Week 2

Given project the Maker's Palette this week in which we were asked to pick an object from a selection available and once chosen to interrogate that object through drawing and annotation in order to identify the reasons for the selection.  These reasons provide a starting point for investigations as well as revealing what drives us as practioners.

The object I had chosen was a Gestetner Symbols Plate together with its outer cardboard sleeve and it was the sleeve I was drawn to.

Initially it was the colours I was drawn to - the duck egg blue/green backgound and bronze typography- which I thought very evocative of the mid-century era.  But I was also drawn to the signs of age and wear and tear that were visible on closer inspection - the stains, spashes, blemishes, creases, tears - the hallmarks of an object well-used.  I was particularly fascinated by the way a mark evidenced soemone's use of the object - that they had left a physical trace of that moment and that that moment had now passed, perhaps decades earlier.  I liked the way the age of the object was evident, not only in the colourway, but in the torn, creased corners of the sleeve and the patina produced after years of handling.

Lines of enquiry suggested by the tutor were

• research-wise to look at practioners such as Susan Collis and the Out of the Ordinary exhibition.  Also metalsmith Helen Carnack who uses industrial enamelling techniques to create functional objects with interesting surfaces/patinas.
• in the workshop to investigate ways of achieving the colour and patina, using cold as well as hot enamels, also treating the metal to achieve a rusted or aged appearance.

It was later on in the week that I was struck by the similar blue/green colour of the lichens growing in my garden.  I liked the way these had grown over years, that the objects were not new but signs of the passage of time were clearly visible.  I also like the idea of nature making its mark on these materials - claiming ownership of them.