Form Wall. A Clean Canvas
Form began with a return to the extrusion process behind Tile, one of the first collections in our range. Working again with Gargoyles and Dragons, the Melbourne architectural pottery and ceramic workshop that makes both, we set out to see where else it could go. “Expanding on the processes that we developed and refined within the Tile range, we’ve almost gone in the opposite direction,” says Luke Mills, our design director.
Where Tile is ribbed and left raw, Form takes two clean shapes, a square with a flat face and an ellipse with a soft curve. On paper the process is the same, but in reality clay is an organic material, and what might work for one shape might not translate to another. Each profile meant looking again at shape, dimension and finish, and fine-tuning it in its own right. “We produced all sorts of tools in house, and we tried all sorts of different processes to get the best result.”
The glaze brought a new process of its own. Each piece is bisque fired, glazed, then fired again. Terracotta, Sand Speckle and Black Chocolate are dipped in a clear glaze that gives them an almost wet, glossy finish, with a little of the raw foot left to show the clay. The fourth finish, Shino Terracotta, was one of the last glazes to be resolved. Shino is a centuries-old glaze, made from a handful of raw minerals. Applied by hand, it reacts with the clay as it fires, so the terracotta comes through in oranges alongside the white. The way it was applied stays visible, in places like the brush strokes of a painter.
Ceramic has long been used outdoors in architecture, and the wall light was designed to go there too. “We knew from the start that we wanted to create a decorative wall light, but also incorporate a robust IP rated wall unit into it.” The IP65 bracket, shared with Tile, sends light up and down the wall and leaves the ceramic as the showcase.
Form first arrived as a linear, and the wall light brings the collection to the wall. Tile is its older sibling, and its design journey goes deeper into the extrusion process the two share.
Form is made to order in two profiles and four ceramic finishes, with a six week lead time.
