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Aliyah brought sprig moulds she had made and tested to show the group. She invited the group to bring food with them that we would use to make new moulds. The session started with Aliyah sharing the finished mugs from the previous workshop and having a cup of tea in them, as everyone then shared the foods they had brought and their reasons for choosing them.
After sharing our food choices, Aliyah showed the group the plaster sprig moulds and everyone had a chance to press clay into the moulds and see how they formed different shapes before making our own moulds. To make the mould, we each lay a bed of clay in a takeaway Tupperware box, before placing our food items on top and considering which parts of the fruit or vegetable we would like to make a mould from; the end of a lemon or the tip of a courgette, the exterior of an uncut pineapple and the curling outer skin of a dragon fruit – before filling the tub with plaster. Foods had to be supported to ensure the plaster mould would work, either with additional platforms to hold them on or by filling anything hollow, such as a penne pasta, with clay so that they did not get too saturated with plaster and the mould would then not release.
Whilst individuals mixed and poured plaster with Aliyah, the rest of the group made small clay sculptures of foods that they could not use to make a mould. The group were busy sculpting meat dishes – a chicken drumstick or rack of ribs, a whole meal such as sausage, peas and mash or pizza and mugs of chai.
The group will meet with Aliyah again to test out their moulds, pressing new clay forms from their chosen foods. These small sculptural pieces will become part of Aliyah’s large scale installation in The Dining Room space. The sprigs, as they are called, will either be suspended individually from the Dining Room ceiling or added onto larger vessels and shapes, echoing the traditional use of sprigs moulds in Bargeware and decorative ceramics.