15.10.21

I've glazed my first batch of vessels and have put my self-standing vessels in to bisque fire. The glazes I used were the same I touched on last year only with a more purposeful application such as the interiors being black and gold to hide the colour of the liquid and make it about the aroma. I also experimented with wax for the hung ceramic vessel as a nod to my wax body of work from second year as well as another form of waterproofing. The black colour of the wax came as a nod to Carol Christian Poell's dripping black rubber shoes as well as a want for 'ugly' and 'gross' looking objects to juxtapose the preciousness of the ampulla the ceramics are based on and the almost tar-like materiality of the wax achieves this in my opinion.

The use of olive oil in my work began as a cheap and easily accessible oil to use as the main body of my aroma's but the historical, spiritual and medical importance and relevance of olive oil is hard to ignore and I want to focus more on it as a material away from the aroma work but still with the intention of reintroducing the aroma work back into it. I want to use it as a painting medium as well as experiment with how it works with different materials such as paper, canvas and silk.

Ancient Greek Amphora Depicting Olive Gathering 520BC

Olive Oil

Olive oil has long been a common ingredient in Mediterranean cuisine, including ancient Greek and Roman cuisine. Wild olives, which originated in Asia Minor, were collected by Neolithic people as early as the 8th millennium BC. Besides food, olive oil has been used for religious rituals, medicines, as a fuel in oil lamps, soap-making, and skin care application.Olive oil was also popular as a form of birth control; Aristotle in his History of Animals recommends applying a mixture of olive oil combined with either oil of cedar, ointment of lead, or ointment of frankincense to the cervix to prevent pregnancy. It is not clear when and where olive trees were first domesticated. The modern olive tree most likely originated in ancient Persia and Mesopotamia, and spread to the Levant and later to North Africa, though some scholars argue for an Egyptian origin.The Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican churches use olive oil for the Oil of Catechumens (used to bless and strengthen those preparing for Baptism) and Oil of the Sick (used to confer the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick or Unction). Olive oil mixed with a perfuming agent such as balsam is consecrated by bishops as Sacred Chrism, which is used to confer the sacrament of Confirmation (as a symbol of the strengthening of the Holy Spirit), in the rites of Baptism and the ordination of priests and bishops, in the consecration of altars and churches, and, traditionally, in the anointing of monarchs at their coronation.