Whittle Away Cabinet
Pine wood
Like the outermost bark of a tree or layers of flaking old paint, the outer skin of the Whittle Away cabinet slowly parts, revealing a bright and colourful inside.
Steel hinges and screws. Hard wax finish.
Concept
Our own natural flaws are rarely desirable and often concealed from the outside world. Sometimes we force ourselves into an image that is uncomfortable in the belief that it might make us more beautiful. The glassblowing profession has been characterized by a desire for absolute control of the material. The glass has been forced into forms that restrict and hide some of its natural characteristics. But the impressive craftsmanship of an identical handmade glass collection is no longer as desirable and many glassworks in Sweden are closing because of a lack of interest in the craft. The starting point of the project was to design objects entirely adapted to a handmade blown glass production – which an industrial production process couldn’t replace. By enhancing qualities traditionally seen as flaws in a handmade production context we hope to show that what some define as imperfection is true perfection in the eyes of others.