New York City, NY
Toni Ann Hoffman
The Kamayan Platter
Class: Design Studio 2
School Year: Sophomore, Fall
"Kamayan" is the Tagalog word for eating with the hands. The action of eating from a platter, often a banana leaf, using bare hands is an old Filipino tradition for sharing food.
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When this commensality project came for creating a product with the idea of sharing the food I wanted to create something that stemmed from my Filipino roots. Therefore the final project took inspiration from the combination of the banana lead and the "Kamayan" practice into one product for sharing a meal.
Envrionment Observations
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The start of the project was to share a meal with a group of people. The goal of this stage was to observe the environment - from the way people interact with each other to the way people share food with one another.
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With this I drew out all the meals I shared for a week and what I mainly noticed about sharing each meal. This helped me gain an understanding of the different ways people share their food and how different one another is.
Initial Ideas
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After gaining insight from environmental observations I sketched out a few ideas on commensality related products. One was inspired by Filipino food with sharing on a banana leaf platter. Another was a rotating platter with layers for a variety of food types. Another was a large platter, ideally for a picnic setting. Lastly a collapsable 3-tier tray for bringing food around to parties in a potluck-style.
Narrowed Down Idea​
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I eventually chose to go down the Filipino-styled banana leaf route where it would be a large sharing platter. The initial idea included built-in plates and sauce players into the platter - but later on, decided this doesn't fit with the point of the banana plate (to share as a whole).
Final Sketch
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The final sketch shows the stem and two leaves that would connect to the body. The ideal wood would be teak as it is non-porous and works well with the finish I wanted..
Form In Detail
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The interlocking mechanism would hold the whole piece together to move as a whole. The center would cave into the stem to hold food better.
Sliding Mechanism
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The final design would make the stem act as the base for the two panels (leaves) to slide into the body to lock-in.
Final Design
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Cutting each individual detail on the tip of the leaf was important to mimic a natural leaf's pattern. This was done on a tabletop saw for smaller details.
Finishing
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I painted the top of the platter to further mimic a natural leaf, further highlighting the detailed edges.
Final Design
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The final design ended up with four pieces, two side-leaf panels, and two pull-out knives. The pull-out knives were developed from the stem to create a cutting board concept.
Function
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The side knives can be pulled out to create separate platters for sharing and passing around the table. This helps with splitting large meals into categories for sharing.