I met maker Carola Del Mese over a hearty bowl of her homemade soup to chat a little about her fabulously ornate pewter teapots. These one-off pieces inspired by her collections of ephemera are beautifully made and madly desirable.
You come from a set design background?
I’m a propmaker. I did a degree in three-dimensional glassmaking and wanted to go into stained glass, but my work was more sculptural so my tutor suggested that I go into propmaking. He phoned up a friend of his that ran the prop department at the English National Opera, and as soon as I left college they gave me a job. This was in ’95.
I worked at Glyndebourne for two years, then I went freelance. I loved the theatre work because you get to see your work in action. My main thing is polycarving – big sculptures for theme parks, promotional things, retail props for Harrods, Selfridges and others, stuff for events companies. I have a website with examples – www.prop-star.co.uk. My partner does the more structural, metalwork side and I’m more arty.
How did you start making your teapots?
I wanted to do something beyond just my commercial work, something that I personally wanted to do. I had this interest in found objects – so thought, I’ll do a jewellery course, because that will show me how to work with small metal pieces.
The pewter teapots are obsolete now, because they contain lead so you can’t make tea from them any more. It took me a lot of experimentation to get the pieces working, because the pewter has such a low melting point. I ended up calling a pewter workshop and asking them – I had to buy a different type of solder, but I’ve been loving it ever since.
The teapots are very much a work in progress… My next plan is to start making teapot automata, where the elements inside will move and interact in some way.
Gosh, sounds exciting. Where do you get all your accoutrements from?
This teapot’s a musical one – I found the wind up mechanism in the bin! I try a bit of everything… searching in junk shops and at car boots. I try not to pay more than a fiver for anything though. My best recent find has been a box of old watch faces and mechanisms – they’re really interesting. I’m also planning to cast some old porcelain doll faces that I’ve discovered. Another great bargain was a Victorian mourning locket – the picture is missing from one side, but the facing side has this wonderful woven human hair.
You have a really good eye…
It’s a way for me to justify buying loads of rubbish from car boots!
Where are you showing next?
I have a few projects in the pipeline, but I’ll definitely be showing some new work at the ‘Into The Woods’ Open House on Florence Road in May.
For commissions and sales, contact Carola on 07946 382 543 or via her prop-making website at www.prop-star.co.uk.
Written by Jo Dimbleby
