Dinosaur Dishes

 

These are my large Icthyosaur and Plesiosaur dishes, slip and stain, with sponging and scraffitto, made in 'studio white earthenware'. I made them after spending lots of time looking at 1950's textile designs like these...

The plate below is a dish I made to illustrate the spirit collection at the Natural History Museum, with a work in progress shot next to it. You can go on behind the scenes tours of the Darwin Center, and see where the specimens are stored (see NHM link).

  They're all kept in alcohol which preserves their DNA, but is constantly evaporating so has to be topped up continuously, all year round. The staff take it in turns. Specimens can be taken out of their jars and sent off for research. They can survive out of the jars for a couple of days while they're being used. There are massive jars jammed full of monkeys and snakes, and large tanks to hold the larger animals, like a Shetland pony.


The Giant Squid (Architeuthis) is also kept in the Darwin Wing. Its in a glass tank that was produced by the same people that make the tanks used by Damien Hirst.
I made some dishes to try and capture my personal impressions of the squid.....

These plates are around 45cm wide, but not large enough for what I have in mind for my show.....I've just found out I have over 3 meters to display my work in the final show, so watch this space!