Metal Ages.... and it has been ages!!

If there's an award for bad blogger of the year, I think I would certainly be in the running!

There's been so much going off.   In March, Gavin and myself did some workshops in schools - this produced some fantastic work, including glass, metal embossing and casting - hopefully I can show you some of the work at a later point.  Who cares about chronological order?

I managed to get a few more sessions in at university doing photograms, and I was very sad when this came to an end - I feel like I've still got so much more to explore, but I need access to the darkrooms to be able to develop (hahaha) this further.  Do you think they'd notice if I just wandered in.... we've got the AA2A exhibition soon, I have to be ready by the end of next week.

We held the spring Open Studios at Shed 2 as part of Derbyshire Open Arts.  I managed to squeeze in a visit to Chelsea 100th Flower Show to help Rachel Carter - unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of chance to look round as it rained. And rained again.   And rained some more.  You get the idea.

However, I was very excited last week that we were able to install the first Metal Ages sculpture at the King George Gallery.  That's the Royal "we" - as in Gavin and his builder dug holes, heaved the thing around, and poured in post-crete, whilst I stood on the side-lines saying left a bit, right a bit and taking photographs.

I think it looks amazing.  I love the combination of new glass and old metal.  I love what Gavin has done with the found objects from the Stanton site, combined with donated tools from our walks and meets we did way back in February and March.

Anyway, here it is - the second sculpture should be installed fairly soon, more on that later!

An overview - slightly over exposed, but had to show you the beautiful settings:

The beautiful King George Gallery building

My glass element

Found metal objects from Stanton Ironworks

Donated tools from former workers

The glass set into the Stanton Arrow

"OLD MEN & PIPES"

More on Metal

Those of you who know me personally will know that there's been quite a lot of stuff going on in my personal life lately (that may be a bit of an understatement), which has prevented me from spending much time in the studio or on projects.

But, as the Metal Age project is on a deadline, I've had to pick up the ball again get stuck in.

I managed to get along to another one of the Walking for Health sessions, although I didn't take any photos on the last one, it was far too cold to take the gloves off!  And couple of Saturdays ago, we ran the glass inclusions workshop at the Erewash Musuem, it was the first sunny day of the year so we didn't get lots and lots of visitors - I think people were taking advantage of the first chance to get in the garden.  We met a friendly family, where grandad, like a lot of people in Ilkeston, had worked at Stanton at one time; it was great, he had a lot of stories to tell.

Gavin and I are now working on the plans for the two sculptures, and for what else will be going in the exhibition.  We've also been planning the next workshops at King George Gallery in March - we will be working with students from local schools and colleges in the day, and having open drop-in sessions on the Tuesday evenings.

I'm still playing catch up, so this is a bit of a post-and-run, but I thought I would show you a few photographs of our site visit - current owners, St Gobain, allowed us access to locked up buildings and the old Stanhope Plant - it was fascinating.

I took this photograph after Gavin commented that if you looked down at (extremely thick) layer of black dust on the floor, it was undisturbed apart from our footprints.  It was like virgin snow....

Black Virgin Snow

Something fascinated me about the chains and hooks that we found lying in trolleys around the place.  Not sure this conveys the sheer scale of everything (giant light bulbs, giant oil cans, giant sack trolleys - I felt like one of the Borrowers at times!) - I just liked the pattern of this one:

Dusty Chains

And this last photograph, was just a poignant reminder of the busy times that were once Stanton Ironworks - obviously a countdown until the last day in May 2007, that the last pipe rolled out of the plant - it was written on the inside of the one of the maintenance teams lockers.

The Last Post

And We're Off....

Last Saturday saw the first workshop from myself and Gavid Darby as part of The Metal Age project.  We spent a day at Erewash Museum in Ilkeston hoping to talk to people about working in the local steel industry or memories of railways, etc.

Gavin had a go at doing some manhole rubbings, which was a bit too cold to brave for my liking, so I stayed indoors and invited people to "Design Your Own Manhole Cover".

After sharing a few images of some of the amazing manhole cover designs that you can see, as well as the more mundane, and of course a few of the very prolific Stanton Ironworks designs ( (there's another blog post I can write already), I gave visitors a template and we made a few of our own designs.

Here's a few that were made on the day; it's a fun method that's not too difficult to learn - the key is in finding the right tools to emboss with really!  We advertised it as being suitable for all ages, and a couple of the designs here were done by younger children, as well as adults (who seemed to enjoy it as much as the kids!).

The technique has inspired me to hopefully produce a larger piece that if it turns out well, could feature in the Metal Age Exhibition.

New Year, New Project...

Well, I should start this post by wishing you a happy new year!

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while.  I've been kinda busy.  During December, I was really busy with the Erewash Festival of Light.  I did lots of workshops in primary schools in the area; I made over 90 decorations for the young ones to decorate, and then I also prepared and helped design/decorate over 185 glass jar lanterns.  That's 185 jars to wash and de-label.  185 names to ensure written on.  185 cable ties to check tight and trim. 185 lengths of twist tie to cut... and a LOT of tissue paper, tracing paper and glass marker pens to prepare.  I must have sounded like some raging alcholic every time I went anywhere with my bags of glass, clinking away.... cheers!

So, that, and a little thing called Christmas was how I saw the tail end of 2012.  But new year, new project, and I am now moving on to the Metal Ages.  This is part of a the two year long Excite Inspire Engage Erewash; inspired by local heritage, and supported by Arts Council England and Erewash Partnership, it will explore different art forms with a series of workshops and exhibitions.

I am collaborating with another Ilkeston based artist, Gavin Darby of Frailloop a sculptor who describes himself as "I am Gavin and I weld things".   Take a look at his website, you will see that in fact, he is so much more - he creates fabulous sculptures which are full of character from bits from cars, machinery and so on.   As well as the workshops we're going to be running, which will involve both metal and glass technniques, casting and bridge building, we are working towards producing two sculptures that will live permanently, one at the King George Gallery and another at Erewash Museum.

We recently took a visit to Magna, a former steel foundry in Rotheram, and will be looking at the former Stanton Ironworks site, Bennerly Viaduct, manhole covers and generally looking at the former thriving steel and iron industry that once was in the Erewash area.

I was really sensible when I sorted my camera out to take with me on the Magna visit.  Put in new batteries, and recharged not one, but two spare sets.  Feeling smug, knowing I wasn't going to run out of 'fire power' I get out my camera, to find it said memory full... so all I could get was a few snaps on the iPhone.... ah well, I have my (metal) memories...