Bondgate Benches

On Friday 14th December we took delivery of the timber for the bench elements to go with the sculptures for Bondgate Community Wood.

Each bench end reflects the sculpture on the opposite end.

There will be 3 double sided benches and 3 single sided. The double sided pieces will have a single seat on one side and room for 3 adults on the other.

All six benches are now cut and constructed.

There is still work to do on these but they are progressing nicely. The intention is to complete them in the first few weeks of the new year.

Bondgate…. benches progressing

The sculptures are almost complete. It’s now time to start working on the seating elements. The above photo shows a mock-up of one of the benches. This is the size they will be, of course made from better quality timber and finished to a high standard. The images below show the working ideas for each of the seats.

Bondgate Community Wood…. all 6 pieces underway

I started work on the sixth piece in this series of carvings this week.

I’m really pleased with how these pieces are coming together.

Bondgate…… No. 5 in progress

Number 5 of the seating elements is now underway.

Bondgate Community Wood… work in progress

Work has begun on the carvings for Bondgate Community Wood in Selby. Each of the sculptures is a development from pieces produced during school and college workshops held earlier in the year (see previous postings). The sculptures are being carved from green oak and each one will incorporate a seating element.

There will be six pieces in total, one to represent each school/college that took part in the workshops.

Kiln…. first firing

Today the kiln is having its first firing. I’ve had the kiln since about 2008 but for a variety of reasons it has sat in the corner of 2 studios acting as a very expensive cupboard. Today it is finally being used for what it was built for. The children’s work produced during the workshops connected with the Selby Community Woodland project will be fired this week. Fingers crossed the pieces fire okay and there are no casualties. Once fired they will be returned to the schools.

Stracathro Sited.

Seen Through Hand and Heart
Susan Carnegie Centre, Stracathro Hospital nr Brechin, Angus
Commissioned by Tayside NHS

Stracathro….. almost done

The piece is oxidising nicely. Today we’ve put the oak sections in place. Everything seems to fit okay, just a bit of tweaking here and there. We hope to install the piece at the end of next week, all being well.

Stracatho Project… moved outside

This week at Stracathro the foundation pad for the piece has been installed. Back at the studio the work has now moved out into the yard for oxidisation.

Meanwhile indoors we continue to work on the oak…. almost there.

Bondgate Community Woodland… maquette development

  

Working from the pieces made during the school workshops the children's designs are being developed into pieces of sculpture which will form part of seating elements for the woodland.

Stracathro…. all 3 pieces are up

 

 

The end of a busy week and we now have all 3 pieces standing. We hope to have construction completed by the end of next week.

Stracathro…. it is standing up

Today I stayed home to do the books meanwhile Hamish has been continuing to work on ‘Seen Through Hand and Heart’. I’ve just found these photos posted to our Facebook page and was really pleased to see the piece now standing up. It was a nice surprise to see today’s progress. There’s a lot more grinding for me to do yet but progress is steady.

Stracathro…. grinding

There’s a lot of grinding to do… best go and get on with it!

Stracathro… drilling and welding

Now all the cutting is completed it is time to start putting the pieces together.

Selby Post July 5th 2012

Article published in The Selby Post last week.

Stracathro…. site marking 3rd July 2012

Above drawing shows plan views of the sculpture. Top right is the location drawing. The images below show the site marked out ready for the foundations. As soon as we have some drier weather the foundations will go in….. hopefully this will be before the middle of August!

 

The sculpture will sit within the rectangle, the circular area will be filled with self binding gravel to match the existing pathway.

Stracathro…. progress week beginning 9th July

By the end of today all three main elements should be cut out.

There will be a bit of grinding and finishing to do to tidy up the edges. This will be done once the double thickness has been welded on.

 

Stracathro Project…. progress

Work is progressing on the Stracathro sculpture. Last week we drew out the site to scale in the yard. The piece will sit within a 6m gravel circle which cuts through the existing path.

We’ve started cutting out the steel.

 

The oak horizontal element is under construction.

Bondgate Community Woodland, Workshops at Selby Primary Schools

Following on from the workshop held at Selby High School, workshops have now been held at Selby Abbey Primary School, Selby Community Primary School and Longman’s Hill Primary School. Involving children from years 3, 4 and 5 Ailsa worked with the pupils to design features for the Community Woodland. The children made pastel compositions based on natural forms. They then looked at the outline of the composed pastel drawing and drew the silhouette describing the form of their proposed sculpture.

In the afternoon the children modelled their sculptures in raku clay. Some lovely little pieces resulted from the children’s hard work. Ailsa is going to use these to inform the design of a number of wood carvings which will become permanent features in the community wood. In all 70 children took part in the primary school workshops.

Stracathro Project….. Templates (day 2)

The imagers here pretty much speak for themselves. Once the drawings have been drawn full size, we cut MDF patterns to use as guides for cutting the steel which will be done using a plasma cutter

Largest piece…. cut.

The pattern for the wooden seat.