Little had changed the next morning, the last remaining structure barely visible amongst the heap. The sea was sublime.

By nine o’clock at night this is all that was left of my Moon Jar. The wind and rain had in a single day reduced the pot to little more than a pile of soggy shards. The foot ring of the Jar was the all that remained. Up there the weather was really wild, standing trying to take pictures it was not so surprising that the Jar weathered away so quickly.

The anticipation to see what effect the first rain had had on the unfired clay was motivating as I climbed the hill. From afar it was still in its entirety, a sphere against the laden sky.

The Jar was wet through on one side, the side that had taken the weather.  Drops of rain had eaten there way into the surface making it rough and small cracks have started to appear. I think some persistent rain will cause the pot to collapse.

Just below the summit of Carn Treliwyd is a field of bluebells. Today as I tramped my way through them each step sent flying a myriad of insects, among them Damselflies and a Wall Brown Butterfly.

I took a different route to the summit and came across another line of quartz leading directly to the jar, before it lay these beautiful flowers.

Nearing the top of Carn Treliwyd I found these lines of quartz. Ancient routes through the rocks that shape our landscape.

How we use and experience a landscape is of constant interest to me.  One of the ways that shapes our experiences is the routes we take. paths are like common routes of experience, a way taken by all, sometimes for thousands of years. paths guide us through the landscape to where we need or want to go. Paths are both mystical and reassuring, knowing that others have passed this way but not knowing what you will find on route is what I find so intriguing.

The line a path draws in the landscape has started to come into my work. Simple lines representing a path, across the surface of a jar. A reminder of the journeys I and others before me have made.

Jackie Morris, illustrator and author followed the path up to the Jar on the hill and this is what she experienced.

My second attempt at this project after the previous Jar was taken from the top of Clegyr Boia. A new more remote location this time on top of Carn Treliwyd.

I have made a Jar from a blend of local clays, some from the moor below at Waun Llodi. This raw, unfired jar is to be left at the top of Carn Treliwyd to weather away. Made from the earth it will return to the earth. In my work I am inspired by landscape and I have placed this Jar to venerate its surrounding.

Over the next few weeks I will be documenting the disintegration of the Jar as the wind and rain slowly return the form to clay.

I will be posting things of interest and inspiration as I go.

To view the  chronological weathering of the Jar click here

Earth to Earth Project – Started Monday the 27th of June 2009

On Monday evening I placed an unfired terracotta Moon Jar on the top of Clegyr Boia. Because it has not been fired it is very fragile and susceptible to the weather. The concept is to leave it in situe until the forces of nature have reduced it back to its natural state, clay. I will be documenting its disintegration daily.

There are cycles within nature some quick others very slow and this art work I hope illustrates one cycle as a metaphor for all. from the earth and back to the earth. Also the placing of the jar in that particular location is important, it is a way of venerating a place of significance.

Clegyr Boia is a rocky outcrop rising from the coastal plateau to the west of St Davids. Excavations in the first half of the twentieth century confirmed occupation in the Neolithic and Iron Age periods. Dated Neolithic settlements in Wales are extremely rare, but the discovery of crude huts and Neolithic round-bottomed pottery confirms occupation of this rock 5-6,000 years ago. The name Clegyr Boia also associates this outcrop with the stronghold of a sixth-century AD Irish pirate named Boia, and the potential for post-Roman occupation here adds to the rarity and importance of this enduring settlement (RCAHMW, 91-cs-0258).Extract from: Driver, T. 2007. Pembrokeshire, Historic Landscapes from the Air, RCAHMW, page 98, Figure 148. See also Figure 63.T. Driver, 28 June 2007

The location has a long and deep historic and prehistoric significance. It is also the site of a healing spring and so has a spiritual element to it. Clegyr Boia has been of great importance to humans for a least 6000 years. For me personally the site has been the seen of the finale of one of my best childhood treasure hunts when trying to catch Boia (my father) and being attacked by his men with porridge pies. Later my friend Julian and I took our telescope and for the first time saw the rings of Saturn.

The final significance is the beauty of the surroundings. by placing the Moon Jar one immediately draws attention to its location and its surroundings. This I find fascinating and it has been theoriesed that the placing of Neolithic megaliths was motivated by a desire to venerate natural places. Something I think the artist Richard Long does brilliantly.