Day 11 | Paper and Linen lined Land, Twig Copse.

Metric Stamp, Dress Pattern Curtain.

Day 10 | Reflection, Addition, and unfinished work.

I've been worried that I will run out of materials. The process of making has, so far, been enjoyable and relatively immediate. I realise that a good bulk of the work takes place in the accumulation of things, of looking for, and finding, objects that (for me anyway) hold some spark. 

When I've had extra time I've been lucky to find additions to add to my collection. I've added fifteen box parts since I've begun.

I've noticed that I like to start on more than one, that it's helpful to have unfinished things laying around - not just to have something initiated for the next day, but because this is the way ideas arrive, in fits and starts.

I've also been wondering when to reflect on what's being made. The quick daily nature of the project is different from the way I usually work, where there is more of a feed-back between process, reflection and making. I think this is why I've just let the boxes be what they are for the moment - as I think overall concepts take more time to arrive and it is difficult to see things clearly when you are in the middle of making them. However, having said that, when I reflect on the pleasure that  making and looking at the small boxes give me, it seems no different to the time I spent building a studio environment, or creating The small studio. They are spaces to disappear into, a welcome relief from the over-riding literal (or practical) nature of our reality. 

I also feel they are like looking at poems. The merging of the description of materials into working titles has articulated how important not only the physicality of a object is, but how equally important are (to my work anyway) the images that their name evokes - which can be quite loose and separate from the object. 

I am reminded of a quote that I have on my Pieces of Practice page from Sylvia Plath's The Wishing Box  - 'The utterly self-sufficient, unchanging reality of the things surrounding her began to depress Agnes...She felt choked, smothered by these objects whose bulky pragmatic existence somehow threatened the deepest, most secret roots of her own ephemeral being.' (Sylvia Plath 'Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams' The Wishing Box Faber and Faber, London 1979, p.53)

These boxes and objects are not pragmatic*, and that's what I enjoy about them the most.


*In their overall useful-ness, and in relation to the above quote. Their making is another matter.

Day 9 | Feather Lake, Floating Fish. Pump Stamp, Water Seeds.

Day 8 | Balck Box, Star and Tar Cloud, Wood Cut Print. Plaster, Hand with Broken Finger, Seed Sky, Seed Earth.

Day 7 | Cotton Soil, Flower Stamp, Metal Sun. Plaster, Clay, Glass.

Additions

Five Boxes, Stamps, Seed

Day 6 | Clay Leaves, Gold Seed. A Thimble of Sea Weed, Silver Leaf.

List

Gold Leaf, Plaster, Clay, Boxes, Paint brushes.

Day 5 | Dandelion Hill, Horse Print and Gold Ring. Sponge Wring, Cotton Mat.

Day 4 | Sea Sponge Sky. Fish and Bird Seeds, Electricity. Charcoal Earth, Crystal.

Seeds and Filament gifts from Alexandra Spence

Day 3 | Sharp Shadows. Cotton Clouds, Rose and Wing. Tree Pattern. Fish and Bird Seeds.

Tree Box, More than one.

I had a ready-to-go collection of small worn cardboard boxes. Cards, cotton, pins, jewellery and tools were the past occupants of a few. Some were found empty. Today I added one. It has a small tree pattern on the exterior.

The idea was to work on one box a day, to make, using found objects, texts and natural materials, little installations and see where they took me. I've always had a fondness for Cornell and for miniature, and there's a lot of delight in being quite free fantastically speaking, in allowing the loose and easy association of objects on an intuitive level.

I've found though, that it's difficult to stick to just the one. In the middle of making my attention is diverted to another beginning, and as I'm not one to usher images away (concerned they might not reappear) I allow the interruptions and diversions. There will be a staggering of finishes too, I imagine.

There is a very small amount of unease in the simplicity and history of what I'm doing, but at this stage I think it is best not to think too much about those worries. I am reminded of earlier childhood days, and the playing of making worlds.

Day 2 | Chalk. Lichen Landscape, Moon Pearl. Stars, Carbon Paper

Paper Box, Plastic Flower. Paper Lid, Blank Pages

I started with the first, but the second was finished before the first was done. I thought of habit, the safety of the crafted process, productive, but waiting. The day was broke in two, early morning and late night. I thought of what to record, how to record it, of how honest I would be to a day's work, of how much of something a work would be.

Day 1 | The Table