plastic 01

First batch of plastic packaging collected from local shops. I had to eat a lot of steamed puddings and veggie sausages before I could start the next phase of the project... Luckily I could decant the washing products into other, less interesting containers.

upcycle

Plaster cast of supermarket foam packaging for pears

Researching pottery fragments for the enclosures project, I was fascinated by the origins of the word 'ostracism' and the cultural links between ceramics and plastics;

"In ancient Greece, when it was proposed that a particular person should be sent into exile for a period, because he was becoming a danger to the state, a democratic vote was taken on the matter. The method of registering one’s vote was to inscribe the name of the prospective banishee on a piece of broken pottery. The pieces were counted, and if enough votes were cast against him away he would go for ten years. The fragment of pottery was called an óstrakon, a word related to Greek ostéon ‘bone’ (source of the English prefix osteo-) and óstreon ‘oyster’ (source of English oyster). To cast such a vote was therefore ostrakízein (whence English ostracize (17th c.), and the abstract now derived from this was ostrakismós, source of English ostracism." word-origins.com

In ancient times, pottery shards were so commonplace that they could be treated as disposable voting chits; 

'Pottery was the plastic of ancient times - Just as today plastic can be found littering the countryside, in ancient times it was pottery that was strewn around' - Professor Klaas Worp

I want to explore these links further, contrasting the two materials and the way that they are perceived. The simplicity, economy and beauty of plastic packaging is often overlooked and it is seen as no more than litter and an example of mans wastefulness. Making slip-cast earthenware pots based on disposable plastic packaging will hopefully create more valuable, long living objects and give an opportunity to admire the neatness and refinement of the original packaging forms.

Step one is to gather some interesting packaging and create some plaster moulds...

summer break

Term finished, time for a short break and a chance to start working with clay again over the coming months.

enclosure

Final project for first year and I got into grave goods, fragmented pots and archeological slabs...

hammared aluminium bowls with gold and silver leaf

 

attempts at tile making from plaster moulds 

an archeological slab... or a plaster pannel (as per previous post) which went very wrong.

plaster

All the Pretty Little Horses

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,

Go to sleepy little baby.

When you wake, you shall have,

All the pretty little horses.

Blacks and bays, dapples and greys,

Go to sleepy you little baby,

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,

Go to sleepy little baby.

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,

Go to sleepy little baby,

When you wake, you shall have,

All the pretty little horses.

  

Way down yonder, down in the meadow,

There's a poor little lamby.

The bees and the butterflies pickin' at its eyes,

The poor wee thing cried for her mammy.

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,

Go to sleepy little baby.

When you wake, you shall have,

All the pretty little horses.

All the Pretty Little Horses is a Southern US traditional African-American lullaby. Plaster casting of deformed lambs originally grew out of a project titled 'enclosure'  

sunshine

watching the fulmers swoop and glide over the cliffs and getting no work done... 

tiles

Tiles have long obsessed me and trips to Portugal where so many houses are covered in Almodavaresque colour clashing designs has re-ignited my interest....

... so I have signed up to some tile making evening classes and look forward to being able to make some successfully flat ones - my past attempts have always curled up at the edges...

**UPDATE** unfortunately the course has been cancelled due to lack of interest. Maybe next term.