Alice Uggles

Click the Link for PDFs of my Statement of Intent and my Conclusion

TO READ THIS BLOG IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER 

PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK

https://ugglescraft.tumblr.com/tagged/fmp/chrono

Conclusion

In conclusion to this entire project, I can happily say that I am proud of my work. I have never built a sculpture before and for a first attempt it came out really well. I thoroughly researched my project and I tried to reflect that research in every single aspect of my final piece. The Impossible Tree seemed like something impossible to build but with the help of a friend who owned a power drill I managed to pull it together. It was such a spur of the moment decision to switch my project from a branding one to an almost fine art sculpture one. Taking the photos of the tree was a really fun afternoon and actually prompted a lot of people engaging with the tree, asking about it, complimenting the candles and reflecting on it. I feel a lot of pagan vibes were in the air thanks to the Jack in the Green festival anyway so people just clicked with it. I might try and create something for the tree with an audience participation aspect for the final show. 

It was a really good way to promote my candles but also to connect with a culture I was only vaguely familiar with before. I don’t think I’m going to suddenly wear midnight and call myself a witch but I truly have learnt a lot about spirituality that I hadn’t considered before. I feel with the two prongs of this aspect I have tackled both sides of this theme. One being the actual spiritualism and self-reflection and mythological, ancestral reconnection and the other being the more commercialised and material aspect of it. Although I regret not getting further with my branding. I would’ve liked to clean it up a bit more and print out some proper promotional material. I never finished the sleeves for the candles and I didn’t manage to properly sell my candles within the parameters of this project. 

However, that being said I feel for the first time I will actually continue this endeavour further beyond university. I really enjoy the process of candle making and I already have things set up, like the flea market at the Palace and selling my candles in a cafe in Crystal Palace next month. I also have a couple of commisions from friends. So it actually did turn out to be a lucrative project. I want to experiment further and try things that I didn’t get round to doing in this project like making my own silicone moulds. If selling the candles next month goes well I also want to get an online shop going as well. 

I learnt many new skills with this project, not just candle making. I learnt more about how to research and tackle topics as an artist. I learnt about setting my own projects, briefs and goals. I learnt more skills in Photoshop and Illustrator and how to brand myself and my work since logo design isn’t really something I am familiar with. I feel like my logos are very illustrated and I understand the need to have simpler designs so in the future I will look to editing myself down more. I also will know in the future to edit my research down more as this project theme was so vast a lot of my time was taken up for research when it probably should’ve been spent in development.  

My biggest regret with the tree is I didn’t leave myself enough time to wait for a less windy day. I would’ve loved to taken photos of it illuminated on the beach. I wish I also had more time to melt candles into the tree to give my idea of it being an ancient but modern alter more weight. 

Overall I am happy with this project, despite there being more to do. I do regret not being able to have fuller sketchbooks as I wish I could’ve crammed my makeshift grimoire with all the knowledge I had acquired, I wanted to research more into things like Tarot and astrology. But that regret lessens with the fact that I really do believe I will continue with this project once I have my sketchbooks back. 

I have a lot of ideas of how I’ll show my work at the show and I’m grateful for the opportunity to do so. 

The show was the only thing stopping me from setting the tree completely on fire for a cool picture.

Individual candles 

Spirit: The Purple Candle Scented with Frankincense 

Fire: The Red Candle Scented with Cinnamon 

Air: The Yellow Candle Scented with Peppermint

Earth: The Green Candle Scented with Tea Tree

Water: The Blue Candle Scented with Vanilla

The reasoning for all these scents can be found in my grimoire. 

In all it’s glory. 

A small crowd gathered to observe and respect the altar.

Setting up the Tree.

It took a while to find an angle for the tree where you could see all five candles. We were losing sunlight fast as I wanted to take pictures of the tree gradually being submerged in darkness and then the candles being lit. 

Photoshoot Day

The plan was to set the tree up on the beach. I thought about taking it to the park but I didn’t want it to get lost among the other trees. I also liked the idea of the beach since it seemed so out of place and mystical. It was the impossible tree. I had a lot of people comment on it and assumed it was an installation for Jack in the Green which was exactly what I wanted.

Getting the tree outside was a bit of a struggle. 

This project is about researching and establishing the aesthetic of modern-day witchcraft. I want to find out what constitutes as Pagan beliefs and what this means to people. I will research various beliefs in relation to self-identifying witches, Wiccans and Pagans such as Herbalism, Alchemy and Deity Worship. I want to explore these themes through the medium of sculpture and photography.

As a sideline project, I also want to use this sculpture and photos as promotional material for a branding project on candles I have made myself. The candles will be marketed to people interested in the themes laid out here with the express purpose of being used for spellcasting and ritual practise. 

I want to explore the notion of what a pre-Christian alter would look like for the modern witch. Something natural such as a tree combined with more modern man-man products like scented and dyed candles. I also want to explore the notion of an ever-growing sculpture. My final intent for this piece will probably outgrow the boundaries of this assessment as I want to continue adding and melting candles to this structure until the naturalism of this piece is completely engulfed by wax, showing a dedication to a craft and ever-growing community of those creating new beliefs and practise outside of an organised religious space. 

The main structure of the tree is complete. Originally I was going to cut small squares of the flat wood for the plinths but we had the idea of cutting off the ends of the thick branch to make them. This way all the wood seems to be connected and nothing synthetic other than the base which I’m going to cover can be seen. 

The only issue I had was the big elemental candles wouldn’t fit on the plinths so I made little ones instead. 

The Tree is Starting to Take Shape

Pagan religions have often been coined as close to nature and Animism is an important aspect of many self-identifying witches. A lot of the aesthetics of witchcraft has often centred around scraggly dead trees with strange twigs in odd formations hanging from it. Creating potions from natural herbs and totems from nature is a big part of it. Worshipping deities of elemental power and summoning familiars from the forest. I want my tree to invoke some of that aesthetic. 

I’m going to make it more of an altar. I’ve slightly shifted focus from this project being a design and branding one to more of a sculpture one. The tree will have five plinths emerging from the branches that will hold my candles. Each plinth representing an element. The tree will be about the balance of nature and the elements. Even though I am pandering towards the spooky tree vibe I also want it to invoke some of the serenity, peace and healing that a lot of people find in pagan religion. 

To get into the motion of doing a sculpture the very first time I decided to look at some other sculpture artists. One that stuck out to me the most was Walter Bailey. He works in wood much like I want to and is keen to incorporate naturalism into his work. 

“Bailey's knowledge of nature is experiential and his direct approach to creation is elemental, by carving and eroding with hand tools, fire and water, he amplifies and deepens the biography of his chosen materials and forms. Exploring the physical and emotional geography of place he seeks to communicate at the interface between nature and humanity.”

Quote

His work reminds of the ancient mother goddess statues such as this one. 

I really like how he almost laces the wood together and how natural the wood seems. It feels more connected to nature when the wood still has some of it’s natural groves and dents. The statues seem ancient almost like tributes to forgotten deities. They almost seem Celtic by design, using some of those intricate weaving patterns. 

I want to bring this kind of ancient tranquillity into my work, trying to make it seem old and powerful yet new and interesting to look at simultaneously. 

"I celebrate the living world's capacity to generate organic grace through the arc of decay and growth; natures cyclical and triumphant resurrections on the cusp of chaos.” - Walter Bailey