Site Visits
In this project, we started with visiting Material Source Studio, this visit has given me lots of inspiration and had a big impact on my work. I have an idea to work with sustainable materials, using waste to reproduce designs.
Visits That Inform My Practice
Strange Clay Exhibition
Looking at the colour palette of the works, and the unexpected ways of using the materials- clay. The works are weird which leads me to think of new ways of creating works, and materials innovations that shock traditional making. Also, as our group is looking at space separation, this exhibition inspired me to look at how the curation and set-up can be done, it is interesting to see it like space separation too.
Tate Modern visits
An exhibition of Magdalena Abakanowicz. She creates radical sculptures from woven fibre, she has a strong connection to the natural world and the biological, organic matter of life. She weaves with sisal, which is the fibre from a flowering plant, and sometimes incorporates wool and horsehair. Her works are using so many organic materials, I am inspired by her work and think about the material decisions, can I be more sustainable and use organic materials in my work?
The left: Chilean artist and poet Cecilia Vicuña's Brain Forest Quipu is a multi-part installation made up of sculpture, sound, music and video. The installation is woven together using a range of organic materials, including found objects, unspun wool, plant fibres, rope and cardboard to evoke the look of bleached-out trees and ghostly forms.
The right: Plaster sculptures and installations by Maria Bartuszová.
These are the works in Tate Modern that lead me to think about organic matter and installations and space usage.
Richard Slee "Sunlit Uplands" Exhibition
The curating of this exhibition is amazing. The ceramic sculptures grouping together and looks like a little fairy land. The colour used in the pieces is very vibrant, her colour palette is pastel and soft colours, which also gives out the vibe of fairy tale and wonderland. I think the colour usage in this exhibition also fits our group project colour theme.
Liverpool Tate Visit
This exhibition in Liverpool Tate has inspired me to look at using waste to recreate art pieces. Those art pieces and installations are using dried fruits, some waste packaging and collected waste glass objects to make artwork,
Sustainable Materials Design/ Colours/ Glazes Inspiration From Books
Wasted by Katie Treggiden
This book is the start of my sustainable design research, it opens my eyes to how different artists use sustainable materials to design products. I then keep on developing my ideas on this.
Radical Matter by Kate Franklin and Caroline Till
This book gave me insight into examples of how artists use sustainable materials to make different designs. The project Dust Matters is one of my favourites. I use it as one of my reference.
The Colour Bible by Laura Perryman
I have researched and bought Laura Perryman's 'The Colour Bible' because of one session of the Inspirer Series Talks. Her researches are rich and the colour usage of hers inspires me a lot and also very matches our group's project theme.
Natural Glazes by Miranda Forrest
I have researched a lot about how to make glazes with natural and sustainable materials. This book has all the information about how to make glazes with natural resources. I wanted to use oyster shells to make glazes so this book has helped me a lot.
Further Research That Inform My Practice
Jade Ruijzenaars - Shrimp Shells Glazes
She uses shrimp shells to create ceramic glazes. I found her work on Future Materials Bank which I think is very interesting, I read about her work descriptions and process, to help me think about how to make my own sustainable glazes.
I have also visited some websites to research and learn more about sea shells, like what are they made of, and some theories about them. This information helps me to understand the material and know how to use the elements in them for making glazes.
Private Collection Visits
I have been inspired by these two objects that are shown in the Private Collections, the shape of the Crochet Diamond, which is 3D printed. And the Ohmie The Orange Lamp, which is 3D printed with sustainable materials- orange peels.
Dalle 2 Creations
In the lesson, I learned how to use Dalle to generate images with some word descriptions that I gave it. Below are some images that I imagine with my kite shape objects display.
Group Project Theme
Colours palette- Red, blue, orange and purple
Project Content: Curating space. Separating spaces with different objects and projections. Combining all the objects and pieces into coherent atmosphere. And curate the space to look playful and interactive. Separating can be a negative word, but on the other hand it can be playful and fun.
Key Words: Sustainable. Found objects. Sustainable materials. Bio Design. Waste. Playful. Colourful.
Oyster Shells As The Sustainable Material For My Project
I have collected a bunch of oyster shells from my friend, he is a chef working in a fine dining restaurant, having lots of oyster shell waste every day in the kitchen. The amount of waste is huge that I thought, maybe I can use the oyster shells to make ceramic glazes? Oyster shells are made of calcium carbonate, when the shells grind down into fine powders, they can be used as whiting as a raw material to make glazes.
Final Outcome Design Sketches
I am designing some ceramic objects for applying glaze on them. As to fit the unit X project theme, I am thinking to do something digital. I am currently learning about how to use Fusion 360 to design objects, Fusion 360 is a new skill for me, because I have never used it before. I have used Rhino to design objects to 3D print before, but Rhino is no longer free for student now so I am not able to use it.
I have inspired by the oyster shell shape and wish to design something similar and related to oyster shells. Below is my sketches and what I am imagining for the final outcome.
Fusion 360
I have designed a kite shape object in Fusion 360. It will be printed multiples, I will 3D print them as ceramics. I am imagining after I printed them out, I could then patch them up like a puzzle. I decided to design a kite shape because it can be patch up with different direction and become different patterns and pictures, like my sketches presenting.
3D Printing
I have printed the designs out. I will fire them and glaze them with oyster shell glazes.
Oyster Shells Glaze Making Process
After collecting the oyster shells, the first step is to keep washing and brushing the oyster shells to remove all the dirt and salt on the surfaces. I have been washing them for 4-5 days, then I place them on a wood board until they are fully dried. Finally, I fire them in the kiln, wanting to get a crisp bisque state of them.
These are the oyster shells after bisque firing. They turned into a very fragile state, a slight touch can break them easily. This is in the state that I can crush them with a mortar and pestle. After crushing all the oyster shells down, I use a mesh to mesh the powder into a finer powder.
In the next step, I will mix the glaze and apply them to the stoneware test tiles I have prepared. For the glaze, I have tried out five different formulas to see what are the different effects.
Below are the tests before firing: The first one is base glaze mix with oyster shells(whiting). The second one is clear stoneware glaze mix with pink stains and oyster shells. The third one is clear stoneware glaze mix with red stains, blue underglaze and oyster shells. The fourth is clear stoneware glaze mix with blue underglaze and oyster shells.
And below is the fifth, only oyster shells powder mix with water. I have fired it to 1280。c, this is the final fired result of it. The result is too powdery, it is not even a glaze, but just whiting.
Final Look of The Test Tiles
Open Studio Festival Work In Progress
Our group has put our work in progress on the table of the open studio. My oyster shells test tiles and a 3D-printed ceramic object were displayed together with other group mates' works for the event. I think they look great together. The colour scheme and the shapes were matching up.
Next step I will continue to produce more work for the Material Source Exhibition in May.
References
1. http://lucielibotte.com/xxx
2. https://www.science.org.au/curious/earth-environment/sea-shells
3. https://www.futurematerialsbank.com/material/shrimp-shells/
4. Perryman, L. 'The Colour Bible', London.
5. Forrest, M. 'Natural Glazes', London.
6. Franklin, K., Till, C. 'Radical Matter', London.
