20 June 2005
Lecturer's national prize
£5k for 3-D designer
Whilst guiding students through the national Pewter Live competition, lecturer Tim Parsons won a £5,000 prize himself in a new category for professional designers!
The Worshipful Company of Pewterers, a 600-year-old traditional guild company to protect the industry, sponsor the annual competition with the Association of British Pewter Craftsmen to promote the use of pewter in modern products.
The Company asks its members to ‘adopt’ certain colleges in order to introduce students to the beauty and versatility of pewter and to bring contemporary designs into the industry.
Pewter manufacturers A R Wentworth of Sheffield have a long-standing relationship with MMU and arranged for our students to visit their factory to learn about the processes and technicalities involved in working with pewter. Their representative advised students about the competition and selected the items to be made up to go forward to Pewterers’ Hall for the final on 8 June.
Loretta Harmer of the BA/BDes Three-Dimensional Design course won a total of £650, taking first prize in the giftware category for her alternative Christmas card, a fir-cone made out of sheet pewter with a matching gift tag bearing a greeting. Tim said: “This is a highly original and charming design that adds a new typology to the giftware market.”
Loretta also won the third prize in the jewellery category for a collection made from cast seed pods that incorporates knotting and braiding techniques into the bracelets and necklaces.
Tim’s surprise win – the competition was open to professional designers for the first time ever – was for a vase made from dip casting, a process whereby a steel tool is plunged into molten pewter to give a rough outer surface. The transition between the two surfaces resembles a coastline on a map. The process ensures that each vase is noticeably different and is substantially heavier than sheet fabricated items.
Tim teaches product design, working across metals, wood, ceramics and glass with a special interest in design proposals for industrial production.
