The ‘Feminised Protein’ project has been in development since 2015, and is a material investigation into the use of surplus milk sourced from a raw organic dairy farm in Sussex - skimmed milk being a bi-product of the butter making process. The farm have a very small herd that are individually named, grass fed, and milked considerably less than the average dairy cow. 

Milk and milk products have helped shaped cultures and western civilisation as we know it, with some of the earliest human artefacts including vessels containing residues of cow’s milk. Working predominantly with a unique, but historically originated, formula of surplus milk to create a sculpting and manufacturing material free from synthetics, Tessa utilises a valuable raw material that would otherwise be wasted.

The material is an evolution of one existing in the 1300’s, originally used to lay flooring in Tudor houses. An example of this is at the Alfriston Clergy House, built in 1350, where the ‘chalk and sour milk’ floor is still in place. This house was the first one to be purchased by the National Trust for just £10 in 1896. Chalk is formed from the skeletal remains of algae that have broken down on the seabed over millions of years. The seabed eventually became exposed, resulting in the landscapes we now know as chalk cliffs - an example being the White Cliffs of Dover.

The project celebrates the history and mythology of milk, and aims to create a dialogue around our culture of waste and the farming industry. 'Feminised Protein' is a term coined by Carol J. Adams in the early 1990’s used to address the exploitation of female animals' reproductive cycles to produce food on a mass scale. Agriculture is a predominantly male profession, with men tasked with the ultimate care of mothers. Giving this fraught and forgotten liquid a tangible form is an homage to both the contentious and the extraordinary aspects of milk. Vases are produced from the material as a nod to the archetypal human-made object. Each piece is cast into a handmade fabric mould, mirroring the traditional processes used to manufacture cheese in cloths. They exist in our world as contemporary artefacts.