Natural Shapes

Experimenting with natural shapes to see if there's anything that could be designed from them.

Design ideas to experiment with in claywork. Also need to experiment more with natural forms and casting.

Katrina Tyler - "Pieces of Eight"

Ideas from Natural Forms

Studying different natural objects, such as pinecones and seeds, to see if any ideas for a final piece can be developed from them..

 Ideas for jewellery/casting I could do..

Turned out to be quite difficult to cast, as pinecone tended to squash.. could try again and stuff sand into the gaps to create a more rounded shape.

Had a few ideas to do with casting sycamore seeds and hanging them up in display or some form if installation, but when I tried to cast them, I couldn't get all of the fine detail, so I might combine ceramics and metal to make it work more effectively..

Created some sycamore seed shapes in ceramics with oxides, and sketched some ideas of what I could make with them.

Ideas for a potential final piece? Idea of something valuable being broken, but something new growing from it, this could be in the form of cast metal shoots, or ferns..

Studies of sycamore seeds and natural forms..

Value in Money

Decided to explore money, coins and notes as it's something which a lot of people place their value in.

Some photography of money:

I took some studies from the coins/notes to see if I could use them in some way to relate to my project..

I found it interesting how in many forms of money, from any culture, natural forms, plants and animals were used to decorate something we value and tend to rely on.

I also found an example of coins being used to make jewellery from "Hairy Growler Jewellery" which I find quite interesting:

This led me on to a few possible ideas..

Possible design for a brooch or necklace pendant? The coins have lost their value, but have been given a new purpose. Through this, objects could be appreciated in a new way..

Melting Money - lost it's value..

Clare Twomey - "Scribe"

Twomey's "Scribe" gave me an idea to leave an imprint of a natural object on the surface of the clay with clay dust surrounding it.

Ceramics - Natural Forms

Experimenting with pressing sycamore seeds and leaves into clay and using oxides to bring them out..

Before firing:

After firing:

Some ideas for developing this technique..

Could create a series of vessels, one with leaves pressed into untreated clay, one with oxides and another with aged-looking clay with the shape of the leaf sprayed on so only the imprint is left.

Cornelia Parker - "Alter Ego"

Parker's "Alter Ego" has an underlying theme of value. Identical objects, but one has been rendered useless. If something has lost it's use, has it lost it's value? Also good to reference for display ideas.