This funded research and development project took place while Kate was on residency at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop (SSW) in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Supported by Creative Scotland, the project explored the technical aspects of clay body composition and workability, in relation to how they both impact the sculptures Kate creates. Seeking a custom black basalt clay body for her artwork, Kate tested historic recipes alongside developing new original black clay formulations.

A visit to the V&A Wedgwood archives in Stoke-on-Trent gave Kate in depth insight into the experimental origins of Black Basalt clay for the first time. Flicking through Josiah Wedgwood’s original experimentation books and reading his personal letters regarding his clay and material suppliers created the necessary background context for Kate to begin trialing her own recipes for a contemporary Black Basalt clay.

This research focused on the granular composition of black clay body, contemporary UK suppliers, how the processing of raw materials has changed and the impact this has.  These key areas coupled with a drive for greater sustainability and the exploration of small batch production formed the basis for Kate’s funded residency at SSW.

Kate tested a huge variety of incremental recipes, exploring firing temperatures, colour, surface finish and plasticity of the clay in reference to her on-going work creating data embedded sculptures. Key findings included the incredible and somewhat unexpected transformation of historic materials during the firing process and the impact of small quantity changes and ingredient combinations. During this time Kate created a workable clay body that references Josiah Wedgwood’s original innovation of his Black Basalt clay without the use of toxic ingredients.

New data was used with the clay recipes, embedded in the test tiles and sculptural clay forms. These new experiments utilised current Scottish oyster restoration datasets.