Westercraigs Nursery

After a number of months, some changes at the timber yard and fitting volunteers around the job, the tree slices are in place. They range from 1220 to 1900mm tall and are 50mm thick.

The openings were cut by Andy from the Milnbank Housing Association. I am pleased with the result, so here is a kind of photo diary.

This shows the South West corner of the nursery playground

This is the South East corner of the playground

North East corner before glass installation

South East corner with glass installed

South West with glass and the washing line

North East corner with glass

North side with glass

North West with (most of the) Glass

Too often there is a problem in installation. And in this case the problem was a hammer that missed the nail and hit the glass. This is being remade and will be installed soon.

A general view of the playground facing South East

I'm not sure if the children will notice the coloured light, but I hope their parents will

A view from the outside facing East

Earlier posts about this project are here:

Westercraigs Nursery, cont.

Monolith Project

Westercraigs Nursery Continued

I have had a visit to a timber yard where all the trees cut down by the city are delivered. This organisation then processes them with a team of trainees drawn from those out of work and wanting to learn new skills. I was taken there with some of the nursery school pupils.

There are lots of tree trunks and branches scattered around the yard, but what I really was interested in were these sawn planks.

When they are standing up, it is clear how big they really are. The glass pieces created for the school based on the students' designs will be inserted into holes made in these big planks.

Monolith Project

In the months leading up to Christmas - in addition to the usual pre- Christmas rush - I have been involved in a project lead byWestercraigs Nursery School. This has involved a whole community of children. Westercraigs, two primary schools and one Secondary school were part of the project, involving a whole campus of schools and beyond. Some of the people involved are shown here:

This shows some of the funders, the makers, and some of the designers - the children from 4 to 17 years of age.

The pieces designed by the children and made in the studio are to be inserted into rough sawn planks about 75mm thick with the bark remaining on the ends. The pieces made will be inserted into apertures cut into the planks. These planks will be set up around the nursery playground to enhance and define the outdoor space for the children.

We brought the children into the studio to tell them something about glass, how it is put together and then heated in the kiln - as we had decided early on that kiln formed pieces would suit the designs developed by the children. We sent the children away with some samples of coloured glass to help maintain their interest and attention.

After several visits to bring their designs and see progress on some others, we began to seriously produce the 26 pieces required for the project.

These images show some of the techniques used to interpret the designs given to us. In a few cases the older children made the panels from design to kiln.

The following images show some of the panels as interpreted. We tried to keep to the spirit and descriptions given to us by the children. It has been refreshing working with people who are interested in primary colours - contrast is important to them.

One of the pieces in the final two images is repeated as there was a failure in the first firing of it.

Golfhill Primary School Mosaic

At last I have the mosaic cleaned and polished. It is ready for presentation to the school on Monday.

I have also received an invitation to a social lunch with the class on Wednesday of the following week. I am told this is an honour occasionally bestowed. I will need to dress up on both Monday and the Wednesday!

Thanks to the teachers, the students, Magda and Pearsons Glass for all the help.

Golfhill Primary School Mosaic

Now that all the pieces are on the grid, it has been taken from the coloured drawing ready for cementing.

Golfhill Primary School Mosaic

On Friday, the whole class arrived and presented me with a card:

I have put this up on one of the studio doors.

After the long weekend, day six of the project had only one panel to work on, as I filled in the few remaining bits of the first panel.

The day ended with almost all the mosiac pieces stuck to the grid on both the panels.

Now I have to fill in various corners and the cementing can begin.

Golfhill Primary School Mosaic

Friday was Day 5 of the school mosaic. A lot of work got done, but since the whole class visited in the afternoon, I did not get a photo of the work done on the two panels. Instead here are two photos of the students:

At work

Being photographed.

The whole class presented me with a card, which I will need to photograph to show. You can see the entrance to my studio in the background. I took the students into the studio to show them some of the work I do and answered questions about techniques, work practices, and prices.

After the holidays, the school will come back to finish the project.

Golfhill Primary School Mosaic

Today we moved location. I was so focused on getting the task done, that I started in a room with little sound insulation between us and the artist next door. So we have moved to an area that will create less disturbance. But we made progress. All the major elements are laid out and a start was made on the grass and sky.

We got so involved that we were late in getting ready to go and forgot to take pictures of the people working on the panels. Still, on Friday everybody will be around so there will be a big group picture too.

Golfhill Primary School Mosaic

Day three:

This was the largest group so far. All 10 appeared. Thanks for teaching assistants - Mrs Jamieson you know hwo you are. And Thanks for friends to help out at short notice - Thanks Angela.

Progress is being made:

Some of the proud workers at the end of the day.

Of course someone had to get in on both photos!

Golfhill Primary School Mosaic

So the school and I progressed a further step yesterday. Not as much got done today, as the students had more fun than work. Still progress has been made. You will see the progress is gradual but definite.

This is the proud group who worked on the above panel

Panel two is progressing more quickly than the first, as you can see.

Was it because it was an all girl group? These are the people who did it.

Golfhill Primary School Mosaic

As my grand daughter was studying Roman mosaics among other things Roman in class, I thought it might be nice for the class to experience the technique of putting together a mosaic in the Roman style. However, things move so quickly in primary schools, that I found myself agreeing to do one on a spring theme.

The teacher decided on the flowers to be represented and set the class to work on drawing up the flowers both in a naturalistic and a graphic version. I was then to make a composition of these over two panels. Through a little persuasion, I was able to get sponsorship from Pearsons Glass, who donated sheet glass which Magda and I cut up into centimetre squares, knowing that about 7,500 would be needed for the two panels. The cut glass is shown above. Thanks again to Peter and Robert for agreeing and selecting the glass for me.

The composition was drawn to full scale, approved by the pupils and teacher. It was then covered in plastic and a grid put over to attach the glass with PVA glue. It will later be transferred to prepared boards and stuck down with adhesives and grout.

The class is divided into three so that about 10 come each afternoon. This will give each group the chance to see several stages in the progress of the mosaic construction. The picture below is panel one after the first day.

And this is panel 2 after the first day:

Community projects - Auchinlech

Not all community projects have a fully completed outcome. The project at Auchinlech, an ex-mining community in Ayrshire, was great fun. The people were enthusiastic. They learned a skill, and taught me a lot too. The project combined developing their skills through preparing a small panel for themselves (after the big project was finished), and designing and making a large panel for the centre. The photo below shows one of the early sessions when I was demonstrating the cutting of glass.

After a number of sessions where the community workers assisted ideas development, a plan was devised. The advantage of the pit wheel design was that it could be broken into a number of small panels that each person in the group could work on. Those who were faster, could tackle more than one panel. This photograph shows the elements drawn onto cut pieces of paper to arrange within the overall constraints of the pit wheel design.

There were many discussions on how the elements should be arranged. As you can see, some people engaged with this portion of the 13 week project differently from others.

Some people tended to be watchers at this stage, and others just drove the whole project forward.

Within a few weeks, the design phase was complete and the cartooning done. The glass selection followed and was governed by an overall background with the narrative elements fitting into this. Panels began to be completed relatively quickly.

People of all ages and abilities took part. As with the best of cooperative projects, those who were quicker or better at some elements helped others.

The project was nearing completion in the late Spring and a whole day of cementing was completed outdoors in brilliant sunshine. The downside was that a lot of us got sunburned!

This was a warm and friendly group of people who worked with determination toward the goal of having the panel established in the cafe area of the centre. However, the funding for the steel framework and the lighting was not forthcoming from the local authority. So the individual panels remain packed in a case waiting for funding to complete the project.