Utility - Untold

I've just realised I haven't explained why I'm casting crystal ravens..well:

Every year the 'object' studio's at uni (glass, ceramics and jewellery) run an exhibition called Utility, each year it has a theme and this year's is Untold. I entered a submission and got in...and now of course I have to make it.

So here is my submission that I entered in May:

200 word description of the proposed work, including its conceptual basis and its relevance to this year’s theme.

Two life size ravens stand in conversation; their body language portrays intelligence and friendship. One is quite life like, the details of feathers, beak and claw can be discerned in the cast black crystal. In contrast the other, cast in opaque clear only suggests such corvid features.

In Norse mythology, Odin the God of war and poetry gave the power of speech to a pair of ravens, and he called them Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory). It is told that each morning Odin sends them to fly over the land and before the day is over the pair report back to Odin telling him all they have seen, making him wise in the news of his land. Odin’s ravens are strong identifiers of who Odin is in Norse poetry and imagery yet the ravens are only referred to once in the epic poems. Considering the Raven’s daily task there seems to be a wealth of untold tales waiting to be heard.

I have depicted the ravens, “Thought” and “Memory” as though they were considering an event, something they had seen, something as yet untold.

“Thought” is shown in a more realistic manner (black in colour with finer detail), linking the act of thinking to be a conscious process while “Memory’s” more abstract features are portrayed in a misty colourless crystal evoking the ephemeral subconscious qualities of remembrance.

and I included some sketches and models