FOCUS: Trays of Art

GIVE MOST ADULTS a blank white A4 piece of paper and ask them to design a tray, right there and then, and they’d be petrified. Not so children, points out Ella Doran, the print product specialist, who pioneered the photographic print on table / homewares trend just over a decade ago.

“Adults do tend to get very inhibited. I can do too, but working with kids tends to free you up. They don’t have any of our hang-ups. They really like to take their time over things, and I’m always surprised at what comes out - the pattern making or the genius little quotes and designs,” she says. Ella, a mother of two boys, should know. She’s been holding occasional tray design ‘events’ for the last two years after collaborating with the Tate galleries on a couple of children’s books - and she finds that although she does hold adult classes too (one was in the middle of Selfridges department store, which, she says, was “a mad anthropological exercise.”), it’s the kids who really relish the chance to put their art work on a real-life product for the home - one that they get to take home with them.

Okay, so the process isn’t quite so instant. The finished water-based drawings are sent off to Ella’s experimental Belgian producers, where they sandwich each picture between melamine sheets, squash it and heat it until the melamine bonds, chop off the rough edges, and hey presto, finished tray (currently just £12). Once done it’s sent back to the UK for collection or posted directly to your address.

Ella would like to do more, and as such, has just moved into new studio premises in East London - an old print works with stable doors and sky lights - where she hopes she may be able to hold more regular sessions (”It’s got central heating and everything!”). She has also recently begun to be invited to schools. A recent session involved a comprehensive school in London’s Tower Hamlets - a collaboration with the Hidden Art organisation. Enthusiastic at first, Ella realised the challenge of trying to inspire older kids who weren’t allowed to leave the school premises to research her chosen topic of food. “I have to be honest, it was hard work, but it was worth it when they started to think outside the box. They were a gifted and talented bunch. I think it’s really important to do more of that.”

Ella’s next scheduled stops are at the Barbican, (she hopes to create a tray installation inspired by the tray rejects her Belgian producers send to Africa where they become roof tiles), and at the Kids Modern show in Dulwich, south London in February. If you can’t make it to London / the UK, you can buy the Hidden Art trays, including the Lobster design (pictured top) by Zahanggir Hussain, at Hidden Art or at Ella’s webshop. Contact Ella to invite her to your school / gallery / event or to find out about her next event. (If you’re quick, you might be able to make her early December session.) Email: info@elladoran.co.uk

*See Ella’s work at www.elladoran.co.uk, and at John Lewis.

**Pic Captions: Lobster Tray by Zahanggir Hussain, and Eggs & Bacon by Ryan Smith.