"They Mostly Come at Night... Mostly!" (Finished Piece).

This is the finished piece of work based on a cross section of an ‘alien’ spine. Much like the previous test piece in an earlier post I’ve used a blend of polymer clays to achieve a bone texture and emphasised certain aspects with metal and copper leaf. For those of you that know your Sci-fi films you would have noticed that the name of this sculpture is a quote from the film Aliens, it’s my favourite part of the film. As I enjoyed making this sculpture so much I am considering turning it into a series of work – creating unusual ‘alien’ bones that some archaeologist could have excavated perhaps haha?!

'Springtime... is on my mind': Nevill Hall Exhibition

I created this piece for the Nevill Hall exhibition, which opened on the 31st July until 10th September. I really had to go out of my comfort zone for this one as Nevill Hall had very strict and ridged criteria of what could and could not be exhibited, hence to say everything that was on the list stating what couldn’t be shown – I do! No abstract, no nudity/anatomy, no aggressive images etc, but the one that floored me was no surrealism! This is what I’m all about; I love to explore and experiment with everyday objects and create an alternate reality. So I asked myself the question – If I was in hospital what picture would I like to see? It would have to be relaxing, uplifting and fairly pretty. I struggle with pretty, the first two I can deal with but ‘pretty’ is a challenge. Thankfully inspiration hit me, a friends of mine’s girlfriend has a tattoo in the form of a Japanese style blossom tree, this I thought was ideal; it has all the components mention above. I wish to add that I have only taken inspiration from the tattoo and not a direct copy. Also the title is a lyric taken from the amazing Spinal Tap’s song Springtime. The piece is made from polymer clay and other organic material. The size is 20x16 inches.

Test Piece: Alien Spine

This was taken on my awful camera phone, so the quality is very poor. This is the test pieces for my new polymer sculpture based on an alien spinal column. I have used copper metal leaf on the tips. I’m pleased with the test piece so far and hopefully will be finishing the final piece next week, along with some much better quality photos to show you. My next task is to think of a name for it :)

Tails from the River Bank

This is a sculpture made from Polymer clay. It’s a wall hanging called “Tails from the River Bank” a play on words ‘Tails’ instead of ‘Tales’ - you get the idea haha. I started this piece by wanting to create a ‘bone’ texture from polymer clay; the form of a cross section of a vertebra was perfect to display this. I then wanted to create a skin like texture from polymer, when noticed the cross sectioned vertebra looked similar to a flat fish, like a plaice or a stingray. This inspired me to make an ‘alien’ river creature. The photographs where taken by photographer Rebecca Maggs.

Picture frame size 14 x 11.

Rebirth Photos: Raw State.

Here are some photos of Rebirth in its raw state (unfired). I used a simple Buff clay for a few reasons; it has a fairly wide firing range, once bisque fired it has a toast colour (this is good for applying bright colours to, in my opinion), It’s robust enough for hand building but still smooth enough to apply detail to. It was made about 18 months ago and I’m still looking for a place to get this piece fired, sadly. Size approx: 13 x 5 x 9 inches.

The cracks are deliberate.

Rebirth: sketch

This is a sketch for a sculpture called Rebirth I drew roughly two years ago using pencils ranging from 2H to 4B on Moleskine paper, approx size 3 x 4 inches. Rebirth symbolises the start of a new life for me and a new way of thinking. It’s mainly based upon the growth structures of plant life and insects, for example seeds, blossom, larva, pupa, etc. I have always been influenced by organic materials within my work, mainly taking existing recognisable organic matter and recreating a new form (usually with inorganic materials such as chrome, for this sculpture I have decided to go for a purely organic structure). I will be using a fairly robust but smooth clay body for this piece. Something I can add texture too where needed without the limitations of a heavily groged clay. As for glazing, I’m not very traditional in that department. I would rather use car paints, varnishes, air brushing or just oxides, as I like to keep the use of glaze to a minimum.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog. I am and ceramic and polymer clay artist from South Wales U.K. I hope you enjoy viewing my sketches and sculptures.

Kind Regards

Rachel Ellis