We hear from the team at Fife Contemporary Art & Craft as they give us a round-up from their recent Meet Your Maker event with jeweller Grant McCaig.
Creative juices were flowing recently as senior school pupils at Woodmill High School, Dunfermline, discussed their favourite foods and considered the cutlery required to eat them with renowned silversmith Grant McCaig - all part of Craft Scotland’s Meet Your Maker scheme 2016/17.
The visit was triggered by a month-long visit to the school by Fife Contemporary Art & Craft’s Craft Pods which are currently displaying some of Grant’s fabulous silver spoons & iron ‘cucharas’. Grant brought along a couple of large, silver spoons to help inspire the pupils’ ideas and they were amazed to be allowed to handle such precious objects!
Mind Mapping
Using coloured pens, Grant began by getting pupils to create mind-maps to help decide on particular favourite food items.
Further drawings were then required to explain what kind of tool would help make eating the food easier – and so the Chicken Nugget Ring was born! Obvious when you think about it – you wear it on your finger like an ordinary ring and use its short prongs to stab your selected Chicken Nugget.The chicken nugget ring
The pupils learned how to think imaginatively in order to create something practical – there had to be a purpose for their design, or as a piece of cutlery it would be useless. By getting them to describe what they liked about their favourite foods, Grant made them think about the individual characteristics each foodstuff had that made them the preferred choice. Clearly, certain fast food outlets and ice-cream are strong influencers where the young people of Fife’s food choices are concerned, but perhaps surprisingly strawberries and watermelon also featured as favourites for some.
The success of Grant McCaig’s Meet Your Maker visit to Woodmill is conclusive proof to FCA&C that future Craft Pods’ tours should include more school visits (currently the pods visit mostly library and community venues). Meanwhile, the pods will move from Woodmill shortly to Lochgelly Library in Fife where they will be on public view again until 6 August. Full tour details can also be viewed on FCA&C’s website.
