St Fagan’s Commission 2018

St Fagan’s National Museum of History invited expressions of interest from artists or makers to design and make a 3D piece of work in either wood, clay, stone, metal, textiles or plant material. The works were to be displayed in the new Gweithdy gallery (the Welsh word meaning workshop) as part of a permanent exhibition of museum objects about craft, making and materials, opening at St Fagan’s in October 2018. 

I was delighted to be successful with my submission for 3D work in clay. I responded to specific objects inside and outside of the houses and various buildings within the grounds of the museum. I was interested in the fish ponds at St Fagans Castle grounds, seeing the reflections and observing what sits on the surface of the water and what is submerged. I particularly liked the marks on the side of a cupboard displayed in the kitchen in the main house, they reminded me of gouge marks in woodcut prints. The whitewashed houses in the museum grounds with thatched roofs gave me the idea of dipping an object. It was an eclectic mix and layering of ideas, I often work in this way.

Image sheet of ideas.