Initial Ideas
The main part of this module is to produce a cruet set that meets the following brief:
"A prominent Birmingham industrialist has commissioned you to make a salt and pepper cruet as a present for a long-serving member of executive staff who is retiring.
The member of staff is female and enjoys sailing and reading.
She has a lively interest in contemporary crafts.
During her time at the company, she was the chief design engineer."
"A prominent Birmingham industrialist has commissioned you to make a salt and pepper cruet as a present for a long-serving member of executive staff who is retiring.
The member of staff is female and enjoys sailing and reading.
She has a lively interest in contemporary crafts.
During her time at the company, she was the chief design engineer."
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I didn't particularly want to follow the sailing theme as it's too obvious and I predicted would be very popular.
I thought about literature with a sailing theme, but could only think of books about storms and shipwrecks. However, without any other ideas, I started playing with ideas around Shakespearean plays featuring shipwrecks (e.g. The Tempest). When talking to friends and family about the project, I'd always say "well obviously I want to do hobbit holes" but I never really considered this seriously. However it obviously set my mind working and within a week I'd thought of the two towers in Edgbaston. After his mother died, J.R.R. Tolkien (author of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings) lived just off the Hagley Road on Stirling Road. At the end of this street are two prominent buildings: an 18th century folly and waterworks chimney. It is speculated that these were the inspiration for "The Two Towers" of Middle Earth. I immediately knew this was the perfect subject for this project.
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