Cynefin A Hiraeth
Longing and Habitat
‘Our materials come to us already ground and chipped and crushed and powdered and mixed and sliced … little chance - to handle materials, to test their consistency, their density, their lightness, their smoothness.’ Albers, A. (1965). Cited in Harrod, T. (2018). Craft. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery.
This project aims to create raw glass from one beach in wales. Collecting sand, shells, and plants, the basic materials needed to make glass; allowing me to have full involvement in the process and a tactile understanding. This project will define a sense of place through a material, following the journey of these materials and documenting the processing and refinement of raw glass. The material will be a direct response to the landscape. Its colour is a consequence of these sourced materials and the form further defines its origins.
Ash.
With seaweed being less abundant on the beach, bracken from the woodland close to the beach was a better source of plant material. Collecting dying, dry or invasive plants, and burning them to make ash. Collected in bundles and dried, I had to allow for loss of material through factors such as wind Also, the ash couldn't be trusted to be pure with other organic materials either being bundled up with the bracken or attaching to it while drying. Plant ash was used in early European glass, the use of ash as a flux turning the glass green and is a key identifier for a glass artifact's origin.
Sand
Collecting and cleaning sand took a series of steps; soaking, rinsing and finally drying. This was repeated numerous times, this had similar issues to the processing of ash. The sand itself would contain contaminants and the process of drying and cleaning meant other contaminants could affect the material. Using beach sand means I have to be cautious about contaminants and salt. Organic material will cause variations in my glass and salt when heated can corrode the kiln.
Shells
The shells gathered had to be washed similarly to the sand continuously washing them to remove any salt. The shells were vacated and none of the shells contained life yet, I had to fire the shells in a kiln to remove any leftover organic residue. After firing the shells were brittle so I was able to break them down firstly in a pestle and mortar, then in a ball-mill turning the shells to powder.
Mix
My first tests comprised the raw forms of the ingredients. Above I show to get a more even mix of materials, I used a ball mill to crush and mix my recipe to achieve an even grain size. My recipe comprised of sand, shell, ash, soda ash, quartz, and a carrying agent.
Samples
The images above show my initial tests when firing my own material. This was a basic mixture comprising mainly of sand, shells, ash, and soda ash. There were inconsistencies in the material with hexagonal crystals on the surface and chunks of un-mixed shell left over from the fire. The next step for this project is to explore the application. Testing the material to see if it behaves like glass.
Inclusion
I started by including the glass in the available studio glass (bommer) at the university. However, rather than melting and bonding to the studio glass, my material was treated more as an inclusion. This causes stress in both materials meaning they are not compatible.
Hotshop Test
Considering the application of my material, I wanted to test how it behaved in the hot shop. Loading shards and chunks of glass in the top loader and bringing it up to 525°. I picked them up and heated them. The material lost heat faster than bommer glass and had less elasticity. The glass seemed to break down the more I heated and manipulated it yet, it still had similar traits to standard hot shop glass. It still melted and softened, I was able to work it and it did anneal without cracking.
Is it glass?
This comes down to its application. Does the material I have made resemble the qualities of glass? In several firings yes, the material is clear and when broken is sharp, yet in later firings and through testing the material made doesn't flow or cast. It melts in the hot shop yet doesn't behave like glass, unable to stretch or blow out. So what is it? Or what could it be? Through considering application I attempted to polish my material. I was able to work the material, I could cut and polish it. This opened up new avenues to explore. With the understanding that this material could be used and worked to create polished objects I could work back in my concept of raw to refined, rather than casting an object from the beach I could celebrate the raw form of my material and show its refinement. Going through stages of the material being worked, from one side cut and polished to a cube of refined material.
Polishing.
The conclusion of this material not being glass but something more a representation of place through materiality led me to the refinement of the material. Polishing and cutting the material means i can celebrate its qualities, giving me scope for its application to other crafts.
Celebration to Application.
Letting go of 'glass' meant I could now explore the material and its own application and definition. I started to define the material, drawing connections to its manufactured origin and gemstones. Gemstones, precious stones, and minerals are consequences of geological processes. These processes lead and dictate the formation of minerals and gems, such processes as metamorphism turning once sedimentary rock into metamorphic rocks with mineral inclusions and other Earth processes producing hot mineral rich liquids that create gemstones. The discovery and mining of such materials is often harmful and can lead to humanitarian and environmental issues. This is where my material first starts to challenge these norms, my material is of my own intervention. Collecting with consideration of environmental factors, cleaning and processing in a responsible, considered manner and being continually conscious of what impact the steps to make my material has. Further, gemstones and materials are often a representation of these geological processes and are often identified by the process the rock went through. However, the precious gems and stones mined as a result of these processes are often sold and represent as an embodiment of their geographical origins. Such as certain gems being named after the location of discovery, Topaz being named after an island in the Red Sea and Labradorite being named after a region in Canada, Labrador. This is where my material again challenges these norms, rather then a embodiment of place due to its discovery and name, my materials origins and making are all a direct a correlation to place and is as much a product of place than it is a representation of it. Hence my material can be considered a contemporary "geological' representation of place, being subjected to all modern contaminants and pollution. To contextualise the material and to hint at its application to jewellery I brass casted small beads I had made in the hotshop. Using simple brass forms surrounding; a raw chunk of material, a large clumsy bead and a more refined bead. This elaborated the material quality in various states and as the material is refined into beads so is the brass surrounding them becoming more uniform.