Pitteuchar East Primary School October 2018

Pitteuchar East Primary School 

Bondgate Community Wood…. completed

I realised today that it has been 5 months since I last posted anything on the blog. A whole other piece has been designed and fabricated in that time. I won’t bore you with the fabrication process, basically lots of chainsaw action and carving went on, pretty much the same as for the benches but on a larger scale. The works were all installed at the beginning of June and the celebration launch was held yesterday involving all the schools and individuals who took part in the workshops which were run last year leading up to the design process.

    

The totem is the final piece for the woodland project. Carved from a locally sourced, 200 year old oak tree which sadly had to be cut down due to Highways regulations. It was a pleasure to carve.
If you view this blog it would be nice to receive feedback as we are never sure who, if anyone, views the works posted here. Any comments would be gratefully received.
The Community Woodland sculptures has been a year long project. We’ve greatly enjoyed the opportunity to reintroduce wood carving to the portfolio and hope to have the chance to continue working in this versatile material, as well as all the other materials we have worked in in the past.

Bondgate…… 1st bench completed

The first of the 6 benches is completed. This will be my last posting for this project prior to installation. Installation will hopefully take place later this month or early March.

Bondgate…. adding a bit of colour

This week we’ve mostly been sanding, sanding and then sanding a bit more. Think that’s enough sanding for now, time to add a bit of colour.

January 2013…. back to work

 

Back to the studio this week after the Christmas break and it is full steam ahead to get the benches finished ready for installation.

The pieces will be individually coloured. I’ve already started to add blocks of black. The image below shows the colour palette I intend to use.

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.