This from the BBC A History of the world by Hazel Jones
This curious object was made by the artist Hazel Jones whilst she was in her final year at the Silversmithing and Jewellry Department of the Royal Collage of Art in London in the late 80’s. At that time she was “inventing” gadgets and implements for doing jobs that didn’t need doing. Working with ephemeral objects like tea leaves, fluff and dust. She turned her attention to currant buns in her final year and for her final year show at the RCA she developed some gadgets for stretching, steaming and drying currants that had been skillfully plucked from the surface of many a bun. A hinged wall with seven spikes folds down and the moist currants are attached and the wall closed and fastened by means of a small clip at the top. A small cake candle in the base is lit via a hinged hatch at the side. The heat of the candle is said to dry out the currants in a matter of hours. The elongated shape of the sheds was greatly influenced by the net drying sheds at Hastings used by local fisherfolk. After the currants are dried they can be steamed in the Currant Steamer- another device invented by Hazel Jones – to return them to their plump and moist state and so on, ad infinitum.
