Building a product from elements or components

We are looking for an ability to build a product from several components and set the price accordingly. Probably the best way to explain this is to give an example.

Let's say that we want to add a product called "Cutlery Set", that can be made up of any number of knives, forks, spoons and placemats.

Rather than offering these in a set combination, or forcing people to order the quantities from 4 different products, we want to be able to offer this as one product, but then have the ability for people to choose how many they want of each item, and then set the price accordingly. Ideally they would be able to choose the quantities of each item by entering a number, rather than having to select from a dropdown. We would be able to set the price per each item, and thus generate the price of the overall product.

Currently it is possible to set the items using the Characteristics, but it is not possible to choose different quantities of each characteristic. Someone might want:

Knives x 6
Forks x 6
Spoons x 10
Placemats x 4

to make up their version of "Cutlery Set".

Can you see any way of doing this with the current system, or do you have any idea of what it would take to create something like that?