This selection of images is from the second project I did in my first year at the School of Art, and is part of a brief we were given entitled EAT. As part of this brief we were asked to create work that could be either made from food related or edible products, made to look like an item of food or be based around a food related issue. With these options in mind, I decided for my own personal project to go for the latter option and chose water pollution as my food related issue. The reason I chose this as my topic is because I was then and still am worried about the dire state that our waterways are currently in, especially the state our oceans are in. More, importantly I was and (again) still am deeply worried about the fact that not only is the problem of water pollution and specifically plastic pollution effecting the marine life (from tiny zoo plankton to big blue whales - to the sea birds flying over head to even the animals being discovered and still yet to be discovered down in the depths of our deep sea), but its starting to come people's attention that it is starting to have an impact on humans - as studies are starting to find that the fish we catch and then consume is being contaminated if plastics either breaking down in the guts of the fish or leaking into their skin from the contaminated waters they are swimming in. With concerns like this in mind, I began by gathering research into both the science, facts and statistics (see PLOS ONE article for some the information that inspired my work) behind the issue I was using to inspire my work, as well as this I also began gathering visual research into the causes of this issue - such as cosmetics which leak micro-plastics into the sea and wash up onto our shores and other things such as plastic packaging/products/toys etc., industrial waste and and plastic litter which is dropped or blown onto beaches and or into the sea/leaks/rivers/streams. Alongside, this I also collected research into artists/designers/makers' which either use recycled waste in their work or create work which is inspired by global issues such as pollution - more specifically water pollution; including creatives such as Max Libioron (scientist, activist and artist who collects plastic debris from the ocean in order to create things such as plastic pollution snow globe scenes), Evelyn Rydz (a photographer who creates stunning and meaningful photographs using plastic debris) and Studio Swine (who fashioned a way of collecting plastic from the oceans which they melt down to create bespoke furniture and objet d'art that informs people about the impact we are having on the oceans). Using all this scientific and visual research, I started with the idea of creating meaningful ceramics pieces which would take the form of food platters, and would be designed in a way that I believed would inform people about the issues my work was trying to address. For this idea I initially came up with the idea of these ceramic food platters being in the form of plastic packaging such as cosmetic and cleaning bottles, which would be decorated in a way that make it look as if the bottles were filled with deadly micro-plastics, making people think  about what they are eating (i.e. fish), whether it may contain plastics - making them think about not only their attitude to rubbish/littering/pollution but also society's attitude to such things. To put these ideas into practice, I began with creating designs and then turn them into ceramics forms, using templates I had created from my designs. However, after discussions with a member of staff who was working with us on this project, I decided not to carrying on with this idea of making bottle shaped platters. Instead I went back to my initial research and decided to focus more heavily on the edible part of the project - the fish. As a result of this I then decided to pay a visit to Manchester's China Town to have a look round the live fish shops, in order to gain some visual research into my subject matter - taking pictures of the live stock and the ready to cook and eat stock they had to sell - crabs, prawns, lobsters, shellfish and various different types of fish. Alongside this, I also looked back to the initial visual research I gathered from Manchester's natural and ancient history Museum, as well as observing both the second and first research I gathered linked to the other half of my project. With all this visual information to gather inspiration from, I also thought back to my conversation with the memory of staff I had previously talked with, and decided to take up her idea of combining the bottle imagery and the fish imagery I had collected - creating a hybrid animal that would give people a startling image to look at which would definitely get them thinking.  Moving forward with this as my idea, I began creating designs which incorporated bottles and fish together - the ones I chose in the end were the ones which worked best and I thought best fitted the aesthetics I want to work with. Once the design I wanted to use had been selected, I once again created templates from my designs to use to cut out my forms and to add the decorative marks into the surface. These, after having dried and been bisque fired: were then stained with black iron oxide in order to bring out the carved surface, splattered on stains and oxides to get the speckled (micro-bead) effects and then coated them with clear glazes. Once they had had their final firing, they were complete and ready to be handed in to meet our EAT deadline. Despite the results of my tests and final pieces not being as vibrant as some thought they would be, as I was advised by the then ceramics technician that none of the glazes they provided were food safe and as I hadn't had an induction into the glaze mixing process, I personally quite liked the aesthetic that was created by using oxides and stains - as the I  felt and still feel that this darker look gives across my messages more clearly and gives us a stark reminder that we are effectively actively poisoning our oceans and the marine life that inhabits it, as well as possibly unintentionally poisoning ourselves and the next generations. On the whole looking back at this project, I had an interesting experience not only designing and making the  work but also gathering the research for the context behind the work. Moreover, it also opened my eyes to see just how bad our situation was and (looking back now) just how bad our situation still is, as well as it showing me that more needs to be done about man-made issues such as water pollution - especially that of ocean pollution as not only does it effect every ocean across the world but also the deep sea and our lakes, rivers and streams which trace their sources back to the oceans and seas - showing me that it needs to be done sooner rather than later in order to protect these natural wonders for our next generations.