Plick

Plick! Every few minutes that sound resonates around the studio as another drop of water falls into the bucket under the leak in the roof.

My brief for the project was to develop a piece inspired by the phrase,'April Showers Bring May Flowers'... I've been batting around ideas for the past few weeks and finally have come up with a solution. Keep it simple.

The photos show my maquette, a half size model of the final design. I intend to cast the piece in fibre glass. It will have a highly polished surface finished with a colour shifting automotive paint.

The piece is to be sited indoors in a waiting room in the ICC. It's been a struggle for me to get my head round siting something indoors, with all the restrictions 4 walls can create. I am not used to carpets!! I think that I may make the piece look as though it hovers... though this has not been resolved yet.

I will also be making a wall based piece and will post images in due course.

Slowly Taking Shape

Another week and the piece is a little further on.


I've spent the past 3 days sticking 100s of tiny letters onto the 'map', a slow and fiddly process. It is slowly coming together. I hope to have it finished and ready for casting in the next week.

Pieces of time

The Castleford Memory Map is progressing. I've been working on this piece since September. The base is completed and I am now working on the map itself.

A selection of the clay relief features for the map. The discs are 100mm diameter, there are around 32 of these discs covering the map.

A few discs placed on the map for size.

Transferring the map onto the wooden pattern. The discs are again placed to see how they are going to fit.

The map is now taking shape. The rivers and canals have been cut out and the major roads put in place. The discs cover the map showing the locations of significant industries, places and events in the history of Castleford. These range from an iron age chariot burial ground to the new foot bridge across the River Aire.

Selby College Workshop 21/10/09

It's been nearly a month since my last up date.
A fortnight after my visit to Selby College I returned to compete the project with the students. During the fortnight the students had had time to work on their designs, working up drawings and deciding how they were going to tackle their sphere.

A visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see the exhibition of Peter Randall Page's work had helped inform their designs.


No budding young sculptor should been seen out without her French Manicure ;-)

Group 1 (am)

Group 2 (pm)
I thought the students did a fantastic job and was really pleased with their results. This was the first time any of them had worked in this way. They embraced the challenge and I think the results speak for themselves. These students are aged 16-17 in the main. I couldn't help wonder how I would have approached the project at their age.