KATY WEST

The Lighthouse

Fine Bone China Cup

I have been inspired by the origins and creation of bone china in the 18th century - In an attempt to imitate the porcelains that were being imported from the east the resulting body was even whiter and more translucent. The same ships were importing tea that became as popular as the china cup in high society. I have sought to mix the elaborate ornamentation of the Georgian society with a modern sensibility. By using the handle as a motif to evoke the past I have made a drinking vessel that reflects the more relaxed attitude to tea and coffee drinking we have today. Made simply in bone china with a clear glaze the quality of the material highlights the engraving skills still prevalent in the Staffordshire potteries today.

Austerity to Affluence

I have been looking at the humble utility cup and seeing how its metamorphosis, through scale and position, can play with its function. The cup has been pilfered from the Wood's range, a utility ware that emerged from the factories after WWII. The berol, jasmine and iris found their way into church halls, schools, hospitals and homes throughout Britain. This humble cup, attributed to the modernist move into mass production, still holds all the qualities looked for in the drinking vessel today. In creating the cup, eggcup and light, I have kept the form, but changed scale, material and finish. These reproductions are made of porcelain, with a precious metal lustre finish.

Dish and Cover

With acknowledgment to the dish & covers made at Wedgwood in the 19th century, these button covers hope to bring the grandeur of the dining table back into play today. Made in a range of colours evoking the blue of Wedgwood Jasperware (blue cream green beige and grey) and made in polished unglazed vitrified porcelain, they show narrative scenes of wildlife, hunting and being hunted.