Demitasse
(2024)

Before the end of my first semester of final year, BA Product Design, Ulster University. I wanted to continue my experiments in 3D printed mold making in ceramics. I enjoyed this project but knew before Christmas, it wasn’t going to be for my final year show. I continued to use these molds to test all clay and glaze before the show.

I designed a 3D printed master that had a fixed base plate and separate mold walls. The mold walls failed but I was able to produce traditional molds better with a rigid baseplate for the dropout mold.

I wanted to maintain the geometric aesthetics from the plant pots but with a mix of traditional forms. The base is a regular hexagon, which is hard to replicate with traditional hand-built ceramics and the rim was a traditional perfect circle. The form was created by rotating the two faces to create a twisted effect in Autodesk Fusion’s surface tools.

I originally designed them to be 50ml teacups. Few people referred to them as ceramic shot glasses. After a meeting with Sean Owens, head Chef of the Academy restaurant attached to the university, he introduced me to the term Demitasse.

"Demitasse" (dating to roughly 1842) is a French term directly translating to "half-cup," derived from demi ("half") and tasse ("cup").