Perpetual Ash: Smokers Lung. The main base of this recipe combines two waste materials: cigarette ash, collected from beer gardens of pubs around London, and clay collected from a construction site that would otherwise be bound for landfill, exploring the potential of materials typically dismissed or discarded.
I didn’t create this work as a warning about the dangers of smoking. It comes from an interest in the correlation between material and outcome, how what is introduced into a system alters its surface, texture, and behaviour. Each piece has been glazed using a different method and varying concentrations of cigarette ash, showcasing that small changes can make a huge difference to the overall outcome. The lungs emerge as both form and metaphor, reflecting what might be happening internally when unknown substances accumulate over time.
This collection received the award for material transformation for Blackdot Gallery's exhibition, 'The Invisible Made Visible' during London Craft Week.
