1. Tell us about your practice?

Our practice is rooted in the traditions of plain and decorative plasterwork and our designs emerge from practical explorations of plastering materials and techniques. The pieces we create combine Ffion’s practical skills as a plain & decorative plasterer with Steven's fascination with historic materials and processes.  

2. Tell us about your materials and techniques?

We love using vernacular materials and techniques. Wherever possible we rely on locally sourced materials that we can process and prepare ourselves. Although this can present all sorts of technical challenges it also anchors our pieces in the local landscape. The pigments we use in our work are reflected in the colours of the hills and coastline of the areas where we live and work.   

3. What inspired the work you are presenting with Craft Scotland at Collect 2022?

The idea for these pieces started to develop during a lockdown walk on a local beach in May 2020. We were drawing pictures on the rocks with some soft bright red pebbles and slowly realised the potential for doing something more. We started looking at opportunities for making pigments from a variety of natural materials available to us and began experimenting with their use in scagliola. 

4. Tell us about a special detail from this new body of work?

Each piece is a bit of an adventure - finding and processing the materials is really just the beginning. The pigments we produce are sometimes a little unpredictable. Colours often change and develop as we are working on a piece. The colours that you start out with might be quite different to those revealed in the completed work. 

5. How do you hope the viewer will respond to this collection?

Hopefully, our work demonstrates that plaster can be a surprising, beautiful and versatile material.