Bird series

In Autumn 2022 I undertook a four-day course in mouldmaking and casting in Jesmonite with Nick Brooks, in East Anglia.

During the course Nick offered me one of his moulds to try a technique for reinforcing one-piece casts. The mould I used was a Mesopotamian tile of a bird (from a copy provided by the British Museum), which gave me the initial idea for what has become a series, currently of four bird plaques.

I make the original pattern in clay, from which I make a once-piece mould. From these moulds I have been experimenting with different finishes from the Jesmonite AC730 stone and flex-metal ranges.

The first three plaques in the pictures opposite are made in the "White Marble" version of Jesmonite AC730, while the Tawny is in Bronze flexmetal Jesmonite.

These plaques are each an edition of 20, in various of the stone and metal finishes.

The plaques are roughly 120 x 120 mm, with the depth being determined during the casting process. You can see from the pictures they only roughly square, intentionally!

I currently have some of these plaques made with a hanging loop embedded in the back, some mounted and framed and some with a small display easel.