B y Celeste Hawkins
Back in 2009, I was fortunate enough to wander through an exhibition at Gasworks Arts Park entitled: “Aqueous Bloom”, and was quite enamored by the work of Kay Goldfinch, with her Seedpods of various sizes and textures. Kay has been sculpting clay, drawing and painting for three decades. Much of her time has been spent time in France, Italy, New Zealand Singapore and Toronto, developing her style; particularly in delicate sculptural forms and even learning traditional paper maiche techniques in Florence.
Knowing little about the process of making moulds, or how she would have achieved such perfection, I decided to ask her:
Most of the seedpods that you saw displayed at Gasworks were in fact, not made with moulds. I mainly used the pinching and coiling methods for this body of work. Some of the seedpods were firstly formed in a mould but most of my work is very much formed within and with my hands.
I was inspired by a selection of seedpods that I had collected during my many walks around South Yarra. Their attraction is in their detail and form. I also used books to reference both seedpods and sea fauna.
The moulds are made with plaster of Paris. I use several ball shapes to create different sizes, and that is the deciding factor in what size they end up being. I use porcelain clay because it provides the delicacy, whiteness, translucency and malleability, which convey the detail of these intricate forms.
