What do you like? Dark, rich, hearty roast!

Thomas Thwaites How I built a toaster from scratch

So I thought, okay, I'll try and make an electric toaster from scratch.

And for about five seconds, the toaster toasted, but then, unfortunately, the element kind of melted itself.

If I asked all of you, for example, in this room, what you want in a coffee, you know what you'd say? Every one of you would say, I want a dark, rich, hearty roast.

Perhaps not I am Greek, after all. But do not take Clooney s word for it, either (or Johnson s).

But anyway, I got my suitcase of iron ore and dragged it back to London on the train, and then was faced with the problem Okay, how do you make this rock into components for a toaster?

It takes an entire civilization to build a toaster. Designer Thomas Thwaites found out the hard way, by attempting to build one from scratch mining ore for steel, deriving plastic from oil ... it's frankly amazing he got as far as he got. A parable of our interconnected society, for designers and consumers alike.

There was an egg, a tomato, a head of lettuce and a pumpkin, and they all lived in this refrigerator city, and in one of their adventures they went to a haunted house that was filled with so many dangers like an evil blender who tried to chop them up, an evil toaster who tried to kidnap the bread couple, and an evil microwave who tried to melt their friend who was a stick of butter.