Robert Foster is a designer and maker of hand-finished stainless steel and anodised aluminium vessels, with a particular interest in teapots. The making process is as important to him as the design, and he constantly explores the malleability of metal using traditional and non-traditional methods, such as shaping by pressure-forming and the controlled use of explosives to deform the metal. As a teapot, Emerald odysseyis ambiguous in form, its body sitting squat, like a drop of mercury held in by its meniscus, but ready to take flight as might a duck. It is pierced by a rigid, linear handle that emerges as the spout, creating visual tension as it passes through the body. In polished, satin-smooth stainless steel and bright green aluminium, this work is part of a continuum of pouring vessels in which Foster’s witty approach to materials and form encourages the viewer’s own inquisitiveness, both with the eye and the hand. MH