DAY 05 (13.05.2026)

(Aynslee and Katie)

This morning began with reclaim- everything begins with reclaim… 

Katie and I (mainly Katie) carried a larger discarded tarp back to the house so we could spread out the growing amount of slip collecting in buckets over the past few days.

Together we poured the thick clay across the surface, flattening and evening it out with our hands so it could settle consistently beneath the heat. The process took nearly an hour- repetitive and physical. 

Reclaiming clay has started to feel symbolic while being here when I (Aynslee) don’t practice reclaiming as much. I’m realizing here nothing is fully discarded which is different from back home. Material moves through cycles of use, collapse, water, waiting, and return.

The reclaim requires patience and attentiveness. 

Clay shifts constantly depending on moisture, timing, touch, and environment. 

Too wet in some areas, too dry in others, soft at the centre while cracking at the edges. 

Working with it asks us both to respond carefully to what the material is doing in the moment rather than forcing it toward a fixed state especially in a new environment. 

Once we finished reclaiming for now…. And had the slip laid out evenly over the tarp. We suited up with our SPF (much needed due to our rough sun burns from the day prior.) 

before heading out toward Apostolos’ land — aka Metaxata Park. Throughout the afternoon we moved between collecting, observing, recording, and walking, separately before eventually finding one another again.

During this time, I (Aynslee) focused on gathering sound recordings and sensory information from the landscape. Wind moving through grass, distant insects and birds, footsteps against earth listening to the most irritating weed wacker in the distance. 

Moving slowly through the environment became a way of grounding within it. There were moments of touching objects only once overstimulation stopped, allowing sensation to arrive gradually through texture, temperature, movement, and sound. These collected experiences continue informing my research surrounding sensory regulation, neurodivergent perception. One of the objects gathered during the walk came from near the ant nest that has been repeatedly observed throughout these past few days whenever out on a walk, which is slowly becoming part of the research.

Meanwhile, Katie continued developing her own process through stamping, collecting, and working within her book. Her focus remained on accumulation, experimentation, sitting within the environment and nature. Gathering stamps using ink , paper, stamping them from one to another by using a kneadable eraser once stamped in the book - I then went on to clay pieces by stamping them to bring back to observe and test. I’m slowly reflecting on our societal instincts toward archiving, and how those boundaries might shift through stamping archival ink onto a natural surface that is forever changing (clay). Later, while moving separately through the park, we regrouped while collecting long grasses Katie planned to use within her jewellery tests and experiments.

Back at the house we had lunch together with Christine, making sandwiches and sitting together for a while before returning once again to check on the reclaim clay. Together we flipped and spread it further so it could continue drying evenly beneath the warmth of the day that we had left.

The afternoon naturally shifted back into making and processing. Katie began testing stamped clay jewelry forms outside, twisting grasses together into chains and constructing small maquettes for future ideas and wearables. 

Alongside this, Aynslee returned to drawing and mapping out ideas connected to sensory regulation, modularity, and environmental perception. These drawings emerged from recordings, videos, photographs, and bodily experiences gathered over the past few days — less as fixed plans and more as traces of sensory moments where environment, movement, texture, or sound altered internal states of regulation and awareness.

Poetry has also quietly entered the process during my time in Kefalonia (Aynslee). 

Both of our practices continue unfolding through observation, responsiveness, and material experimentation, though in distinctly different ways.

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Reclaim clay drying in the sun, sweetest of grasses twisting into chains, 

humidity, warmth attached to our  skin, 

Burns against our shoulders and back- what pain.

Distant sounds dissolving into stillness all becoming part of the atmosphere shaping how we think. 

This is what we came to do-collect, write, and make whilst living in Kefalonia. 

The Reclaim remains still until a new day.