Choke Globe Clones
In the beginning there was a globe, round and perfect but the man had other plans.
Mario decided that Sbriga needed soft lighting, possibly with the aid of old-fashioned retro globes. With years of product design behind him, he thought the best thing to do was to make them himself as we certainly didn’t have the luxury of swooning round antique stores or trash and treasure markets. “But we’re not in Venice!” I exclaimed, “Where on earth are you going to find someone to make them? I don’t think there will be anything like that at those gorgeous lighting stores either!” I hate to admit it but I have a disgustingly talented and determined husband……
He simply responded with a shrug then went off to buy a standard round globe – the kind commonly seen fitted into your lounge room wall and you’re not going to believe it, two packets of DAS (remember that stuff?) otherwise known as modelling clay. Why the special globe? It had to take on the shape of an artichoke.
So out came the modelling clay, foil was placed tightly over the cutting board and the stanley knife was dusted off from his uni days. With everything at his finger tips, he set to work. First he sketched a rough plan then decided that the best way to attack this challenge was to create a template from which he would create each tiny artichoke leaf.
The choke leaf template.
With the paper template, he meticulously cut out each piece from the modelling clay then fitted it onto the globe.
Creating the Choke Leaves
This took an enormous amount of patience, skill and tenacity yet gradually, the globe disappeared and the artichoke shape look took over.
From globe to Choke Globe.
The slow but steady creation continued over two very late nights, as the man worked well into the wee hours of the morning.
Finally it was finished and over the next few days, the ‘Choke Globe’ had to sit on the kitchen table and left to dry – gingerly being supported by of all things, a take-away coffee cup.
Ready to be taken away and cloned into little Choke Globes.
Occasionally a leaf would be discovered at the base of the cup. It had become too dry to remain in place and had fallen like the autumn leaves in the local park. Our son would proudly take the liberty of applying ‘slip’ – a little bit of water on the fallen leaf and position it back into place – something he learned in his ceramics classes at school. “Don’t worry Dad, I know how to fix it.” he texted his dad one morning. Mario almost cried with pride.
One morning the ‘Choke Globe’ disappeared. It had been taken away to be cloned into many little look alike Choke Globes. Don’t ask me how it was done but it was with the help of one of the many contacts in Melbourne’s extremely innovative design industry. We tested the finished product tonight and it looked amazing. You can check out the entire family of little Choke Globe clones at Sbriga when you visit.
The Choke Globe ‘seats’ – check the actual globes out in their glowing glory at Sbriga.
