Foreshore Foundlings (work in progress)
If you have been following my blog or Instagram account over the last couple of years, you would have seen my adventures in a private working quarry in Essex.
The quarry is excavating gravels and sands from the bed of the ancestral Thames. Fluvial deposits from hundreds of thousands of years ago when the river Thames was a vast, fast flowing braided river. Melting glaciers created flowing water so powerful it shifted huge boulders from as far as Wales. I am fascinated by this geological story of deep time and the revealing of Earth's hidden treasures. This journey of migrating rocks took me from the Essex quarry to the foreshore of the current tidal Thames in London, its shifted path caused by the mighty Anglian glacier nearly 450,000 years ago.
Here I discovered more treasures being unearthed, but this time humanity had arrived.
The quarry is excavating gravels and sands from the bed of the ancestral Thames. Fluvial deposits from hundreds of thousands of years ago when the river Thames was a vast, fast flowing braided river. Melting glaciers created flowing water so powerful it shifted huge boulders from as far as Wales. I am fascinated by this geological story of deep time and the revealing of Earth's hidden treasures. This journey of migrating rocks took me from the Essex quarry to the foreshore of the current tidal Thames in London, its shifted path caused by the mighty Anglian glacier nearly 450,000 years ago.
Here I discovered more treasures being unearthed, but this time humanity had arrived.
This is the most stunning hand-carved bone Medieval memento mori bead, found by permit holding mudlarker, Caroline Nunneley
I met Caroline and her bead in 2022 at a mudlarking exhibition at Southwark Cathedral. As you can imagine, I fell totally in love with this tiny face, reminding us of our destiny. I immediately wanted to sculpt this tiny object life-size, with the idea, apart from needing a magnifying glass, to come face to face with the past.
I joined the mudlarking fraternity with my newly acquired Port of London Authority permit. The only thing I have found so far is a bottle seal and a tiny silver hammered coin, both of which are now being registered with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. My wish is to find my own little lost face in the river, however, other mudlarkers, over the years have found the most amazing little portraits, which some have kindly given me temporary custodianship to create my next body of work.
The result so far is an ever increasing collection of life-size stoneware portraits - Foreshore Foundlings. Recently exhibited alongside and paired with my own Foreshore Foundlings from the ancestral Thames - rocks! at a mudlarking exhibition at St Paul's cathedral. This was part the Thames Festival events - Hands On History.
To keep up with this evolving project, follow my Instagram account Gallery enquiries welcome
I met Caroline and her bead in 2022 at a mudlarking exhibition at Southwark Cathedral. As you can imagine, I fell totally in love with this tiny face, reminding us of our destiny. I immediately wanted to sculpt this tiny object life-size, with the idea, apart from needing a magnifying glass, to come face to face with the past.
I joined the mudlarking fraternity with my newly acquired Port of London Authority permit. The only thing I have found so far is a bottle seal and a tiny silver hammered coin, both of which are now being registered with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. My wish is to find my own little lost face in the river, however, other mudlarkers, over the years have found the most amazing little portraits, which some have kindly given me temporary custodianship to create my next body of work.
The result so far is an ever increasing collection of life-size stoneware portraits - Foreshore Foundlings. Recently exhibited alongside and paired with my own Foreshore Foundlings from the ancestral Thames - rocks! at a mudlarking exhibition at St Paul's cathedral. This was part the Thames Festival events - Hands On History.
To keep up with this evolving project, follow my Instagram account Gallery enquiries welcome
Foreshore Foundlings
St Paul's Cathedral