Plasticine

For a while weather conditions continued to play havoc – veg box deliveries stalled, schools closed, appointments cancelled, wherever possible life continued; if a little compromised. ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ and in our case it was the ‘father’, who turned up for a meeting at our offices last week, with his delightful daughter Tilly who was revelling in another day off. She brought with her a delicious new, bumper tub of brightly coloured Plasticine.

Tentatively we were drawn into model making with Tilly who, naturally, aged 6, didn’t really wish to sit quietly in a corner, but wanted to engage us all. As we talked, and exchanged ideas, we gradually warmed to the nostalgia of all the things we remembered making. (As busy as a bunch of pre-schoolers developing their fine motor skills.) All the while keeping her happy with examples of our invention and skill. She was pleasingly impressed. Quietly a sense of competition began to overtake this Plasticine distraction and soon collectively, without conferring, we allowed it to take centre stage! Once freed of the need to be ‘adult, cool and disinterested’ our modelling became intent … each secretly vying to better the other – woven fruit baskets with fruit, dogs, cars and Tilly produced a figure that looks a bit like an Ndebele doll, if she did but know it!

The meeting was constructive in other ways too. Plasticine brought more ideas forth than usual, everyone was less inhibited, and lowered eyes (intent on coil work and decorative details, scale and texture) enabled honest, clear-headed responses. Ideas bounced back and forth, full of inspiration. Happy Days! Just so long as no one muddied the lovely colours by mixing the clay!

The city of Bath is not all buns and elegant architecture. It’s also the place where Plasticine was first made in 1897, by an inventive art teacher, William Harbutt, who wanted non-drying clay for his sculpture students. (Manufacture continued there until a factory fire in 1963 – it’s now made in Thailand.) The exact recipe remains a trade secret. But it is non-toxic, sterile, soft, malleable and does not dry on exposure to air. It cannot be hardened by firing, melts when exposed to heat. (Although, at much higher temperatures it’s flammable.)

Awarded a patent in 1899, it went into commercial production in 1900. Always popular with children, used in schools for teaching art, over time it found a wide variety of other uses, moulding plaster casts etc. While a number of ownership changes between 1983 to 2006 almost threatened to make it a thing of the past and it seemed to disappear from the market.

The skills of Aardman Animation’s Tony Hart with his much loved ‘Morph’ and Nick Park’s ‘Wallace & Gromit’ ensured that Plasticine never entirely fell from grace www.aardman.com. It was seen plentifully on the screen (if not in the shops) and continues to prove an animator’s dream, perfect for stop motion, mouldable enough to create a character, flexible enough to allow the character to move in many ways and dense enough to retain its shape easily when combined with a wire armature. My favourite is the wonderful series of ‘Creature Comforts’.

Such was the interest in James May’s garden at last year’s Chelsea Flower Show that he’s now become as widely associated with Plasticine as cars (the closest he’ll ever get to ‘modelling’!). ‘Paradise in Plasticine’ took six weeks to create and 2.6 tonnes of Plasticine, in 24 colours. (Imagine that big an array of colours when the variety in our Activity Bucket seemed pretty wide with just 13!) His garden went on to win an honorary Plasticine gold medal and was undoubtedly the Royal Horticultural Society’s ‘peoples choice’ for best small garden. Inspirational and witty, it was the largest and most complex Plasticine model there’s ever been! It would be interesting to know what it did for Plasticine sales that month.

Tilly’s Ndebele doll creation remains on the chimney piece. I’m tempted to put an extra ‘miscellaneous’ item through my expenses this month – 1 x Activity Bucket – a must for any creative environment. (Keeps the hands mobile enough for handwriting too, now that we’ve all become so keyboard orientated!)

More recently, check out Paolo Nutini’s new music video ‘Pencil Full of Lead’ directed by Colin Hardy. A claymation version of the number one star who sexually harasses his all-girl backing band before being reduced to trampled lumps by the angry girls www.youtube.com. Oh the sweet revenge of mixing those colours! (Though it looks a bit more like PlayDoh to me, but that’s for another blog.)

Oh, and just in case, Plasticine cleaning tips can be found at: www.wikihow.com.

Posted by Katie Barr-Sim 6 months ago in Writing

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