20 Aug 2008
Article - 01.05.2007
Oliver Smith comes from many generations of jewellers and metalsmiths, stretching back to makers of armour. A skilled silversmith, specialising in hot-forging, he has developed a particular interest in putting his one-off items of silver cutlery into production in stainless steel and other metals and materials.
He explains: 'My passion is for making… I need to apply the same creativity and problem-solving I use in making unique objects to all aspects of the production design process. Conversely, aspects of the creation of multiple objects now steer my thinking in exploring functional and aesthetic questions in hand-forged silver objects. The best of craft and industry is my ideal.'
When Smith graduated from Sydney College of the Arts in 1996 he set out to gain practical experience in different countries. By the time he returned to study in Canberra, in 2000, he was skilled and experienced in many approaches to making and running a crafts-based business but recognised that he needed to understand his own strengths and interests.
Smith turned his attention to making forged flatware, or cutlery, and in 2003 received funding from ArtsACT to help put his handmade prototypes into production. 'Seeking to combine the beauty and warmth of the handmade with the strengths of industrial production methods', he approached John Kell, managing director of Hycast Metals in Smithfield, western Sydney, who took a particular interest in Smith's project. Using a ceramic shell casting process, the partnership produced Smith's Generation I series of serving utensils in stainless steel. Further support through an Australia Council Maker to Manufacturer to Market (MMM) grant in 2005 enabled him to develop these ideas further into the Generation II series, where he redesigned these and made new forms to better use what he had learned from industry.
Throughout the project he outsourced more parts of the process to related industries, such as 'rumbling' with Mass Finish at Peakhurst (whose industrial abrasive finishing techniques include a vibrating tub with river stones from the Lithgow area). Smith then completes the process by hand finishing and polishing himself. 'I need to be there to check the results, but at each visit I'm also learning; I've made many changes through better understanding how each process works'.
His plans for the future involve further research into working in collaboration with different industries, and exploring different materials such as cast iron, or perhaps recyclable plastics. He was also one of a number of designers who were given a production opportunity by Robert Foster's F!NK & Co, resulting in F!NK Fatware, a pair of cheese knives and a board.
In 2006 Oliver Smith completed a commission to make two bells for the Australiana Fund, one for Government House in Canberra and another for Admiralty House in Sydney. He could have forged the bells himself, but instead sought specialist advice and found people whose skills and knowledge he could never have anticipated. Professor Neville Fletcher, a specialist in the physics of musical instruments, at the Australian National University, provided early advice, and international expert Anton Hasell of Australian Bell in Redesdale, in rural Victoria, who had not worked with silver before, carried out new research to cast the bells. Smith made each clapper, handle and stand.
A collaboration with lasting influence was the 'Banquet' project, a continuing project over several years with restaurateur and potter, the late Anders Ousback, and chef and restaurateur Tim Pak Poy. Ousback and Tim Pak Poy had been creating food for slip-cast porcelain bowls and beakers by Ousback, and were thinking of widening the scope of their project to include more handmade utensils. Oliver Smith approached them at the same time expressing an interest in working with them.
'We met every month or so to discuss our ideas over a meal: surrounded by prototypes and ingredients, testing the forms with the food, drawing, making notes, eating, cooking. Each time, as we refined the synergy between our crafts, we talked about a number of possible outcomes. It was wonderful; rather than an academic approach, we researched by actually doing it.'
After Ousback died in 2004 the project was put on hold until the Art Gallery of South Australia invited Tim Pak Poy to be one of ten chefs at a fundraising dinner. He decided to use the 'Banquet' setting for his table, and he and Smith invited Patsy Hely to make a porcelain bowl and Peter Giles to make wooden platters. Smith explains 'Ultimately, … working collaboratively is about making the whole greater than the sum of its parts … I look for opportunities where I can do what I do well and unite it with the strengths of another process, material or individual. I find the high level of skilled craft existing within industrial settings make me seek opportunities where it could be given greater expression.'
You can see Smith's work in the exhibition Smart works: design and the handmade, at the Powerhouse Museum.
All quotes, except otherwise identified, from correspondence and interviews between Oliver Smith and the author in 2006.
Oliver Smith
Robert Foster
Fink design
TAGS
+ Smart works
When Smith graduated from Sydney College of the Arts in 1996 he set out to gain practical experience in different countries. By the time he returned to study in Canberra, in 2000, he was skilled and experienced in many approaches to making and running a crafts-based business but recognised that he needed to understand his own strengths and interests.
Smith turned his attention to making forged flatware, or cutlery, and in 2003 received funding from ArtsACT to help put his handmade prototypes into production. 'Seeking to combine the beauty and warmth of the handmade with the strengths of industrial production methods', he approached John Kell, managing director of Hycast Metals in Smithfield, western Sydney, who took a particular interest in Smith's project. Using a ceramic shell casting process, the partnership produced Smith's Generation I series of serving utensils in stainless steel. Further support through an Australia Council Maker to Manufacturer to Market (MMM) grant in 2005 enabled him to develop these ideas further into the Generation II series, where he redesigned these and made new forms to better use what he had learned from industry.
Throughout the project he outsourced more parts of the process to related industries, such as 'rumbling' with Mass Finish at Peakhurst (whose industrial abrasive finishing techniques include a vibrating tub with river stones from the Lithgow area). Smith then completes the process by hand finishing and polishing himself. 'I need to be there to check the results, but at each visit I'm also learning; I've made many changes through better understanding how each process works'.
His plans for the future involve further research into working in collaboration with different industries, and exploring different materials such as cast iron, or perhaps recyclable plastics. He was also one of a number of designers who were given a production opportunity by Robert Foster's F!NK & Co, resulting in F!NK Fatware, a pair of cheese knives and a board.
In 2006 Oliver Smith completed a commission to make two bells for the Australiana Fund, one for Government House in Canberra and another for Admiralty House in Sydney. He could have forged the bells himself, but instead sought specialist advice and found people whose skills and knowledge he could never have anticipated. Professor Neville Fletcher, a specialist in the physics of musical instruments, at the Australian National University, provided early advice, and international expert Anton Hasell of Australian Bell in Redesdale, in rural Victoria, who had not worked with silver before, carried out new research to cast the bells. Smith made each clapper, handle and stand.
A collaboration with lasting influence was the 'Banquet' project, a continuing project over several years with restaurateur and potter, the late Anders Ousback, and chef and restaurateur Tim Pak Poy. Ousback and Tim Pak Poy had been creating food for slip-cast porcelain bowls and beakers by Ousback, and were thinking of widening the scope of their project to include more handmade utensils. Oliver Smith approached them at the same time expressing an interest in working with them.
'We met every month or so to discuss our ideas over a meal: surrounded by prototypes and ingredients, testing the forms with the food, drawing, making notes, eating, cooking. Each time, as we refined the synergy between our crafts, we talked about a number of possible outcomes. It was wonderful; rather than an academic approach, we researched by actually doing it.'
After Ousback died in 2004 the project was put on hold until the Art Gallery of South Australia invited Tim Pak Poy to be one of ten chefs at a fundraising dinner. He decided to use the 'Banquet' setting for his table, and he and Smith invited Patsy Hely to make a porcelain bowl and Peter Giles to make wooden platters. Smith explains 'Ultimately, … working collaboratively is about making the whole greater than the sum of its parts … I look for opportunities where I can do what I do well and unite it with the strengths of another process, material or individual. I find the high level of skilled craft existing within industrial settings make me seek opportunities where it could be given greater expression.'
You can see Smith's work in the exhibition Smart works: design and the handmade, at the Powerhouse Museum.
All quotes, except otherwise identified, from correspondence and interviews between Oliver Smith and the author in 2006.
Oliver SmithRobert FosterFink design
TAGS
+ Smart works