TREE trunk VESSELS
each tree vessel I make responds to the time I have spent studying and connecting with a specific tree. An intimate moment, where I choose to listen to the tree’s wisdom and essence of being. Not only do the physical attributes speak to me, such as bark texture, branch formation, folds and crevices; it’s about the energy dialogue between us/
from Crab Apple trees, to Poplars, to Scotts Pine and Sequoia, the choice of exploration and understanding is endless. The variety even within each species never ceases to inspire me/
often I form the grounded base on the Potter’s Wheel, throwing stoneware clay while remembering…then I build upwards in coils, blending, pressing, cutting and folding. Coiling conjures the same concentric circles which represent a tree’s life, much like each coiled layer represents a moment in making time in my own life, in my studio/
The completed form is finished with wild clay slips which I forage from various locations on my travels. The inner space of the vessel is covered with a water tight glaze for functional use/
every tree vessel is unique, some even made incorporating woven willow and wire to suggest reaching branches; each one is marked with my signature ‘S’ on the base
TREE trunk VESSELS
a whisper caught in the breeze…what are the trees saying to each other? Every tree trunk vessel I make speaks to the precious time I have spent connecting with trees in a woodland. I’m curious about the relationship between trees, how they form communities and support each other through the hidden mycelium network underground/
Peter Wohlleben, in his book ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’, describes how a family of trees will still nourish the stump of a felled parent tree (through the underground network), out of respect and ‘love’. Trees hold so much wisdom and learning for us – my belief is that they act as beacons of light in our world and are custodians for our planet/
each tree trunk vessel is made from several constituent parts, thrown as separate cylinders on the Potter’s Wheel and then blended together creating a column. I enjoy the unpredictability when fusing sections, welcoming off-centred alignment, listening to how the clay wants to bend and move, and honouring the tender connection I previously made in the woodland with each tree/
specific bark textures are replicated using layers of wild clay slips, oxides and glaze. Embodying the spirit of the tree is essential in this process, so I allow my ‘self’ to step aside and surrender to the intuitive flow of remembered sensations. I scratch into the surface, re-apply slip, blend, sweep more sticky slip across the surface, hold, bend, cut, scrape…it’s an interplay of many dimensions in time, past memory, present knowing/
finally, the inner space of each vessel is covered with a water tight glaze for functional use; not only is this practical, it’s also a reflective surface from which light energy can reflect upwards and outwards, acting like a ‘beacon’/
each tree trunk vessel is attuned with Reiki (universal life force energy) to raise it’s resonant frequency and then marked with my signature ‘S’ on the base/
