Institution: University of Brighton

Course: Craft and Design

Title: Sun and Water, Survival and Entertainment

Description: Basic survival implements, made in green ash, flax rope, forged steel, copper foraging box, made in found box, bone and resin composite, forged steel, sycamore, bone powder and bio resin lenses, found magnifying lenses, flax rope, ash and copper, on leather and cedar veneer.

Inspiration: Bronze Age razor

My research for this project saw me foraging and gathering as a simple means of survival. For the finished object, I wanted the foraging to be a choice for you to make, something that would get you involved in a very old and necessary pursuit for survival, as in the Bronze Age.

These pieces are all about self-reliance, although they could be used as a symbol to show the level of skill involved in gathering your own wild food, and the dedication needed to excel at this kind of lifestyle. I have tried to replicate or suggest materials that would have been relevant to Bronze Age people; native deciduous woods like ash, oak and chestnut, wild growing plants that would have been easily harvested, using the land as it may have been used in the Bronze Age. Fish may have been important to life then, as it came from wild bodies of water (rivers, streams, lakes and the sea).

My work is also a response to the symbols and recurring patterns which showed the sun and the water in Bronze Age artefacts. This project was completed on site in Dartmooor, Devon. Fast food and entertainment were two things I missed during various expeditions around the moor and woodland where I live, so I also made two objects to pay leisure time homage to the Bronze Age gods.