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Royal College of Art graduate Thomas Thwaites has built a working toaster from scratch, extracting raw materials and processing them himself in an attempt to replicate a mass-produced toaster he bought in a shop for less than £5.00.
Thwaites, a student on the RCA's Design Interactions course, used the project to explore how cheap, everyday items are dependent on sophisticated global supply chains that are invisible to consumers.
At the show, Thwaites presents his toaster and some of the home-made implements he created to process and mould raw materials (above).
Thomas Thwaites has travelled to mines across the country to get the raw materials for his toaster. Processing these raw materials at home (for example he smelted iron ore in a microwave), he has produced a 'kind of half-baked, handmade pastiche' of a toaster you can buy in Argos for less than five pounds.
The project is a reaction to the idea that it's possible or desirable to be self-sufficient, but also to the view that having more stuff, more cheaply is better.
