Research

Vegetables

The vegetable shaped stencils made on the plotter-cutter came from actual vegetables scanned into the computer. After scanning, the image of the vegetable is worked on to produce black & white outlines suitable for the plotter-cutter.

	Slip decorated ram pressed plate with plotter-cut broccoli stem pattern rubber stencils.
	Base of ram pressed plate with triple layer rubber stencils of broccoli pattern.
	3mm thick broccoli stem slices ram pressed into the surface of a plate.
	Glazed porcelain ram pressed plate with celery slices pressed into the surface. The glaze has pooled into the celery shaped depressions and these are translucent when the plate is held in light.
	Cells from a broccoli stem photographed through my microscope.
	The image from this slide was simplified on the computer, outlines selected and used to plotter-cut vinyl stencils for use with the ram press.

The broccoli stem slices for example were scanned into the computer, turned into black and white images using Photoshop, then plotter cut out of 1 mm thick sandblasting rubber and used to make embossed pattern on the ram pressed form. Some of these rubber stencils were glued together to make triple layered stencils, giving triple layered embossed pattern.

While I was slicing the broccoli stem I realised that the actual pieces of broccoli themselves could be ram pressed into the clay. Water filled, firm vegetables, like broccoli, celery, onion etc ram pressed perfectly into the clay. One added bonus is that the vegetables dry and shrink faster than the clay does. When left out overnight, by the next day the vegetable shapes have dried and shrunk away from the clay and are easily removed , leaving behind perfect impressions of their surface and form.

Using fruits and vegetables for pattern work furthers my long standing interest in making tableware which is related to the food for which it is intended.

Microscopes
Just prior to applying for the research post in 1998 I received an award from the Arts Council of Wales to buy a stereoscopic microscope. I also used my second mortgage to invest in a high magnification microscope, along with the plotter-cutter, computer and ram press. I have used these microscopes to gather visual information from vegetables and fruits. The microscopes both have camera attachments which enable photographs to be taken of what ever image is being examined on the microscope. The 35mm slides taken of the microscopic imagery can be scanned into the computer, or can be sent off to a photographic processing company to have them put onto a CD. Once the images are on the computer they can be edited, added to and changed to suit the intended use. For example, the image could be turned into a black & white image, the outlines selected and then used to make a plotter-cut stencil.

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