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We are a collective of design students hoping to render an alternative method for both using and making. Our main medium is through ceramics as we feel it suits our hands-on approach to design, whilst being an engaging and social material to work with. Sustainability is a key value within our process, we are passionate about lo-fi making techniques in combination with local, abundant materials and by-products. Earth to Earth is focussed on using plentiful, native materials, that can eventually find there way back to nature where they can instinctively biodegrade. We are committed to showing the joys and benefits of a closed-loop design process.
We are lucky enough to be working in a collaboration with the acclaimed “Where the light gets in” in order to create a range of workshops and artifacts. Just like the restaurant, we share a love for the outdoors and are passionate about foraging and treasuring locally sourced materials. Our approach to making is driven by the materials available to us with an incentive on playfulness and inclusivity through our process we hope to extend WTLGI’s wonderfully sustainable approach to cooking and storytelling through the means of design and making.
Once finding out where the chefs went foraging to gather ingredients for the restaurant, we decided to involve ourselves within this process. We visited Marple, one of their local spots, and wandered down the river Goyt, collecting a range of materials including three different types of clay, wild garlic, nettles and some found ceramic pieces in the river bed. The materials we sourced and the initial group trip has held great significance throughout our process since then. Since then we have been continually adding new test pieces and samples to our archive, using film and photography to record them.
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We are also trying to utilize materials and tools that the restaurant may already have, for example, using kitchen appliances and equipment as mark-making tools for clay, or trying to find a use for some of there very minimal waste. Collaboration is absolutely key to us as a collective and we want this to be a prominent feature throughout our work, so we feel the shared use of tools, materials, and ingredients is a great way of demonstrating this.
We made the decision to only work with unfired clay, this was for two main reasons. Firstly because it means that each piece of work can be placed back into its natural habitat where it will decompose easily. And the second reason is to ensure that our process of working is accessible to a wide range of people and circumstances - we are trying to show you don't need a professional workshop with expensive equipment to make interesting and experimental ceramics.
After a period of time spent collating and creating a range of samples, tests, and experiments we focussed our attention on how we can create something that the restaurant will find valuable. It is key to our project that we not only collaborate on the tools and materials but also in the making itself. We want the employees of Where The Light Gets In to have the opportunity to show their personality and individuality through design as they do with their food daily. We felt that the combination of our inclusive approach to making with the use of naturally abundant, local materials would make for a great workshop.
The initial stage of our workshop will be out in nature, showing the staff of WTLGI how and where to dig up local clay, we hope that during this process the chefs can share with us some of their knowledge on foraging ingredients, and between us, we can gather a range of abundant natural materials which can be used for our workshops. We would then make our way to the restaurant's newly developed urban farm, on the top floor of an unused car park in Stockport.
Combining a selection of kitchen utensils and waste, such as oyster shells, from the restaurant with our recently foraged materials will give us a fantastic selection of tools. The staff will then have the opportunity to create a variety of expressive forms that display their own personality and individual touch. The range of objects will then be coated in egg white and left to cure, minimizing any harmful dust. The forms would then be delivered to each table alongside the bill, acting as a souvenir from their experience. We hope each object will encapsulate WTLGI's ethos and approach and act as an extension of their wonderful, innovative cooking.
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