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A New Way of Looking at Glass
Last autumn, I got accepted on to the AA2A Scheme at the University of Derby. It’s a residency programme, offered to several practising artists/makers over a range of educational establishments. It’s intended to help take time develop ideas and to offer the opportunity to use facilities we might not usually get access to.I became eligible to apply last year and got accepted for a place on the scheme. Unfortunately, a few things happened in my personal life which meant I struggled to find the time to spend on the project (involvement means spending a certain amount of time on-site and being visible to and accessible for students), but finally about a month ago, I was able to spend a bit of time on it at last.I’d wanted to explore new ways of ‘seeing’ glass, which fascinates me in all forms – not just because of it’s beauty, and it’s odd combination of fragility and strength but in other ways too; technically, it’s an incrediblly versatile material which can be used for an amazing array of applications, and it can look so different – of course, quite often, with glass, it’s about what we can see through it and what can or can’t get through it – heat, light.I used to do a lot of photography and used to enjoy developing my own films and printing from my negatives. Of course with the digital age, I don’t go in the dark room any longer, so having the opportunity to use the facilities at the university was too good to pass up.Glass does funny things to light – you can’t always ‘see’ what it’s doing, but expose traditional photo paper and it reveals where some of that light is actually going (this again appeals to the scientific side of me).Take this image:
Copper wire and glass photogram Remembering that this is photographic paper usually used with a negative – so the dark bits are where all light has got through, the lighter bits are where less has got through (still with me??). Nothing unusual really, this is a round of glass with copper wire wrapped through the middle. Of course, copper wire is solid, opaque, won’t let light through. But those dots? They’re air bubbles. The solid white line around the edge – that’s the curve of the glass. These bubbles and curves are distorting (well, refracting) the light in such a way that it’s not hitting the development paper. I think it’s fascinating.Here’s another one -you’ll probably recognise the style/design, people say it’s very ‘me’ – my textured glass.
Photogram There’s absolutely loads more I’ve done – I spent a couple of sessions simply working out which glass works best, out of the different techniques I use for making – just working in black and white paper is fascinating and has endless options.Just wait until you see what happens in colour… -
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 -
Building Bridges
Last Wednesday, yes, one of those days after we’d already had a considerable snow fall, myself and Gavin went on a walk with the support and guidance of a couple of the Walking for Health leaders, and some of the group members.Starting at Armstrongs Mill which is near to one of the former train station sites (Ilkeston Junction), we meandered along the canal path, down to Bennerley Viaduct – this is a historically important structure is Grade II Listed and is on the Buildings at Risk Register. Unusual for it’s time, it is a wrought iron lattice work structure, when most viaducts were brick built – because of former coal mining in the area, it was subject to a lot of subsidence and it meant the structure was lighter. If you want to read more about the Viaduct, click here – it will take you to the Wikipedia page about it, which is as good a start as any. Happy history hunting.Despite the cold air, and crunchy snow underfoot, it was a lovely day for the walk, and the light was simply beautiful. I opted to take my little camera with me for ease; I do wish I had taken my dSLR as my pocket camera tended to mess up on light settings, but hopefully you can get the idea of how lovely it looked:
Bennerley Viaduct 
Well, I didn’t actually use the black and white setting here! The light was not quite as dramatic and stormy as it looks, but if I lighten the image any more, it loses all definition.It was fascinating for me; despite having lived in the area for most of my life, I don’t know that side of Ilkeston all that well, and lost my bearings a couple of times – it was good when I saw recognisable landmarks (to me) such as the Awsworth by-pass.The walk ended with a cuppa and tea-cake in Armstrongs Mill and a good chat with the walking group. Hopefully we’ll pick up some interesting memories about Stanton, and Cotmanhay, the railways, and so on, but mostly it was a pleasure to make contact with new people; certainly the walk inspired me to want to start sketching again (something I don’t do nearly enough of these days); now I actually know how to get down to the viaduct, I will return to with the bigger camera and the sketchbook – this might inspire a whole new body of work! -
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.
