'Papermache', plastar, ffawydd, siarcol a phlwm / Papermache, plaster, beech, charcoal and lead
12 x 6 x 41cms
Gwnaed y gwaith hwn mewn ymateb i agosrwydd y goeden Ffawydd at y môr a thraeth Llanbedrog. Ar Benrhyn Llŷn, mewn cyfnodau cynharach, defnyddiwyd pren ffawydd i wneud siarcol. Daeth yn gynnyrch gwerthfawr ledled y wlad ar gyfer cynhyrchu lliwiau ond yn fwy arbennig ar gyfer powdr gwn, gan ddod yn adnabyddus fel ‘powdr du’.
Dechreuais wneud y gwaith hwn yn ystod gŵyl Geltaidd Imbolc. Mae hyn yn nodi’r canolbwynt rhwng tywyllwch y Gaeaf a goleuni’r Gwanwyn. Gan ddefnyddio siarcol mâl fel croen dros y cychod wedi’u mowldio, maent yn cario llwyth y tywyllwch a’r goleuni.
Mae’r deunyddiau’n adleisio’r trawsnewidiad o goeden fyw (pren) i garbon (siarcol) ac i’r elfen o aur, symbol o olau ac egni.
This work was made in response to the proximity of the Beech tree to the sea and one time port of Llanbedrog. On the Llyn peninsula in earlier times, beech wood was used to make charcoal. It became a valuable product nationwide for colour manufacture but more particularly in gunpowder, becoming known as ‘black powder’.
I began to make this work on the Celtic festival of Imbolc. This marks the midpoint between the dark of Winter and the light of Spring. Using crushed charcoal as a skin over the moulded boats, they carry the cargo of the dark and the light.
The materials echo the transformation from living tree (wood) to carbon (charcoal) and to the element of gold, the symbol of light and energy.