Ashtray / Blanked
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The Blanked ashtray takes an object almost nobody designs and gives it the full treatment. It is machined from a single block of aluminium, anodised, given a second machining pass to expose a contrasting strip, then hand-brushed, polished and laser-engraved. Because each one is cut rather than moulded, faint tool marks vary between pieces, which the maker treats as a signature rather than a flaw. The form is a shallow dish with notched rests for cigarettes and a central well, with no seams or coating to flake. Blanked is a young studio working in this reductive, industrial idiom across a range of desk objects. The result is an ashtray built like a machined component, for a category that rarely receives any design attention at all.
Design intent
- Cutting it from one billet of aluminium removes every joint and coating: there is nothing to delaminate, peel or rust, which is about as durable as an object this size can be made.
- The form is reduced to the minimum the task needs, a shallow well and a notch or two to rest cigarettes, with nothing added beyond that.
Trade-offs
- It is a machined, hand-finished object priced accordingly; for anyone who treats an ashtray as a disposable, the cost will seem disproportionate to the function.
- The cut-not-moulded process leaves subtle, varying machine marks on each piece, so consistency between examples is traded for the character of the process.
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- Indexed
- 27 May 2024
