Emma Woffenden

Whilst making this piece I thought about the values of materials and the perceived values, about fragility, permanence and impermanence, warmth and cold, use and non-use, the real monetary cost, the perceived liveliness and deadness of different materials. Others thought of making sweets as a child, pouring hot sugar into boxes and of frosted mornings— a sort of memory trigger.

Inside this worn, much handled and shipped box there is crystal, optical crystal, I think I remember the code LF5 from Schott, not the glass everywhere, like windows or screens. When I began working with glass, and historically, crystal had to have 24% lead in order to call it that, it was softer to cut— now lead is banned.

To get it lying there like a glove matching the textures and layers, involved making a mould, from cardboard to dental alginate, then an investment mould made from ground quartz, gypsum, china clay, water, and then the glass is slowly melted inside the mould. Value or cost in labour, time, technical knowledge, manual skill, electricity, materials, studio rent, memories and finally a value in the gallery. The box and crystal now have the same status.

Head to Head Blue. Drawing ink, chalk, pencil, on paper.

“Say the words ‘I feel safe’.”
I searched for the feeling in the dark but was unable to identify it.
“ I know security and safe enough,” I answered.
I think about small rabbits in a warren, still nothing.

We arrive at Wakehurst Kew, walking and examining this Septembers seed pods and seed heads on trees and plants. The official seed bank is also here – a concrete underground space. I think about the little banks hanging on the trees. We have come to a place of safety and saving.

I remember the drawing I saved for 35 years. Then I had been thinking ‘I was in you before you were born’ about embryos holding future eggs, a weird seed bank. I wanted to feel close to feel safe.