The oil lamp project came from seeing beautiful Roman oil lamps at the Roman Legion Museum, Caerleon, in South Wales. It got us thinking about how necessary or not these might be to British pre-Roman people and inspired our imagination of bringing light into dark especially during hte long winter nights. We are not sure there’s any evidence for Neolithic oil lamps, certainly not in stoneware, but it was fun making these. We can only assume that night fires, inside roundhouses and outside gave enough light to carry out activities needed. We expect that a lot of the sharing and learning went on round these fires, and lots of singing and eating hot food, and perhaps cuddling up on a long dark night was as lovely an experience then as it is for us today. A walk in the moonlight can be surprisingly easy something we tend not to notice or do today.
The small lamp is easily made as a thumb bowl and it seemed, like flint tools, it was something you could just make yourself and replace easily. It was small and could be carried around when on the move. Although this piece is not quite as precise, well decorated and practical in design, with covered top, as the Romans used.
The large lamp was both an experiment in a better lamp design using Roman inspiration and also caught our imagination with the idea of a magic lamp. Why would you think a lamp was magic or even could be rubbed to make a wish is intriguing? A stoneware lamp doesn’t need to be rubbed like a brass lamp when cleaning it, but none-the-less the tactile nature of a lamp, holding light in your hands does have a spiritual and magical quality. Candles are often used to create spiritual spaces and in magic spells so it makes sense to have a magic lamp too.
A double lamp design seems rather unusual, neither of us have seen one, so the idea lent itself to the basis of the magic lamp. It is suitably round and tactile to hold. The piece is inscribed with the cryptic instructions on how to use the lamp. Rather like you might expect in a fantasy piece.