Stone Table: River Kenwyn Project (2019)

Stone Table: River Kenwyn, Truro, Cornwall (June – August 2019)

I built a small weir in River Kenwyn, incorporating a stone table in the middle, to make wild clay sculptures at with local children. I arranged stones from the river and cemented them together with wild clay, which had already fallen into the river from the bankside, to make a sturdy table with a seat either side.

We found orange and grey clay, made some small sculptures then put them on flat pebbles and perched them in nearby trees.

The next day we came back to make bigger sculptures. The clay was really wet, so we had to start them then leave them overnight to dry out a bit. The sculptures we made were still quite wet underneath the following day. As I held mine in my left hand and worked it with my right, I wondered what I could use to lift the clay off the stone slab, to allow air underneath to dry it out. I found four dead twigs, used a sharp stone to make them the same size as my fingers then put them underneath. I also used two other stones to prop both ends of the wet sculpture up, to stop them drooping down and misshaping.

Dock leaves are excellent for wrapping wild clay in to keep it damp and safe from impurities. If your clay is too wet, dry it out by smearing a thin layer over a flat stone and leaving it for a few hours. When your wild clay is the right consistency for sculpting with, wrap it up into small balls and place inside dock leaves, piercing the top of the leaf with its stem to keep it wrapped up and secure. If you're leaving the clay for a day or two, pour a small amount of water over it twice a day to prevent it drying out.

Drying out clay into balls wrapped in do

We found orange and grey clay, made some small sculptures then put them on flat pebbles and perched them in nearby trees.