Brick Sculpture and BBQ. 1996.

Having completed the Model for The Priestley Mausoleum, the first year BA (Hons) Ceramics Degree tutor Gwen Heeney, having herself made brick sculptures, suggested that I should make a larger version of it in brick. That would be quite a challenge and very time consuming so it was agreed that I would only make part of it. After discussing the work with Gwen the front of the Model then became the basis for a larger brick version. I took photographs and sketches of that part of the Model as reference material for the brick sculpture work. Two female first year BA (Hons) ceramics degree students, Emma and Helen, were also asked to make brick sculptures based on their ceramic work. Our completed sculptures were to be sited at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC) in the ceramics courtyard at the Howard Gardens Campus. Gwen then arranged a placement of three to six weeks at Ibstock Cattybrook Brick Factory near Bristol for all of us to make our own brick sculptures there. Eddy the ceramic technician, then made various wet brick sculpting tools for us to use. Gwen also instructed us to take our modelling tools, overalls and cameras to the brick factory. Fortunately my landlady’s ex-husband’s brother and his family lived in the vicinity of the brick factory, so I was able to arrange a stay with them during the working week, returning at the weekends to my student accommodation in Penarth, near Cardiff. Before I went to the brick factory, the BA (Hons) Ceramics Degree course leader Peter Starkey, instructed me to incorporate a BBQ into my brick sculpture for use by the University. I also agreed with him that I would be back mid-week at the University for the Art History lectures given by Tricia Cusack.  So off we went to the Bristol brick factory. 

​At our first time at the brick factory Gwen gave an introduction to health and safety issues, the importance of taking photographs of the process of making the sculptures, instructions on the techniques of sculpting wet brick, the importance of covering any part of the wet brick not being worked on with plastic sheets and covering all the wet bricks with plastic sheets at the end of the working day to stop the wet brick from drying out, of gently dismantling the wet brick finished sculpture, of hollowing out the inside of the wet bricks to facilitate even drying and kiln firing, of numbering all the hollowed out wet bricks with slip, of recording those numbers on a plan and to carefully stack the hollowed out numbered bricks on sets of pallets to allow them to dry out ready for kiln firing.

​So we each assembled our wet bricks accordingly and set to work on our sculptures. The dried sculptured bricks were fired at the brick factory, transported to UWIC Howard Gardens and after I had learned how to be a brickie, my sculpture was mortared into place by me with the help of others.

​Please see my back story regarding my Model for The Priestley Mausoleum.