I was asked to produce a set of images as an introduction to the exhibition “Chemistry of Bronze” held at the Black Swan Arts gallery in Frome, Somerset from May to July this year.

The open brief had just one caveat, that the process of lost wax bronze casting would be amply illustrated in the exhibition and I should avoid repeating this.

So I visited the foundry Art of a Fine Nature in Shepton Mallet, where bronzes for the exhibition were being made, and what caught my imagination was the fragments of the ceramic casings and spills of bronze which are a waste by-product of the casting process.

Swept into a skip, normally the waste would end up in landfill, but I spent a couple of hours sifting through the rubble and dust, pulling out pieces I found interesting until I had about 40 of various shapes, sizes and impressions.

I took them home and photographed them against black, presenting them as fragments of fossils or artefacts of great antiquity.

The gecko feet were the first fragments I was shown during my initial visit and they sparked the idea to return to find and photograph more of the beautiful pieces and elevate them from trash to art. The hardest part was finding the feet after they’d been tossed back into the skip at the end of my first visit.

Beautifully printed on photorag paper the prints made a real impact on visitors to the exhibition and are available to purchase as c-type prints. You can see the full set here.