Architectural Ceramics & Public Art

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Download / View Full Portfolio. Stuart Carey Architectural Ceramics Portfolio 2006-2011

Ceramic Wall Installation - Alva Academy

2007/8

BRIEF:
The new Alva Academy Secondary School is to be built on the sight of the old Ochilvale Mill. The external wall leading to the main entrance of the school is to have a six metre long by one and a half meter tall ceramic art installation, the installation is to be commissioned by Clackmannanshire council and funded in partnership with Ogilvie Construction.
Stuart Carey and Peter Kiernan have been chosen to design, make and oversee the installation of the ceramic piece. The design of the piece is entirely up to them however it must be suitable for its and it is suggested that it has some reference to the local area.

INITIAL RESEARCH.
The sight is being constructed over the old Ochilvale Mill, the mill was the reason that the town was originally built with water flowing down the Ochill Hills driving the mills. The mill provided almost the whole town with jobs but over time had become outdated by new technology. The ceramic piece we intend to create will have some reference to the mill and the thread it produced.
The school is situated at the base of Alva Glen one of the most picturesque spots in Clackmannanshire. The Ochill hills have been a great source of energy for the small milling towns on the outskirts of Alloa and they would make a fantastic subject for the installation.

DESIGN AND TESTING
Staying on the theme of the mill and the Ochill Hills we produced a series of tests and sketches using thread as the line and this resulted in the final image being produced. the threads combine in a crosshatch and are altered by the shape of the hils. This was also closely linked with 3D mapping ant thus from the movement of the threads a undulating 3D impression of the hills is created on a 2D surface.
Many ways of producing the piece were rigorously tested and a technique of press moulding large sections denoted by the image and then cutting them into smaller sections was decided most suitable and durable. The making process of the 9m squared piece took almost 3months including firing.

MAKING THE PIECE
The production of a piece on this scale was much more difficult than we had first thought, although the logic of how we would make the piece seemed sound, a lack of space and anywhere we could realistically leave the pieces to dry lead to many ingenious solutions and constructions however it was not until the piece was completed and fired, glazed and fired again that we could finally lay the whole piece out together.
The template for the piece was drawn complete to scale adding on ten percent shrinkage allowance. we built a wooden frame the full height of the piece and sixty centimetres wide, we then cut the template into strips of a size that would fit into the frame. At first this seemed very effective but as the shape changed towards the centre the grid started to shift and as we had to follow the lines of the drawing for continuation many of the strips became narrow and windy.
After the template was cut into the strips, twenty in all, the sections were pressed moulded onto a board covered hessian for texture and easy release inside the frame. Adding struts of clay for support we worked on the back of each strip first then we covered it with another board and strapped the two together and flipped the one and a half meter tall sections to expose the front surface. laying the template over the strip we followed the lines first with a pencil and then a metal tool to leave the line indented into the piece, this created a well for the grout which would be applied later. once each strip has dried out to a leather hard state we cut along the edge of the template and then cut across it following pre-decided lines to separate the strip into around seven sections depending on the section of the drawing. By the end of the piece it was in around one hundred and twenty pieces each of which had to be given a code for reference and fit exactly with a two millimetre gap to the next piece.

After many problems with the clay and firing the piece was complete. Once every section had been glazed with a clear glossy high firing glaze the indents were filled with black grout to match that which would fill the gaps between them and the drawing came to life. For the first time after three months we could finally see the piece together and somehow it had worked. The finished piece was completed on time and delivered on sight in early October for installation