Call of the wild: Alice-Andrea Ewing uses bronze casting to create botanical sculptures

We love learning more about the Crafts community – who they are, what sparks their curiosity, and (perhaps, most importantly) what they enjoy making. So in November we took to Instagram and asked our crafty readers to share a photo of our Autumn/Winter 2023 issue in their studios, for a chance to be featured on our website and social platforms.

We’ve selected three of our favourites – next up is Alice-Andrea Ewing, a Suffolk-based artist who employs bronze casting to create sculptures of figs, fungi and other elements of the botanical world.

How long have you been practicing as a sculptor and how did you get to where you are today?

I’ve been casting since 2013, but I largely spent the first few years learning about the process and method. I moved into and set up my studio-foundry around 2016. My background was actually in painting, but I hadn't consciously considered working three-dimensionally until I started casting. 

Which craft techniques are involved in your work and how did you learn them?

I work largely with the Italian or Renaissance lost-wax process, and with adaptations of this particular method of bronze casting. I tend to refer to myself as a ‘founder-sculptor’ since I undertake all parts of the casting process myself. 

I read history of art at university, although I did this with the intention of gaining as many influences as I could for my own practice. After graduation, I managed to get unpaid work helping out in the studio of another founder-sculptor, Laurence Edwards. Through sheer serendipity, an apprentice-style opportunity came up whilst I was there and I managed to move on from skip loading to training as a foundry assistant. It was a relaxed, atelier-like arrangement; a wonderful and very embedded way to learn a technique.

Tell us about your studio and how you like to work.

My studio is in the Suffolk countryside. Perhaps an extension of that traditional ‘atelier’ way of learning, it’s really a household enterprise – I run and manage the studio with my partner who I met whilst training to cast (and two dogs who are no help at all). 

I enjoy the solitude and focus of a solo studio. Being out in nature, in the elements, is also important to me. The physicality of this medium and all its attendant processes was one of the things that really grabbed me and I suppose this is mirrored in the space. When it comes to the seasons, the studio changes with them all: thermals on and frozen clay in January, the manic preservation of waxes in buckets of water during the height of summer. The space itself is a large corrugated farm building, with a room for experimentation and construction nestled between the foundry and the metal-finishing areas.

What’s the inspiration for your pieces, and how does each one develop?

I see both parts of my practice as reactions and considerations of place. My botanical works, a series I refer to as Pomarius, began with the location I’m working in. Sometimes the choice of site is drawn from a wider theme, but for the most part my works are an attempt to communicate value – that of the original organic specimens, and the places they come from.

With my broader sculptural practice, I’ve used Suffolk and the coast as a starting point for many years, transposing landscape sketches into hanging bronze works and linear pieces. I see some of these as maps, and some as sketches, with the brevity of such actions made long by this material. 

Could you tell us about some of your collaborative pieces and how they differ from your other work?

I’m really lucky that the collaborations I've done as part of my Pomarius project have allowed me to work in a number of different locations. This year I reprised a collaboration I did a couple of years ago with The Newt hotel and garden in Somerset, casting 100 of their apples in bronze. Their head gardener selected the specimens he was most pleased with, so we essentially preserved a good harvest. I’ve also been working with Aldourie Castle in Inverness on a similar project based in their kitchen garden.

Another significant collaboration took place during lockdown. From 2020 to 2021 I worked with Loewe to produce sculptures and jewellery pieces for their Spring/Summer an Autumn/Winter 2022 collections. It was a strange way of working given all the restrictions at the time, but it was an interesting and, given the timing, ironic break from totally solo production. Working with the brand's jewellery team to move bronze works into something functional also gave me a wonderful insight into another craft.

What have you learned along the way?

That everything takes longer than you think.

How would you like to shape your work in the future?

I’d like to work towards expanding the Pomarius collection, considering and playing more with what the presentation of these pieces can do.

I'll perhaps give myself more time between projects, too. It can be tricky keeping momentum and tempo in the foundry alongside taking enough time to pause and really develop new directions. I always enjoy a commission with a bit of technical ‘stretch’ to that end. I think considerations like these always impact makers in a way, no matter what material or technique they’ve dedicated themselves to – the demands of the process, the need to play. Both shape the work. 

What does craft mean to you and how do you engage with the wider maker community?

I’ve always found dialoguing with those further along in their career path to be important. Speaking with others about their practice can be quite a personal thing and I really appreciate the insight others can give when we do break bread. I try to pass that on too. 

Instagram has been a wonderful way to easily find and see what others are up to too, although I find I have limits to the amount of social medial I can handle. Being in the studio takes precedent for me. And physical media like Crafts of course, are nice ways to see what’s taking place across the world in this sector. 

For the chance to enter future competitions and see more inspiring things from the world of craft, follow us here.