25 Oct Kettle Chips ‘Lovingly Crafted’

At the beginning of last year we were approached by an independent advertising company called 101. They were selecting a few Crafts people to make packets of Kettle Chips in the medium with which they worked. We were asked to make a metal packet.

‘Our idea was to demonstrate Kettle Chips’ values by making handmade advertising for their handmade crisps – a thought we encapsulated in the line “Lovingly Crafted”.

For TV and print, we commissioned a range of craftspeople to lovingly ‘craft a pack’. Blown from glass, woven from cane, sculpted from ceramic and carved from wood – the pieces embodied the love and care with which they were created.’

I jumped at the chance! I have always wanted to try out a technique created by Elizabeth Brim, one of my Female Blacksmith idols. It’s called an inflation, where you weld up steel with a tube sticking out, heat the whole piece up in a furnace, and when hot, blow air into the pipe to make the piece inflate like a pillow- or a packet of crisps in our case.

101 were a brilliant company to work with and were very enthusiastic the whole way through the making process.

Our flavour was ‘Sea Salt and PepperCorn’ which was a great choice for us because we could use all the natural characteristic colours of metal to produce the packet.

Here are some work in progress pictures.