Case Orb Grinder
Orb Grinder
ORB GRINDER
Consider the Orb Grinder as your secret ingredient in chef-style cooking.
Designed by Gareth Neal – an East London studio that combines traditional craftsmanship with contemporary techniques – the salt-and-pepper mill is as much of an objet d’art on the worktop as it is an essential tool in your kitchen.
Made from solid beech and available in a natural or black finish, it features a distinctive cylindrical base and spherical top, making for an organic form that fits your grip perfectly and feels smooth under the fingertips.
Its crowning glory is the ceramic CrushGrind mechanism that enables the coarseness of the grind to be adjusted with a simple turn of the wheel at the base. A fine dusting for delicate seasoning; a coarse grind for intensive flavouring.
designer
GARETH NEAL
A piece created by Gareth Neal is the first thing that visitors see at the Victoria and Albert museum’s furniture gallery. But the soft-spoken Briton actually considers his mission to be much more than just designing and making furniture.
He is passionate about honouring “people, process and place. I try to keep it local,” he said, by championing the use of indigenous materials and traditional processes while at the same time exploring new ones. And he also makes an effort to respect the environment.
In 2012, Neal decided to set a carbon-negative challenge for himself. He and two students from the University of Brighton, where he is a senior lecturer on design and craft, biked 160 miles into the countryside of Herefordshire, where an 80-year-old English ash tree had been cut for a project but then was left there, unused.
Without the benefit of electricity, and using only hand tools — axes, draw knives (which have a long blade with two handles) and pole lathes — the three created a table, four stools and 12 candlesticks, which, he said, “we placed on a cart and biked 160 miles back to London.”
Gareth Neal believes that as a hands-on designer and maker, he is fascinated by process, whether that be with traditional tools or the latest computer controlled router.
This, combined with a fascination of historical techniques and aesthetics, roots his design within a specific context with rich narratives and contextual reference points. Good design emanates from a depth of knowledge of the medium, and his ability to reconsider it for a contemporary audience.
While creating one off pieces, he pushes himself and some of the best craftsman in the UK. He loves working collaboratively, and this provides a rich stream of inspiration within his practice which has cultivated some of their humblest and progressive designs.
Privately, he likes nothing better than a rummage around a car boot sale or junk shop, this in many way has instilled in him a desire to make things that have a longevity and a resistance to fashion, and installed a healthy respect for the environment, and a desire to make sure his studio’s objects stand out and shine for all time.
Gareth Neal lives in the East End of London, which used to be a centre for veneers and marquetry work, “which are all but lost from London,” he said. He paid homage to his neighbourhood’s woodworking roots, as well as to “objects that talk of the woodland,” with his “Urban Picnic” project.
In 2010, Neal entered a competition with the theme “The Great British Weekend.” He decided that “the picnic bench is so simple” and so elemental to British life that he proposed making one, along with other leisure items such as a cricket bat and a hula hoop. The pieces then would pop up unexpectedly in various parts of the East End, inviting residents to enjoy themselves.
The project proposal won its category hands down. “I was one of the judges, and his work stood out,” said Josephine Chanter, head of communications at the London Design Museum. “It was experimental and incredibly beautiful.” And in honour of the veneer craft that once flourished in the East End he gave the finished pieces intricate “stringing line” inlays made from combinations of geometric pieces of thin veneers.
INFORMATION
MATERIAL
- Solid beech
- CrushGrind mechanism
PRODUCTION
Made in Poland
PRODUCT TYPE
Orb Grinder
BRAND
Case
DOWNLOAD
↓ Specification Sheet
WARRANTY
2-years warranty as standard
DIMENSIONS
- Height : 160mm
- Width : 60mm
- Depth : 60mm
WEIGHT
0.25kg
KEY FEATURES
-Adjustable ceramic CrushGrind mechanism for different levels of coarseness -Pure geometric design
CARE INSTRUCTIONS
- To fill: Pull off the top section of the grinder to fill.
- To adjust: The coarseness of the grind can be adjusted by turning the wheel at the base of the grinder.
COLORS
