moving on... a bit

sand-cast from some of the litter I picked up on my walks, above all from Black Rock - some finds not appropriate to make vessels from but sand-casting could be an interesting way to document them.

getting creative about handles... could I combine my schizophrenic town/country life and cast country twigs to make handles for my town pots?

or how about leaves?

first litter casts

a group of unfired casts from the first walk

some of the forms modified to obscure them and make useless. 

I hit on the enclosed top idea while testing out ways to cast a more even rim - the top is supposed to be carved off to reveal evenly thick walls but there is something intriguing about the enclosure, hiding away. It also helps to unify the group and remove them a little from their origins - to be explored further..

test casts

While moulds for found litter drying out I have been exploring plastic food packaging in more detail. I started with probiotic yogurt drink bottles. They are fantastically wasteful - a new tiny bottle for each day... imagine the mountain of plastic waste of a family of four drinking one of these things a day would create...

The tiny bottles are a great size and shape to play around with and I have been casting glass, wax, plaster and ceramic versions of them. Being small I can experiment away without wasting too many resources.

plaster

white glazed earthenware

glass

It has been a great way to investigate form and materials so far and I am thinking of continuing with gold leaf, crystal encrusted and aluminium cast versions - adding value to the disposable and creating permanence are two of the key elements of the project

litter

First part of project involves exploring the city and collecting plastic packaging litter, mapping and archiving as I go...

... surprising lack of good litter in centre, I had to walk to the edges of town to find the best rubbish. Three long walks all started out sparse but hit bingo at the city fringes; Black Rock, Patcham Playing fields and Portslade Beach/Shoreham Harbour.

I am creating slip-cast ceramic versions of my finds - modified in some way to maybe create a new use or perhaps to prevent all use.

While walking I took photos to help visually map my routes...

... images which might influence final decoration of the ceramics or may find their way into a book/images that are displayed with the ceramics. I am trying hard to not be too prescriptive at this point and allow the project to develop organically.