The meandering Sarre Penn in Autumn. At this point trees lean gently over the slowly flowing water, beautiful leaves fall onto us, the land and the stream. It feels like an old Timotei advert or 1980’s fantasy film; I expect a unicorn to come trotting around the corner- it doesn’t, but soon Claire points out some ‘arbor-gliths’ on one of theses trees and wonder is soon restored.
Claire’s photo of reflections on the Sarre Penn, the dark stream-bed pebbles- seen here in the tree trunk ‘shadow’ make for an intense magical deep dive into all things above, below and in the water- at the same time! Awesome.
‘Wild’ clay sourced from the Sarre Penn that Claire has made into a small disc, imprinted with found objects and fired. She makes artwork that has local provenance and also connects with the spirit of place that she treasures.
The deep banks of the Sarre Penn, here Claire is showing me the qualities of the clay found there.
She shows me the qualities of the clay, its beautiful colour and how it can be worked. This is just the very start of her long lovingly executed process of making.
Claire’s photo of one of many clay candle votive bowls that she makes. This one has gilding around the top edge and is simply decorated around its form with a print from a locally found object.
Claire’s photo of her clay tiles which are printed with simple but symbolic forms, some are given a gilded finish which she sees as an almost ceremonial final stage to the joyful making process.
These are artefacts that I found on a very small section of the route. Claire often finds buttons, sections of clay pipes etc when she field-walks over the old hop gardens to the stream. Whilst we walked she pointed out quite a few old hop poles that have been reused or left along the field and hedge boundaries.
Claire’s photo showing how she displays her handmade tiles. Each tile has had a bed specifically cut for it into a piece of reclaimed wood. There are a few videos showing this interesting process on her Instagram page @dugfired.
In this photo you can just catch a glimpse of Claire’s bracelet created with beads made from this ‘wild’ clay and also alternate beads of rose petals. It must be a joy to wear something so evocative of the place and elements that you love so much- ‘Relics of Roses’, water and clay from the Sarre Penn.
The distinctive shape of Field Maple leaves, their colours here on the woodland floor ranging from bright yellow to golden brown. To be honest before my walk with Claire and repeated identification of the Wild Service tree leaves- I would have mistaken these for them, as I have done in the past!
Claire’s photo of a Wild Service tree leaf. It’s good to see it at long last- they aren’t as common in our woods as they once were. Claire has a theory relating to Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales as to where the phrase, ‘as brown as a berry’ comes from.
The farmer was growing Wheat in this field. The colour of the clay soil here hasn’t really been picked up by the camera on my mobile phone. Imagine the brown of a Cadbury Milk chocolate bar, that’s exactly it. (Yum!)
This is an Oak leaf of a type I am not familiar with, perhaps Turkey Oak? Do let me know if you recognise it. Thank you! So far, I have ‘Googled’ to no avail!
Another lesson in what a Wild Service tree leaf looks like, here I understood what the word ‘palmate’ meant- finally I could visually understand the term.
Wild Service tree berries- these are eaten once ‘bletted’ like a Medlar and you need a special knack for eating them which Claire describes here. She feels the Wild Service tree is ‘emblematic’ of The Blean.
Gifting the ‘wild’ clay back to the stream where it came from. I have also done this for little pots I have made from the clay found out in the intertidal area at Tankerton. It feels good to do this. A gesture of thanks as the clay goes back into the natural cycle once again.
At last, the clay disc submerged in the Sarre Penn, stream water running over it.
Claire Sumner- ceramic artist, woodworker and printer is exhibiting her work later this month as part of the Made In Whitstable (MIW) trail. She is at house number 11 on the trail, open on Saturday 30th November and Sunday the 1st of December from 1-4pm. Check out her work at @dugfired and @wamtrail for other artists taking part.
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