Charlotte Walker Art Foundation Degree

 In my research I wanted to find more artists who use the carton form in their work. I found Lily Anna Armstrong's work which has a more kitsch take on it, with references to the past. The dogs painted on these cartons are commonly found in antique shops and instantly make me think of my grandparents' generation, and the design choices found within the homes of older people. The china blue reiterates this; I think it's interesting that my generation don't buy into things like china plates etc., maybe it's because they are out of style or just that we don't want to spend money on plates that are too delicate to even use, or we can't afford it all together.  I like the way Armstrong has painted along the fold lines of the carton so they appear more graphic and cartoon-like, which I think works well with the spots and stripes that remind me of old comics.  These pieces also have images of the past, and retro style motifs that seem out of place on the more moder...

  My first lot of cartons came out of the kiln this week and they didn't go too well; all of them cracked and the purple one must have had too much glaze because it stuck to the kiln and broke. I do like the 'dove' glaze on the left, it has a natural grainyness and a stone-like texture. The colour itself doesn't particularly convey any messages relating to my theme other than alluding to nature so I need to think more about what I want the glazes to say. The purple colour is reminiscent of the original Tropicana carton that I cast so it reminds me more of litter and plastics, especially as the rubbish I collected on the beach was quite brightly, artificially coloured.  I think the idea of the artificial is quite strange because everything we have ultimately came from the earth when you trace the origins right back, but the distinction is that things like plastic would not have occurred on their own in nature, so maybe that's how we define 'fakeness'. When yo...

These are the first cartons I have glazed. Since they are porcelain, I had the choice of all the stoneware glazes. This one is called shocking pink. I liked the gradient of pink to blue on the sample piece and James also said that on porcelain it forms little pink crystals which I thought sounded really cool. It also reminded me of corals and marine life. I chose to only dip the carton part way in the glaze to create a kind of water line, suggesting fullness and emptiness; on some level I want to represent a draining of the Earth's resources through this. I think it's also nice to have the two different surfaces, the smooth glazed half and the soft matt half. Dipping also creates a clear horizon line as if looking out across a calm sea. I chose 'Dove' because I wanted to see if the cartons work best with subtle colours or stronger ones like shocking pink. It has a matt finish and a kind of grainy pattern. For my third carton I dipped the whole thing in 'chun clear...

  This week we exhibited our progress in our projects so far. I printed my microscope images as well as some secondary research images and artists, then 'littered' the board with all the little ceramic nerikomi pieces I have made. I wanted it too look kind of overwhelming and busy to reflect the saturation of litter and microplastics in the ocean. I also made a montage of all the bits of plastic I collected at the beach to display along side it, and an arrangement of the larger ceramic pieces that I've done. My working title is 'plastic beach' a reference to the Gorillaz song, and a very real description of the state of our coastlines right now. I also put out my first cast juice carton but decided to take it away after we presented our work so that it wouldn't get broken or stolen, and also because it was only bisque fired and I wanted to glaze it. People seemed to find it interesting and were intrigued by the ceramic carton which I am working on doing lots mor...

  As expected, the first carton didn't come out in one piece, but here are the next two that came out. The one on the left is newly out of the mold while the one on the right is completely dry and I have fettled it down, removing all the surface imperfections and seams - it makes such a massive difference. I'm kind of disappointed that the mold had all these little scratches inside, causing raised bumps on the cartons, but it must have happened during the making process when we had trouble separating certain pieces of the mold or when the first juice carton broke and got stuck inside when we were casting it.  They are made out of porcelain so they're very light and fragile. Here's an example of a piece that I found had got broken through poor handling.   I still plan to use all my broken pieces because I can test glazes out on them or display them differently as if it were a deliberate choice that they're damaged or deformed. This is about a weeks worth of cast cart...

  Nancy Mckie is an artist I discovered on Instagram. She paints and draws natural imagery and I was particularly interested in her depictions of marine animals. Her paintings have a child-like quality and the brushstrokes are assertive showing confident mark-making that results in bold iconographic images. I like her use of flat colour and selective palettes that seem simple but considered, and her use of lines and pattern creates playful hints at texture and detail.   In my project I have thought about translating geometric and organic patterns onto ceramics, but I have also considered doing something more directly linked to my original idea and illustrating sea creatures a bit like Mckie's and have them as kind of graphic symbols on my porcelain cartons, replacing the product's original marketing with images of the life-forms that are affected by plastic pollution, and I could use the microscope images I took of shrimp larvae as a starting point. I did this little octopus s...

  This cast took more or less all week to complete. Working out where each piece of the mold should go was surprisingly confusing especially on the side with the lid because we had to make sure it would lift out at the right angle without anything breaking off or getting stuck. We had to fill the carton with water to stop it from collapsing under the weight of the plaster and to give an impression of fulness. The first carton actually broke when we tried to remove it so I had to go out and buy another (then quickly drink it all) before we could resume making the mold. In between pouring I had to add lots of layers of wax to stop the plaster sticking to itself, and it took at least half an hour for each block to set enough to pour another side. We decided to leave it open underneath, which is where the slip will be poured into the mold and you could possibly put lights inside which would glow through the porcelain.

  Recently we have been making more of an effort at home to recycle things properly. Tetra paks are difficult to recycle because they are made of different materials; plastic, card and foil. We have been putting our empty cartons aside to take them to the correct place for recycling, so I took some photos of the collection. I think they have an interesting presence when arranged in multiples, strangely they remind me of a huddle of penguins or a crowd at a festival. I think the tower like shape also mirrors modern urban architecture.  Personally I find skyscrapers kind of dystopian and they give me feelings of impending doom as if something could go wrong at any second. They seem oppressive and sinister, a huge pillar of glass and metal. I think the cartons have a much friendlier appearance despite the similarities in shape, and the associations with food create a sense of comfort and domesticity.

 Although I have been quite keen on the idea of creating organic forms based on creatures and plastics found in the sea, I have had an alternative idea that gives me a bit more excitement, but it still relates to the general theme. I went to the shop and bought a carton of tropical juice not thinking much of it. But as I held the object in my hands I realised how interesting the shape was and how nice it felt to hold, and I decided I wanted to cast it. Making replica cartons would be a comment on packaging waste and the on-going litter crisis; using ceramics would change the language of the object and question ideas of the future and permanence. The research and experimentation I have already done will still be useful to me and I hope to use patterns and motifs in reference to that. Consumerism is such a huge issue right now, and one that will affect all our lives in the near future. It is a crisis of sustainability and pollution, and as an artist there are certain moral dilemmas i...

Now that I have a large collection of ceramic test pieces I wanted to go back to 2D work for a moment so I drew some patterns inspired by them with Copic markers. I made geometric patterns based on the nerikomi pieces where I stacked layers of clay together and cut through, as well as organic patterns like the spare coloured clay that I rolled out into swirly flat pieces. My favourite is the red lines against the yellow background because it looks fluid and groovy; I've also been wondering about translating these patterns onto ceramics, for instance using transfers on porcelain or using underglazes. I could also scratch patterns into a glaze revealing the colours underneath.  Although the geometric patterns were originally based on natural forms, I think the organic patterns are more successful in terms of alluding to nature and my theme of the ocean.