A display of the remnants of a Roman Mortarium, or grinding bowl, and spherical pestle from Segontium caught my eye in the Museum.  It immediately made connections for me with my own work, the grinding bowl I had brought back from my time as a post graduate University student in Ghana, and ancient Celtic sites such as Tre’r Ceiri.

Roman mortaria were shallow bowls with curved rims, grit-embedded interiors for grinding sauces and wide pouring lips.  I was interested in exploring these features, not for recreating the original or producing functional objects, but for meditating on form and function.

I collected materials such as sand, beach shale, eggshells, and even metal – to create roughened surfaces.  Embedded materials such as coal coke, rice, barley, and copper wire created indentations and patterning. The cereals left glazed residues when they burnt out in the kiln.

The creative meditations inspired by this project are taking my own work in new directions. I am now using thicker bodied forms, as well as terracotta clay, in addition to my customary porcelain.

The experiments with wood ash on the surfaces of both, and the colour possibilities of copper wire, mean there is yet more exploration to come.

Sian Hughes, November 2024