Design Inspiration - Chiltern Open Air Museum

I get my design inspiration for my lidded vessels from various places. I find that my most productive designs come on the spur of the moment, usually when I'm thinking about something completely different - but they are based on research I've done in various places - meaning my spur of the moment ideas are in fact based on research and observation into various shapes, and intersections within those shapes.

Bottles at the Chiltern Open Museum

These spur of the moment ideas are then jotted down in a note book, with some ideas about proportion, and then worked up using my proportion based drawing paper so I can get a stronger sense of what goes where in terms of the overall proportions, and where the body elements and lids fit.

From this, I hope you can see that I don't just take a piece of wood and just try and make something with it - everything has been designed and planned and tried out. Of course, not everything I try works - there might be various reasons for that - so the design process is iterative - I design and make something, then I refine what I've done, and, if necessary try again.

Interesting shapes - no doubt very practical, but simple and effective.

Last weekend, we went to the Chiltern Open Air Museum to hear our children playing in a music festival there - we've been to this museum a number of times over the years (and they used to sell some of my hand made wooden clocks) - and it is a great place for inspiration looking at the overall shapes and intersections. That doesn't mean I copy what I see - I don't - I want to design something new - but getting immersed in other peoples shapes does inspire me.

The containers are interesting - they were presumably designed and made for a purpose - to hold something - and hopefully they did that well. There isn't that much decoration on them - a different shaped top, or beads perhaps, and one flat glaze, but they have their own beauty within them, especially when displayed in a sympathetic context.

I like the narrow top on the left hand bottle - good contrast there

It also reminds me that I'd like to get better photos of my items - that is on my todo this - I've got a box of props behind me - but I need to explore this more! The lighting at the museum wasn't great for my phone, but equally I do like the atmospheric effect it creates.