During this week I had an aim to create a more solid project, while still experimenting with creating. With the new focus on death and new knowledge about plaster casting, I created a cast of a bone which I found while Mudlarking. I loved this process since it gave me time to think about how learning new processes and techniques for me, is part of growing and developing.
This thinking lead me to come up with thoughts about how the circle of life with clay, from processing to firing, is linked to everyone’s own personal development.
I immediately went out to a building site at Kings cross and asked some of the builders if I could take some of the clay they were digging away. They let me and I was then able to return to the studio with fresh clay to be processed.
I used this clay and clay i already had from home (Dorset) to press into the plaster mold. I wanted to be able to look at the two clays next to each other and compare them, looking at the texture, colour and character of them.
In response to the Salisbury museum artefacts, I used a coiling technique to create a vessel that resembled the structure of the vessels I saw at the museum. The wide walls and strong build were a result of the poor firing techniques they used to use, this shape and structure increased the survival rate of the pieces. I attached the clay bones I had made to the piece as a way of looking at how they would dry on clay.
With the rest of the Kings Cross clay i threw an Urn on the wheel, I designed the piece after looking at the Salisbury Museum Urns and researching them further in my artefact research.
I loved this piece, I hadn’t thrown in a while and it was great to be back on the wheel and creating something I hadn’t before, using clay I hadn’t used before. I have used my own process clay before but the texture and way the Kings Cross clay responded to being used was completely different and a really important step for me in this unit. I think having that direct link with the ground around Kings cross and being able to create this piece from sourcing to decorating was a very satisfying moment for me.