The kitchen is the engine room of a house and a house cannot be without one. This particular kitchen was invented by me after having been approached by architects stating, “She’s difficult because she doesn’t know what she wants”. I asked to be introduced to this ‘difficult’ woman. We got on like a house on fire. Highly intelligent and a sculptor, she wanted creativity. We argued. Submissions were made and rejected – “love it but can’t live with it”. What to do? Being only a small area, a circular installation made sense.
Approval of my final proposal brought relief. Her departure to an Italian studio for several months meant I could get on with it without interference – which I did. My drawings, only showing it to be circular, were all she saw. No evidence of the feature work was shown – I simply ‘got on with it’. On her return and with the kitchen near completion in my workshop, I became terrified that she might not like it. Mercurial by nature she had the power to say, “I don’t like it” and I would have been sunk. She loved it and I almost feinted with relief. With a good bottle of Madeira, we both got drunk, me having to ladle her into a taxi. Triumph! I had been sailing too close to the wind but got away with it. Constructed in sycamore with ebony decoration, I had given a nod to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a hero of mine. Inspiration and aspiration – I had used both.