Fergus Byron - Material Experimentation

Walking along the tideline, picking up and playing with pieces of bleached driftwood or dried seaweed washed ashore by the relentless energy of the sea only metres from my bare feet. I interview these relics with questions such as, “how have you come to be here?” And “what might have happened to you along the way?” What I am observing is nature’s relationship with time and offering my thoughts to it. By working with this sense of place and attentive perspective, I gather a unique conversation with the cathedral of material that I might have walked through unexplored.

This is a piece of Clay taken from just under the waterline of a river (53°26′17″N , 002°08′31″W). The melting along the top is due to minerals being deposited in to the clay. This result from firing is likely to be due a decomposing tree or ash from a fire which took place some time ago.

Raw clay from Grindslow clough loaded into a sagger to protect the kiln

Stoneware sample with a texture created from burning away the attached moss

53°21′32″N , 001°49′55″W

Silt Testing

53°21′14″N , 001°50′52″W

This is an example of raw clay turn to slip, allowed to sediment, then fired showing the range materials suspended in raw clay bodies.

Clay body experiments

Pieces post firing. Notice the flint that when fired exploded inside the saagar.

Sorting Pieces post firing.

Thrown forms using different clays from different locations

Shattered rock in clay body

Stoneware sample of naturally mixed clay

This fired piece of slate is from 53°21′32″N , 001°49′55″W. Slate is formed from compacted clay. The reason for the areas of white is that a layer of pale kaolin like clay was sedimented and compacted into the piece and through the firing process revealed.

Stoneware fired sandstone

Stoneware fired gritstone

This is from 53°21′32″N , 001°49′55″W.

It is a sample of slate that has been covered with iron oxide giving it a reddish colour and feldspathic quartz where it is a very pale pink.

Raw clay sedimented by the river from 53°26′17″N , 002°08′31″W.

Raw clay from 53°26′01″N , 002°13′46″W fired to Earthenware (Red) and Stoneware (Purple).

The light coloured parts of these samples is sharpsand. , a common building material .This displays the human narrative of building work that has gone on around and involving the clay.