TableTiles

There's No Plate Like Home

Put away your MakerBots, it's time for a tableware revolution!
Following the home-creation craze of the 'Thrifty Thirties', Wellington-based company Steven Smith Ceramics have come up with a new way of setting the table.
According to their makers, TableTiles are the innovative solution to the crowded cupboards of our kitchens. Stacking together as flat square tiles, these ceramics claim to allow for the machine-free creation of tableware in any size and shape, due to their unusual mode of expansion.
Created with the recently refined technology of memory-ceramics and pressure release, each tile recognises a user-drawn outline on it as a boundary for the base of the object. As the controlling corner of the tile is lifted, the area outside of the boundary is raised and shaped, and the sides of the tableware are produced.
As the height and shape of the object are completely customisable, a TableTile can be formed into any sort of vessel, and when it is no longer needed the process can be reversed for easy cleaning and storage.
TableTiles are a new and unusual addition to the ceramics company, which has been creating traditional ceramic pots in the capital for over 50 years. Simon Smith, son of company founder Steven Smith, says that TableTiles will "put Wellington on the map as an innovator in ceramic technology", and after taking on the role of sensory capital of the world, a return to traditional materials may be just the thing Wellington needs.
We asked Aro Valley local Hayley Adams, a member of the area's first 'Tech time-out' group, what she thought of the innovation. "It's an amazing thing for Wellington, that we can bring the past back into the future" Miss Adams states, "It's exciting to see real things again".
With such praise, it won't be long before we see TableTiles become a permanent fixture in the households of the Capital.

The Aro Valley 'Tech time-out' group meets weekly to enjoy an afternoon free from 21st Century technology.
Email hayley@adams.gr.nz for more information.



No Photos yet! There'll be one large one and a series of four little ones down the side I think