I have to thank my cousin Nicholas for February’s ‘Grogg of the Month’. It has been in his family since it was made in the early sixties and from what he told me he had saved it from destruction more than once, even rescuing it from the garden where to be fair some of our very early pieces also ended up!
It also may explain the subject matter as a soldier in a busby was a change for Dad. As I explained last month my father’s first efforts were based mainly on characters from the Mabinogion or the Old Testament, so this piece is doubly unusual. He may have made it specifically for his brother David who had a lifelong obsession with militaria. David’s home was like a museum full of military memorabilia which was fascinating to us as children.
The Blue Soldier dates back to the very early days of my father’s journey into clay and bears a beautiful hand painted signature underneath the base along with a stamp declaring… “Treforest Ceramics”!
The Soldier is different from other early figures as it is hollow and slip cast. Dad experimented with mould making straight away, mostly one-piece plaster moulds for making ash trays and plates which he then glazed. This soldier is a little more complicated as it was made using a two-piece plaster mould which meant once the master figure was made it could be replicated many times if desired.
The slip (liquid clay) was made in a fascinating way. Long before we bought our blunger, which could make gallons of slip at one time using up to eight bags of clay for each mix, Dad made his slip using powdered clay. If we were very good, we were allowed to sit at the edge of the huge drum of water and watch as Dad poured the powder in. It sat on top of the water like an island and we were instructed not to poke or disturb the process in any way which for young children was very testing.
Sitting in Dad’s first shed, which was sort of an extension to the house in Llantwit Road, we would watch fascinated as the island of powder slowly crumbled into the water. We weren’t allowed to touch the island as any disturbance would lead to air bubbles in the slip which could become a serious problem when firing slip cast pieces sometimes leading to explosions. Once the majority of powder had disappeared under the surface, we were allowed to VERY SLOWLY stir the grey sludge with a large wooden paddle until it became a beautiful smooth creamy texture. Once all the bubbles had popped on the surface the slip was poured into the mould which was tapped gently to ensure again that no bubbles were trapped in the clay. Once the plaster had absorbed the moisture from the clay a skin would form on the inside of the mould and the excess clay was gently tipped out leaving the shell of the figure inside. This would have to dry overnight and then be “broken out” the following day. Once fettled (removing seams) the figure would be fired, glazed and fired again producing the finished Blue Soldier. It is a slightly more complicated method than straight forward hand modelling, but this process was to become crucial in the development of Groggs in the 1970’s.
The Blue Soldier was lent back to us by Nick and is on permanent display in our museum at the Groggshop.
