but priceless to my mother.
My father’s Indian box will represent his time in the RAF as a young man, billeted in the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, built by and named after the Maharajah Umaid Bhawan Singh. The RAF boys were warmly welcomed by the Maharajah, who hosted afternoon tea for them on the palace lawns.
My father met the Maharajah on several occasions and was invited to see the treasures of the “Jewel Room” which housed a huge number of biscuit tins filled with precious stones and the Maharajah’s collection of gold and silver cigarette cases. So much wealth was to become worthless to the Maharajah when he lost his son to appendicitis, all the riches in the world could not save him.
My Dad, third from left
Initial Design Thoughts
Having decided on a pair of boxes which will represent my mother’s love of hearth and home and my father’s love of India, my question to myself was:
How can I produce 2 boxes which relate to each other in simple and satisfying ways, 2 pieces which complement each other when placed together, yet representing different themes?
After playing around with drawing both the palace and the cottage I quickly realised that the minute detail within both forms would be impossible to re-create in 15 cm sq! The ghastly sense of perspective on the biscuit barrel is the stuff of nightmares!
Simplicity of basic form seems to be the answer, decoration and embellishment being the key to creating the feel of “preciousness”. A natural shape for the cottage box would be a satisfying simple cube, representing stability.
For the palace box, a taller, slimmer, more elegant oblong construction.
The lids of the boxes could be:
A pitched roof for the cottage and a chimney knob.
A dome for the palace with an elaborate finial as a knob.
Ideas for decoration / embellishment:
Both boxes to be decorated with repeat patterns.
Floral decorations on both cottage and palace.
Windows and doors in simple cottage shapes and classical Indian style.
A mixture of sgraffito and impressed patterns / mosaics?
Photographs and memories on or in the cottage, how to do this?
Attention to colour:
Muted colours for the cottage, vibrant colours for the palace.
Think about the interiors, walls, floors? What goes inside? Jewels and the tiny shoe? Or something else?
More thoughts on the Indian Box
I have been looking at Indian flower and plant motifs that could be suitable for decoration and concluded that, once again, the things that I was thinking about are simply too intricate and complex to use on such a small piece.
Thinking about window and door shapes in Indian architecture, the window arch so typical – could this shape frame and formalise the sides of the box?
So, I have left behind the literal and representational starting point and looking once more at:
- Textiles with repeated patterns and borders
- Block printing with wooden blocks
The task now seems to be to simplify and stylise my ideas down to the basic elements from where I might get a bit of leaway to PLAY.
Looking at the shared features of the palace and the cottage.
Dave and Rob’s suggestion of morphing the two buildings together by mixing up features from the two was not initially well received by me. I was extremely dubious about the idea but then decided to bite the bullet and take up their suggestion and explore the possibilities of mixing the architectural features of the two buildings.
Cottage Both Palace
cube 4 – sided forms oblong
plain / square doors / windows elaborate
brick / stone repeated patterns complex architectural
patterns, mosaics
thatched roof / lid dome
chimney knob /handle finial
Thoughts on clay
Used a fine white clay body for both buildings, would have preferred one to be contrasting with a grogged clay but none available.
Thoughts on interiors
Line one of the boxes with silk, velvet or bright sari material for the jewels to sit on?
Make a tiny hearth and fireplace in one of the boxes to represent hearth and home? A plain flagged floor for the wedding shoe to rest?
Thoughts on glazing / firing
On – glaze lustre, gold leaf, mosaic decals?
Both boxes very bright using vibrant slip colours, transparent glaze?
If I had more time . . .
I wasn’t too happy with the cottage shape and would like to make another box, one which would represent not the cottage ware rural idyll but a truer representation of the type of house my mother lived in. The contrast between the palace and her much simpler home would have made much more of a contrast.
I would like to play around with putting photographic images on the walls and try using decals for mosaic and complex palace patterns.
Despite my initial misgivings around the project I have really enjoyed making these boxes and it has given me much food for thought.
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