ONGOING PARTNERSHIP
May 2023 : Spreading Our Wings has led to the forming of a longer term partnership between Suffolk Craft Society and RSPB Minsmere – creating new audiences and places for enjoying art and craft as well as serving the public by being able to make pieces that can enhance the visitor experience for those with a disability. Watch this space!
SPREADING OUR WINGS
September 2021 : The launch of a new, collaborative project with Suffolk Craft Society members who came up with the title. Since then a committed group of eight have been working on pieces inspired by their own relationship and response to the Minsmere environment – often going beyond their usual parameters and sometimes collaborating with each other. Once again the art / craft work is an imaginative way of drawing us towards our own connection to the natural environment
Some of the work has been installed on site at RSPB Minsmere and will be in place for the rest 2023 (maybe longer). Keen to share the project with a wider audience the group is also mounting an exhibition of their work called “Beyond the Reeds” in the Dovecote building at Snape Maltings May 13 – 21 2023. This exhibition will then move to CraftCo , Southwold for the month of June 2023.
MORE INFORMATION (PDF)
DRAWING IN THE WILD
After Covid cancellations and delays we managed to run a “Drawing in the Wild” workshop at the end of summer 2021. Buzz Mitchell led us through the Minsmere landscape under a hot sun and shading trees, inviting us to respond to the sounds, shapes, views, textures and smells with pencils, charcoal, boards and paper. People found their own pace and there was a wonderful sense of freedom, no judgement and play. A second workshop had to be cancelled but we will run another – hopefully in 2023!
“Many thanks to you and Buzz for such a wonderful day on Tuesday. The setting was perfect and the weather couldn’t have been better for letting the spirit free and discovering new ways of expression. The evening swim was the icing on the cake!”
RAMBLINGS
Had a wonderful walk with Clare Balding for Ramblings on BBC radio 4 – starting at Dunwich Heath and forming a circle via Eastbridge, the chapel and back up the coast.
The programme goes on air today Thursday 25th March at 3.00pm and is repeated on Saturday 27th March 6.07 am. It is of course available on BBC Sounds.
Huge Thanks to Clare for a wonderful day out and to Karen, her brilliant producer.
FILM
Tim Curtis (Life on the Deben) has made a beautiful short film. You can view it here to watch the installation process, learn more about the project and see stunning footage of Minsmere with its new glass resident!
Over 100 people attended an on-line project launch in late November where we were able to show the film for the first time. It is also available on YouTube.
INSTALLATION
The artwork was installed on 17th October 2020 The whole installation took nine days with the frame being fixed into position first and then the masonary being finished off around its base and left to dry. Fitting the glass was a nerve-wracking process from the moment it left my studio, having to travel over speed bumps, down twisty lanes and across muddy pitted tracks to arrive in the chapel field. Having got the first two smaller panels into position easily the large top section turned out to be hugely difficult. In the end I had to take myself away from watching the two glaziers straining every muscle to lift it high enough, the edges of the glass jerking perilously close to the jagged flint wall. They found a way and by mid afternoon the piece was in place! You will be able to see the process in the short film we are making about the project.
We held a last minute socially distanced Opening Weekend for local friends and supporters on 24/25th October. Thank you to RSPB and everyone who came along including the many walkers who saw the signs and came to have a look as well.
BUILDING
R&J Hogg (Conservation builders) were able to complete the first stage of the building preparation in September 2019. They have done a beautiful job in creating a more solid, as well as aesthetically pleasing, window reveal around the opening – using as many original materials as they could find on site and taking into account the existing features of the old chapel.
ARTWORK
In October 2019 I paid a visit to the Bullseye Glass factory in Portland, Oregon where all the raw glass I use to make my own work is made. Founded by 3 glass artists they were the first to make the kind of glass that is so well suited to the way I work – fusing layers of glass together in a kiln. They still have the best range of colours to be found anywhere. I had always wanted to see exactly how the process worked and was not at all disappointed!
There was a compelling reason to make the visit at this time – I needed to discuss A Wing And A Prayer with technicians who not only make the glass itself but work with artists and architects to fabricate large scale glass art projects. I had been consulting with them via email for months of course but in the end you need to sit down with a real person to work it all out!
The glass artwork I am making for A Wing And A Prayer will be thicker than anything I have made before in order to withstand potential wind pressure and it will also be an irregular shape. This can increase the risk of thermal shock when the piece is cooling down in the kiln so it is crucial to create an optimim environment for controlling the temperature precisely.
The visit was brilliant and extremely useful but it became clear that I need to make one more fairly large test piece before I can actually start assembling the glass for the real thing. There is no doubt that it can be done – it is simply a case of getting the firing conditions right and this can take some trial and error! So it’s all good and the “test” piece may even become a stand alone work in its own right but this essential step adds time and costings to the project. I reckon it will have added a month to the time line.
So watch this space for installation date!
ACTIVITIES
Work has begun with Worlingworth Primary School, designing a project for the years 5 and 6 children which will include a visit to the site, making art, telling stories – inspired by the history and the wildlife. We are also hoping to raise further funds to collaborate on making a window for the school.
FUNDING
After months of work and a nailbiting wait we were delighted to be awarded Arts Council England funding back in August 2019! This enables us to start developing all the other aspects of the project that we have envisioned – drawing workshops for all, schools workshops, festival walks, bringing together people who feel isolated and much more. The award will also enable us to pay a few people for at least some of the time, expertise and dedication that has been given to the creating of this project with absolutely no strings attached!
PUBLICITY
The feature in Suffolk Magazine is now scheduled for February 2020.
