Ceramics
After our visit to Newstead, we were shown how to make plaster discs. We rolled out chunks of clay using the clay rolling machine. Then we took leaves and flowers and imprinted them on the clay. I chose to use some leaves, flowers and a piece of lace for my plaster discs because I liked how this gave a delicate effect to my work. After I had finished imprinting the leaves and flowers into the clay, I placed circular holders around the patterns that I wanted the plaster liquid to go in.
We then took our designs into the plaster room and mixed plaster with water so that we could pour it into the clay moulds. This process took about 45 mins to set, after our discs had dried, we were able to take them out. Here are the results:
I was pleased with how my plaster discs turned out, my favourite one is the middle disc. I love how detailed it came out, plus the darkness from the clay adds a beautiful dimension to the disc. On the last disc I do wish there was more detail on the lace around leaf, if I had done this again, I would have used a different lace pattern. As I don't think this lace pattern provided the detail that I wanted.
Ceramic Developments
I enjoyed making the ceramic plaster discs for the Newstead exhibition, so I decided to make some more. I started out by cutting out some clay and and then imprinting the lace like material into the clay, 50 pence coins were also pressed into the clay and overlapped each other to create a chain like pattern:
I then placed a holder on to my clay and then mixed up some plaster and poured it into my mould. 40 minutes after my plaster mould was ready, here are the results:
The outcomes of my plaster discs were really good, i like how defined each pattern was within the mould. In outcome 1, I chose to do the chain design to represent the bondage of slavery, enslaved Africans often had chains around their neck and hands so that their masters could punish them. In outcome 2 I drew parts of the lagetta lagetto plant and drew small slave ships. Finally in outcome 3, i imprinted some traditional lace into my clay mould, which is a contrast from the tree bark lace that the slaves used.
Using clay as a medium made my plaster discs seem more historical and fossil like. It almost represents an object from the past. I wanted to show that even though slavery happened in the past it is still engrained into Africans because it is a part of our story. Some of the aspects that i would improve about my ceramic discs, is smoothing out the edges in outcome 3 and using actual leaves to imprint my clay on outcome 2 so that I could have a more detailed finish.
Artist that have underpinned my work
Ruth Welter is a ceramic artist from Orlando Florida, she makes botanical ceramic discs that are inspired by nature, here are few pictures of her work:
I love how detailed each one of her ceramic discs capture every detail of the leaves and flowers. Her discs also look clean and neat which is another aspect that i like. my work and Ruth's both have very strong connections to nature. When i was at Newstead abbey we took leaves and flowers from the garden and used them for our plaster discs.
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