Thai designer Tithi Kutchamuch takes the idea of ‘carrying a piece of home with you’ to beautiful, surprising – and in some cases, extreme – conclusions.
Under her bold vision, antlers from deer figurines transform into edgy necklaces; decorative tops on vases can be used as uber-chunky rings.
For Kutchamuch, who continued to live in London after receiving her MA in Design Products at UK’s Royal College of Art in 2007, it was a way to bring a little bit of home with her wherever she went.
“I wanted to be able to have symbols of home with me all the time, and jewellery certainly has got a function for that. But to make my concept complete, the home ornaments needed to be incomplete until I returned home with the missing parts,” she explains.
Winner of the ‘Best Newcomer’ award at Crafts Council UK’s Origin show in 2008, Kutchamuch’s preoccupation with animal-inspired functional art objects began when her dog back in Bangkok passed away.
“Every piece of work starts from my personal experience. Writers use a pen to express their thoughts, I using my products,” says Kutchamuch.
As far as Kutchamuch can remember, her parents’ home has always had animals in residence and at one point, it even housed peacocks, hedgehogs and a gibbon.
Some of her jewellery tells a darker tale, like the life-size Companion Parrot that looks innocent enough – until you pull out the head that is linked to the bird’s entrails to form a funky necklace.
In a significant move, Kutchamuch recently returned to Bangkok and is currently busy setting up her studio/gallery/cafe there. “It was time to go back ‘home’,” she admits.
The details will have to remain a “secret” for now, she says, but it is a project on a much bigger scale, from ceramics to furniture to interior design.
In truth, we cannot wait!
Tithi Kutchamuch
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