CICLOPE

Ciclope

Ciclope (Cyclops) is a porcelain dishware I designed in order to participate to the Bruno Frescura - Tableware Design competition 2008, and which developed afterwrds into tangible casted products.
The project (first course plate, second course plate, dessert plate) wants to give a twist to the traditional way of serving food.In each dish the food is placed inside the concave part of it, around the lateral walls of the hole
which prevent the food from spilling off. The shapes ot the dishes and their holes are designed to be functional

and in harmony with each other in a variety of different situations: these dishes are stackable, they can be used
on both sides and also to preserve food. The size of these dishes are the same of the traditional round ones,

so they can be easily loaded in the dishwasher whilst their squared shape improves the grab of the dish on the corners. The presence of the hole on the dishes of this collection prompts people to interpret their shapes ad to suggest different
uses for them, evolving the rituals of serving food.

Along the process I payed a great deal of attention studying the shapes of the three holes, how to refine the rims

in order to get the plates well-stacked in the most clean way. Sketches and concepts became 3d models necessary

to mill a polyurethane-foam block into molds, one for each plate: PVC sheets have been vacuum moulded to obtain

the very first prototypes. Then finally from plastic to porcelain.

Plaster cast molds were created using the three PVC prototypes; the final plates have been slip-casted pouring liquid pourcelain into each mold, then refined, properly fired, glazed and fired again.