My practice focuses on the disconnection between urban societies perception of food beyond its monetary value, back to its source on the farm as a product of resource and labour intensive processes.
linking the trophy back to the soil and the value of growing and being in touch with where your food comes from
photography by Charlie Ashman
Own image of family fridge
Beta Project
Im choosing to begin this project by investigating the fridge, and simultaneously working to inject my project with the illustrative joy i had in my work before i got too caught up in what I thought i should be making for university instead of what I actually liked making.
To do this, I chose to make the most ridiculous idea i had as the basis for my beta project: FRIDGE TOTEMS. My aim is to have more of a blind faith approach to making rather than planning out ideas in detail. This will hopefully allow me to explore through forms and techniques to create more original objects
Fridge autopsy drawing - unpacking the shapes and forms and giving me time to consider the habits and features
poster i drew. I wanted it to look like a dating app poster, and explore the fridge as a graphic object.
The idea of fridge totems is to provide visual cues in the fridge to question our food waste habits. They also take up space in the fridge, meaning you physically cannot fit as much food - disrupting the usual flow of the food that goes in and out of the fridge.
To begin, i threw forms i found in the fridge as the base for my fridge totems - recognisable forms like bottles and jars. I felt this was an interesting juxtaposition of forms to start from. The forms make you feel like they belong yet their lack of obvious function challenges this, as well as the fact that they're not actually food related.
This theme of juxtaposition is one i plan to keep as a constant throughout my project - stemming from Miller's theory of "the humility of things." This is the idea that objects shape our expectation by being either invisible or visible when they don't match the context we expect. This is part of how i aim to shape our habit to domestically waste food.
Initial forms playing with visual language based off food waste facts
Trying to capture my drawing style into 3D visual language
I began making the totems out of the blank slate of these thrown forms. I have no plan to fire them at the moment - i am aware that they are somewhat "one liner objects" and have no real function so i feel it is a waste of resources to fire them. I found this gave me freedom to attach anything or chop bits off with no real plan. By approaching the object with little to no plan that was ready to have meaning and a story attached challenging at first, but as i started to play with the clay i began to see opportunities for attaching meaning. As my hands made, my brain thought about the implications of each addition or removal as well as the overall impact of the object.
For the examples above, i began by attaching feet - wanted it to feel personified so maybe when you see it it has more of an impact than just an object. I began considering decay and how i could apply the look of decay to an object, hence creating the bobbly texture in the areas i carved out of the pot. These holes remove any function it could have - someone suggested this could also symbolise waste as any liquid poured in would run straight out.
the vessel with the nose attached is a satirical attempt to visually cue people to simply sniff their food before they decide to chuck it. It comes from a phrase that i read in my research - "when in doubt use your snout."
not just another leaf jug - unfired
not just another leaf jug
I am the most pleased with this jug. It happened through blindly experimenting with the clay. I began making spinach shaped leaves based off the fact that salad leaves are the most commonly wasted food in the uk. As my hands sculpted and moulded the first leaf, i saw the potential to mould words into the veins of the leaves.
I'm keen to bring in more slogan and words into my work at the moment as looking at my drawing style, it's almost always accompanied by a worded element. Perhaps as my forms get more functional this will become redundant as it does mean each piece is somewhat of a one liner - its impact hits once and yet the objects presence lingers.
These vessels both use scgraffito - i'm looking to try new greenware techniques to add designs to vessels
250 Words for beta Submission
I have used the fast pace of the beta project to bring my illustrative style into my work, but also to develop a visual language to disrupt our food waste habits. I aim to bring the gravity of food waste in the UK to the attention of the viewer. They are designed to be within the fridge – challenging the expected context as a non-consumable object. It’s important to me, because food waste can feasibly be ended by minor alterations to habits, yet the level of food waste continues as awareness increases! These objects are aimed for people who may need to consider the sustainability of food waste in their lifestyle; to educate where they could reduce waste. My research has been looking in detail at food waste statistics and causes within the UK on the WRAP website, interrogating the fridge and our habits surrounding it; reading “refrigerator” by Jonathan Rees (2015), and at how ceramics can subtly subvert systems. I am working in ceramics, decorating at the greenware stage. I don’t plan to fire these objects (considering sustainability), however I plan to experiment with adding other materials as I move this project forwards – playing with packaging? My research on the fridge has led to a fascination on what it means to create bespoke products in a mass produced object – how does that disrupt the narratives of my objects and the fridge? Next I will begin primary research and experiment with food waste within the process, creating sprig moulds and experiment with transfers to continue to develop a visual language to embroider more functional forms with meaning.
As i continue to work on the research for my CP3, I am looking at the disconnect between people living in urban areas and the processes their food goes through from seed to plate. We do not associate food with the value of human labour and so we don't value food past its monetary value.
From this i am considering how i can visually elevate food past this value. I've began by exploring this through drawing and exploring pattern. Through this i have had the space to get to grips with why this problem leads to food waste as well as putting on my product design hat to consider how i can manipulate how people interact with food through ceramic objects.
Are they talking points ? or are they functional to go in the fridge? Am i going to make a bigger impact as objects within peoples homes or as pieces for the gallery?
drawings of vegetable farmers
the posture of the people that work on vegetable farms is quite interesting
pattern i developed
the drawings above served as a springboard for the form below. Im working out how i can put more layers into the vessels - this is something i really love about the pattern i created - the initial impact is that its quite pretty and traditional, but as you look closer you see the workers hunched over harvesting.
How can subliminals change the way people view these objects? the more detailed and beautiful, the more the viewer will look and be sucked into the object - as a talking point?
Perhaps they're better as objects to be exhibited in a fridge rather than used from a fridge
what does it mean to have bespoke objects within the fridge?
This form was the final experimental fridge totem i created, It draws from the disconnect in the suburban consumers mind between food and the process and human labour it takes to become that product
Experimenting with Food Waste
In the plaster workshop, i have began exploring the textures i can get from plaster casting food scraps. These will act as my return to sprig moulds.
How does being confronted with the detail of food waste impact the viewer?
tutorial - installation - play with the visuals of a trophy room
Beswick ducks
wallpaper
does it need to be an actual fridge? or can it be something else to set the context of the fridge in the viewers mind?
Beswick three flying ducks
I am somewhat fascinated by the imagery of these three flying ducks. Originally produced by Beswick factory in stoke on trent in 1938, they have come to symbolise suburbia. After being in coronation street between 1964 and 1987 part of the set for the character Hilda Ogden they also became a symbol for the working class. They're classic kitsch, comfortable and ridiculous. They were slipcast from mould and then passed on to the women employed by the factory to paint them.
They're seeing somewhat of a revival as people miss the comfort of kitsch seen in the homes of their grandparents and parents. The originals are now collectible and are worth a fair amount of money. How would its comfort be subverted if i cast them from food waste scraps? 70% of food waste comes from domestic settings - suburbia
Warping what is a comfortable classic symbol of suburbia and embroidiering the
https://www.independent.ie/life/home-garden/treasures-get-your-ducks-in-a-row-for-auction-36824065.html
Digital collage I designed (nov 2022) playing with vegetable textures to create the beswick flying ducks
Photography: Charlie ashman 2022
Photograph: charlie ashman 2022
photograph: martha wiles 2022
Processing Wild Clay
My work is focused on reconnecting the disconnect between the source of our food, and i recently had the opportunity to obtain wild clay from an organic farm in leicestershire. The word mould has three meanings; to form an object out of malleable material, a furry growth of minute fungi, and the upper topsoil of cultivated land. This connects my works narrative in a new way. If the objects are moulded from food that would have gone mouldy out of mould? I quite like the play on the linguistics of the word.
But the completed narrative of wild clay from an organic leicestershire farm to create objects to challenge our disconnect from farms is clear. It embroiders the objects with deeper meaning to connect them to the message im trying to get across through them.
first set of food waste sprig moulds
processing the wild clay
trying out applying the sprig moulds to a thrown vessel
close up details of the sprigs
Creating glaze from food waste - eggshells when fired can be used as a raw ingredient in glaze production in place of whiting - this enables me to waste even less food at home. Although eggshells are unavoidable waste it is still important i try to reduce the food waste i produce at home and the waste from the process of making these pieces. I also think it is important for me to understand where all the ingredients come from - reconnecting me to the process and materials of ceramics as i comment on the disconnect to the understanding of processes and materials in our food system.
egg shell glaze process
before firing - egg shells
after firing - CaO
A large part of the work i am doing for my project this week is trying to find case studies to create trophies for people that i believe are impacting food waste in manchester.
But I am finding it difficult to find people who want to talk to me. I tried to collect food waste from my neighbours but none of them did as my flyer suggested simply to fill a tiny plastic bag i gave with waste. Perhaps there is a social faux pas on confronting waste. It throws a spanner in my plans for my project slightly but it does demonstrate an interesting point that people do not want to confront or think about their waste - or give the time or effort to have their food waste be used.
Finding and recording heroes and rotters to inspire my trophies sketchbook scan. I have managed to arrange a meeting with Chef Ben to talk about his work in milk and honey hosting the zero waste supper club
Illustrated trophies from the V&A archive of metal cups - Why did these forms stand out for me?
How can they influence my work?
SKEUOMORPHISM - "An object or feature copying the design of a similar artefact in another material."
A term i discovered through an artist talk by Steve Dixon - how does replicating an invaluable object in mud - especially wild clay from a farm - affect my narrative? I think it gives the mud - a humble material from which our food grows from (not to mention a resource that is being destroyed by industrial farming) an elevated status. Therefore elevating the narrative about the value of the food we waste - directly correlating to my essay in CP3.
First trophy form
Planning of trophies
Overall i'm pleased with how my trophy came out. The delicate balance of the stack of vegetables was stretching what i thought would be possible in ceramics which is something i want to keep on doing in this project. Perhaps even pushing this feeling of imbalance would be an interesting direction to go. I think the sprigged elements work better as areas of texture rather than arranged into a narrative about the disconnect between the farm and field.
Going forwards, i will try adding lustres and experiment with glazing options on sprigged test tiles to try out at a smaller scale what effects i might like to try.
More research needs to be done on the types and reason for making trophies and i plan on adding more hand sculpted elements that are inspired by lidded vessels of Mitrichenko. I need to ensure i do not go astray from my intentions of making humourous vessels that tackle big problems: adding more handmade figures and elements will keep me on track.
scan from hand drawn "heroes and rotters" case study book showing ideas for converting the work chorlton grocery does into a trophy that celebrates it. It shows my plans to use helen beards Glycerin and underglaze technique to draw on bisqued or dry greenware parts on the base, to embroider further meaning into the piece
Next, i need to test my wild clay to create trophies - its stability, glazed look, what will it look like with lustres? It is more similar to terracotta and so what finish will i aim for when its glazed finish looks plasticy? What if i just glaze the areas i want to be finished with lustre? Do i need to buy lustre?
sprigging test tiles
Interview with Ben Limb - 29.11.22
I met with Ben just as the lunch service died down, initially sat in the lobby i see him running upstairs in a hurry and returning with a handful of carrots. After i buy a coffee and let him know i was there we sat down in the corner of the milk and honey restaurant. He runs a zero waste supper club and i was keen to understand how this club works.
I introduced my project and explained that i wanted to celebrate people who fight against food waste in new and exciting ways that could help people also want to challenge their own food waste. He then took me around the facilities at St Peters house and explained to me the chain that began the supper clubs. They work with fareshare (a food redistribution network) to receive food that would otherwise go to waste to fuel the resources for "the well" which is where students who are having trouble paying for food reach out to the service to receive food packages. Limb worked on creating flexible meal kits with spice blends, and all the ingredients you would need to create delicious recipes.
These food packages themselves aim to fight against food waste - made up of saved food, but also helping young people have confidence in cooking to be able to substitute ingredients and have an understanding of what flavours go together etc... Limb calls these versatile veg recipes. In a small room upstairs, there is all the food that goes into the well, Limb explains to me that occasionally they have an ingredient that either can't go into running milk and honey or the well, and this is the basis for the supper clubs. The supper clubs have existed in different forms, but with a preset menu, which Limb explained caused them to have to buy in a lot of ingredients (which as a non profit organisation doesn't really work out). The supper clubs aim to fund the well and the well provides the ingredients for the club - the system is ingenious.
I also asked him if there was a turning point at which he decided that made him confront food waste. His background as a chef began working in gastropubs, giving him the training as a chef, and he also worked with a group of foragers called fruits of the forage. Before industrialisation, the food system would work by small farms having orchards that then fed the city - but after cities became industrialised this system was no longer viable, so these orchards became abandoned. Fruits of the forage work by developing a network of farms that allowed them to pick the fruits from the orchards and making jams and chutneys to sell from fruit that would otherwise go to waste. This introduction into using waste was a beginning of Limbs work at milk and honey.
He also told me the worst food waste story he'd ever witnessed (a question i think i will ask everyone i interview). Working with a group that would agree to work on hunts to have access to a couple free birds to then cook with, he was told that the men on the hunt kept saying how pleased they were that the birds were being used for something as quite often the game keepers can't find anywhere to sell the 30-40 birds hunts might shoot, and so they dig a pit and bury the excess of birds they just shot. Shocking behaviour.
From this interview, i am going to do some drawings to develop a visual language to then feed into the design of a trophy.
Unicorn Grocery Inspired Trophy
artists own image - going into the bisque kiln
artists own image - beginning the glazing using monoprint technique
This second trophy is celebrating unicorn grocery. I haven't been able to get an interview as of yet - but i plan to speak to someone in the new year. The design uses my hand building and sculpting skills a lot more than the previous, and is much better planned out. The foundations of each element had been perfected in previous experiments i had thought of through making such as the leaves and the piped elements.
I think I've improved on the visual humour from last time and I am currently pleased with how the drawn glazed bits looks. And the addition of lustre will add an element of value and shine to the piece.
I still need to glaze the first cup and use it as a springboard for how i want the glaze to look.
I really struggled to work out how to glaze the trophies. To help understand how i wanted them glazed, i created sprigged testers that i can test glazes and then lustres on them.
The gold lustre i ordered frustratingly hasn't arrived yet - and so i am trying to get to grips with understanding lustre on my families christmas presents and these samples. Hopefully to get an idea of thicknesses and application processes.
I also tried out a sample of a premixed glaze that emulates the colour of wedgwood pieces - to further borrow imagery from traditional narrative ceramics.
The time i had over christmas gave me space to reflect on my project so far. I feel I am at a critical point in the project where i must create the bulk of my work, but also begin to set up the community based part of this project.
The ability to fight against food waste these trophies tackle lies in the publicity they give the small organisations fighting for change. I said in my essay, that the platform an object gives for conversation about a cause is key to this project. But to tie the loose ends of this project together, i need to organise an event where these conversations will take place.
This is where the context of my project will take shape. An awards ceremony where i invite the community of people dedicated to challenging food waste to be celebrated, each receiving a ceramic medal. The centerpiece of the award ceremony will be the trophies and hopefully the visual language will open up new channels of collaboration, but also publicity to the problem, and subsequent solution of food waste.
I'm terrified of organising an event like this, and sticking my neck out to invite people i don't know very well, but one of my new year's resolutions every year is to take more risks. High risk high reward and this year i'm actually going to do what I've said. I've got to - so that this project makes sense... and a difference to stopping food waste.
Proposal image from CP3 - illustrating my intentions for this project.
I really hate glazing
and so, I need to work on it more because at the moment, its letting down my trophies final appearance. At christmas i collected food waste and put it on the fire to create ash from wasted food to use in glazes. Following Dan Cox's advise, I'm going to make an ash glaze to experiment with on my trophies.
I am also going to create a tin and clear earthenware glaze out of the eggshells i have made into whiting.
Finally, i need to test the strength of cobalt and work on making sure my illustrations don't run when i apply glaze on top - so that the illustrations remain clear and stronger than my initial tests.
Hopefully by starting these trophies earlier, i will have given myself more time to work on their glazes and test them thoroughly before the final thing. BINGO
Ash Glaze - first test
After soaking the ash, separating the organic material and drying it out, I followed the simple recipe Dan Cox sent me.
50:50 ash and china clay - which gave me this thick white chalky matte glaze.
I'm really happy with the opacity of it and and when the kilns are firing again after the strikes im excited to see how it looks on the wild clay.
First Week Back post christmas - kick starting with a bang
Thrown bodies of the trophies - much bigger than before
Nearly finished built trophy for milk and honey
I wanted to use the weeks we have before our teaching begins to get a strong start to the year - especially because i now know how long making these trophies takes me. If i want to have a collection of them in the same detail, i'm going to have to put the hours in. But anyway, the trophies are taking shape, and i am happy with them, but not 100% on how much the visual language conveys without additional context.
I was reading The Comfort of Things by Daniel Miller last night and he explained how a person's collection of possessions in a room cannot be read in a narrative way, instead the whole picture of all of them is what we read and understand about a person from a room.
I think this is where i am struggling to place the visual language of the trophy. How can i make an object that gives you all the information at once, with minimal words give a person with no understanding of my work and clear picture of what it's trying to say?
My Options:
add more words to the trophies to make the subsequent visual language more readable in the right contexts
Contextualise the trophies with a title that explains all
Create a leaflet / flyer that is similarly BEAUTIFULLY illustrated to give information that can be taken away to educate the viewers on my project, and therefore how they can reduce food waste and how/ why they should support the organisations im celebrating.
trophy before firing - now i need to resolve my glaze and test it so it won't run....
I began to experiment with my letterpress stamps and upcycled tin cans to consider making plaques for the trophies so that there is a metal element
I need to practice how the letters are stamped it - a visit to metal is needed
and i need to cut the metal to size and consider how cutting it affects the ridges and if i would like the ripples and texture of the various cans to be evident on the final pieces - ULTIMATELY...
IS THE CAN A RELEVANT ADDITION TO THE NARRATIVE OF MY TROPHIES ??
test using letterpress stamps to imprint the plaques with words
Wild Clay is Brutal
wild clay trophy as i worked on adding the figures etc
the wild clay when i found the cracks once it had disintegrated
further images of the damage
image showing the complete breakdown the clay at the base of the trophy
i had been working on this piece for roughly 12 hours - it had taken a while to turn and then sprig and i was really happy with how it had turned out so far.
I then went for lunch - giving a quick light spritz of water to keep it workable - i had been away from it for about 10 minutes when i got a message from someone working in the studio that it had broken.
I think i tried to push the abilities of the wild clay too far, and hadn't tested it properly. I'm still confused as to why it broke apart to such a massive degree. Its as if it was fully dry and slaked.
going forwards
I will have to continue experimenting with the wild clay to work out its limitations.
I'm researching if there's anything i could add to the clay to prevent it from cracking like this again but i will need to work out what caused the cracking like this to work out what i can add to it to prevent this from happening again. My options could be to add paper pulp, grog (shrinks less), or ball clay. I perhaps should have turned the pieces periodically so that all the water wouldn't pool at the bottom.
Other options can be to use a damp box - placing the piece on damp plaster and sealing it so that i'm not constantly adding and losing water - therefore less shrinkage etc.
example of how difficult the wild clay is to throw - issues with the plasticity. To remedy this, i have began processing more wild clay that includes recycled other clays that are more plastic - like almington and ivory stoneware.
part of the method to reduce the chances of cracking - a moist plaster batt that allows water to drain out of the base slowly and protecting the rim with damp tissue to prevent any stress in the body due to differences in shrinkage.
RESOLUTION
During a tutorial with Geoff, he made it clear that my work currently lacks resolution - so for the past week, i have been working hard on creating small tests to iron out the flaws within my work. The key points i worked on this week were:
scan from my sketchbook showing the research i did to prevent my underglaze from running
- underglaze drawing running
- not one successful wild clay trophy fired yet
- the finish of the clear glaze - tin shiny glaze would be more traditional and give a more polished finish
-gold lustre hasn't been tested yet
- some cracks and warping in the final pieces
- the depth and deepness of the cobalt glaze on the detail of the sprigging
and so, I have began making smaller tests that are polished, but not massive so they won't take as long, also giving myself an opportunity to reflect on the forms of the final pieces
test sprigged wild clay that i can use to test glazes, the strength of the clay and practice my sprigging on it.
Bisqued Trophy - I am working on the glazes and making sure that they're resolved before going any further with this piece.
detailed shot of the trophy in its bisqued stage
Test of letterpress stamps on sardine can that might be used as a plaque for the trophies.
I need to consider the implications of using the tin can plaques and how they'll look with the lustre - will the gold lustre make it obvious that the gold plaque isn't real gold. The skeuomorphism of the whole piece questions why i would use actual metal for the the plaque when i'm referencing metal forms for the form already.
Planning and resolving for submission
This week i began throwing my final wild clay trophies, during throwing, realising that in order for the trophies to work as a set, i would have to measure out the size i need for the handles to nestle into each other - so i did a lot of maths and drawings.
I plan to remake the MUD trophy, redesigning it to sit next to the trophy for milk and honey, and learning from my mistakes with the last trophies design.
Breaking down the dimensions and visual narrative of the next pieces
Following up from last weeks efforts to resolve some of the work i began, I glazed the vases I made last week. Using the techniques i researched last week, I sprayed the vases with fixative before spraying on either tin shiny glaze or the clear shiny glaze I made from egg shells.
After testing, it's clear the tin shiny eggshell glaze recipe is flawed as it either crazed when too thick or when thin was very matt, meaning lustre will not shine when applied on top.
When considering this, I can't help but remember a conversation with Joe Hartley, in which he said that if your going to use food waste in the production of pieces, your narrative ought to have a fundamental connection to what food waste im using.
The niche of food waste I'm tackling is challenging societies motivations to appreciate where our food comes from and goes - and whilst egg shells are wasted, they're large unavoidable waste (cannot consume). Therefore, I am going to focus on developing my ivory stoneware trophies using the premixed tin shiny glazes. Similarly - if i am going to include metal letter pressed tin cans, i should use cans that represent the organisation that the trophies are for - eg not using sardine cans for a vegan restaurant.
Throwing to exact dimensions of my drawing
Mini wild clay glaze tests - now i need to plan and experiment with different glaze options
The wild clay trophies can't be glazed with cobalt hand drawn illustrations - I have to consider what i will decorate the base boxes of the final wild clay trophies - eg ash glaze / lustres / indentations or sprigging.
resolved monoprinted test vase - using thick cobalt glycerin mix, sprayed with fixative and sprayed with tin shiny glaze
Resolving Cobalt Monoprinting
I was relieved to find that the small vase tests I made to test the effects of spraying fixative onto the drawn surface before spraying with glaze were successful with tin glaze - the high flux of clear shiny glaze made it run.
It allowed for more room for error when applying the glaze - room that my lack of skill when glazing requires. It gave the pieces a crisp white finish AND the drawing wasn't running down the vessel - i can now glaze the large final trophy and lustre it so it will be complete !!
test of glaze on wild clay - ash glaze in stamped phrases
mushroom sprigged wild clay test
sprigged test with additional figure - does the use of slogan add clarity to the meaning of the pieces?
Mock up on Procreate to understand how the three final pieces would work together, adding colour and working out where the lustre will go
By testing the lustre on my previous pieces, i gained an idea of how thick it needed to go on, how much i would use in the process and the shade that the lustre would go on the different clay bodies and glazes.
first final wild clay trophy - i now need to decide whether i want to add slogan and / or ash glaze to add white details - particularly on the base.
Mock Ups for Wild Clay Trophy
the white parts would be indented at greenware and then filled with ash glaze to give a chalky crisp white line and the gold is where it would be glazed and lustred
Considering the use of tin can plaques instead of stamped ash glaze details - plus thinking of slogan to add context and working out where it should be lustred.
Use of words and slogan
The phrases and slogans i have placed on the plinth sections of the trophies relate to the organisations they are made to honour. In Platt Fields Market Garden it says on wooden signs "grow what you can" and i added to the back a phrase to contextualise how that phrase relates to my project and food waste - "because food is grown not made"
On the trophy for unicorn grocery i looked to a slogan they put on the sides of their tote bags "Occupy our food Supply" and for the reference on the back, a slightly different influence - to the world of regenerative agriculture and in particular Andy Cato - founder of Wildfarmed. "If you don't like the system, don't depend on it"
The words are important for the pieces to be interpreted to be about the food system and to make them more poignant conversation pieces.
Developing the final trophy
Making the final trophy, i have the opportunity to have the others next to it to understand how they will work as a trio. I initially had planned to have large intricate leaves, but i found when i made them they looked clunky and covered up a lot of the sprigging.
SO i adapted the design and chopped them off and redesigned a more dainty version that still represented Unicorn Grocery.
Workshop notes from the development of the final trophy - It is an adaption from my earlier design which i completed in ivory stoneware, to the new dimensions.
You can also see where i work out the graphics and even Kerning and placement of the slogan on the base of the piece.
final wild clay trophy for Unicorn Grocery - most ambitious yet with the neck being see through - im really happy with the outcome of representing the community and co-op attitudes that unicorn takes to providing a food system.
Lustre
Today I lustred all my final pieces, to the right is the wild clay test piece to see how the gold went on and the final finish on the wild clay.
The process of lustring all the last pieces was rewarding, seeing all the pieces next to each other and how i succeeded in making them all fit together as a trio. The intensity of the process on the senses felt like the final push to resolving the process.
Now i need to consider how i would like to take the final pictures in context, finding plinths and understanding the context that they would be placed in to make the biggest splash.
Wild clay Lustre test
I used the lustre, not only to add value to the clay, but also to deepen the visual narrative of the pieces. For example, i lustred the piped slip that represents the soil to highlight the importance of soil in the growth of our food, and the leaves of the carrots to highlight the value of the whole food and the value that even the parts we don't usually eat have.
Looking at these last two trophies with my previous work sat beside me does make me feel proud of the resolution i've achieved. The last trophy for unicorn grocery has no cracks no slumping no craggy edges. To me it demonstrates the how far i have come in terms of resolution of these objects, understanding the limits and requirements of the material and processes Ive developed.
All three trophies ready before lustring
finished trophy photographed finished and lustred
wild clay trophy for unicorn grocery finished
wild clay trophy for Manchester Urban Diggers
Adding Context
To photograph the work in context, i wanted to take them to an allotment or area where food is grown to allow them to be pictured with their intended narrative. I took them to manchester urban diggers to get them photographed with the people and place that inspired one of them. I felt it was also important to get them pictured in peoples hands for scale and to see them working as objects out in the community as conversation pieces.
Trophy from Manchester Urban Diggers, held by one of the creators of MUD - a lovely completion of narrative at the community garden
photograph by Charlie Ashman
