Installation of the Poles

The Poles for the stained glass pieces have been installed and rise like ancient sentinels on the sand dunes at Ainsdale.

The poles arrived as tree trunks and have been transformed  along the way by the team…

from their arrival as raw tree trunk logs..

to  the stripping of the bark by Paul

and the creation of the window cavities by Phill.

Finally they were ready to take on site and erect on top of the sand dunes opposite the ‘Star of Hope’ shipwreck.  We arrived with plenty of man-and-woman-power to unpack the van

and walked up the dunes to assess the best spot for digging in the footings,

checking the sight-line from the beach.

The dunes are fragile, so the posts had to be carried up by hand – taking 8 of us in harness to lift  them up the steep slope one step at a time.

Then the digging could start.

When the holes were deep enough, the poles were guided in and embedded with more sand..

Great views!

and a well deserved lunch break – pies all round!

We left the beautiful poles to overlook the dune path

and await  the installation of the glass…..

watch this space!

Big thanks to the lifting team:  Anna, Emily, Fiona, Phill, Joe, Adam, Sarah and Sian

The Lizard bench update!

How wonderful to see some people and their furry friends enjoying the Lizard bench down Fisherman’s Path – we thought we would share :

Sheila’s lovely furry faces Bertie and Elliot

Geoff and Hannah with the incredible Nico

Jayne with her perfect little Jack Russels, Florrie and Mavis

Cheryl with the friendliest dogs ever – Winston and Monty

 

John with beautiful Luna.

Thanks so much for sharing these pictures! We love to see pictures of families and pets enjoying the sculptures so if you go visiting please do take a picture and share it with us via our facebook page: www.facebook.com/seftoncoastsculpturetrail2015

 

Glazing the Clay Feet

After the bisque firing we went to the Southport Ceramic Studio to see the clay feet. We were really thrilled with the way they turned out, with strong imprints of toes and feet.

Everyone at the family day workshop had done a great job of rolling on the plants and there is a lovely mixture of both bold and delicate forms.

There are over 40 feet – including animal paw prints – that we will be able to choose from for the wall. We spent 3 hours painting on glazes and oxides and rubbing them into the delicate plant traceries.

Under the guidance of Chris

Then into the kiln for the final firing

Once fired they look absolutely beautiful, especially against a plank of 7000 year old bog oak

Next stage is building the wall…

 

 

Bird Bench

We had a very creative day with Natural Alternatives who are an essential and hard working voluntary part of the wider team that keeps the Sefton Coastal Path going and in good repair.

We used  the Cyanotype process for the Bird Bench – a perfect  link in colour and images for this sculpture.  This is an alternative photographic process invented by John Hershcel in 1842 and used in the 19C to record plant specimens. The group explored the process using feathers and images of birds to celebrate  Marshside RSPB where the Coastal Path starts.

 

Two of the group demonstrating the colour of the paper to start with – the Bockingford watercolour paper has been painted with a light sensitive solution that is green until it is exposed to ultra violet light.

 

When the paper is rinsed in tap water, the colour changes to a beautiful deep blue, leaving behind a perfect image of whatever was placed on the green sheet – in this case feathers.

 

The images created celebrates some of the species of birds that can be seen at Marshside RSPB: avocets; curlew; pink footed geese; skylarks among others. The group also placed some plants and leaves around the images, making some beautiful scenes.

The group worked hard all day and we had good fun with the process with lovely pieces to put in the Bench – thank you Natural Alternatives!!

Lizard Bench – behind the scenes

With such a good response and interest in the Lizard Bench, we thought you might be interested to see the Lizards’ journey and all the preparation that went in to creating the Lizard Bench, from concept and design, to  Phill and team working on the wood, the mosaic work and the installation.

The sand lizard is an endangered species that lives along Sefton Coast. They have incredible hearing and are masters of disguise, blending into the marram grass perfectly making it unlikely for you to spot one on your rambles. In mating season the male turns the most amazing bright green – a stunning display that bewitches the females. This is what  inspired us to create the colourful lizards on our bench.

We selected a log big enough which Phill then cut to size using his saw mill and his chain saw.

… with a little help from us!

Thinking about the three main visible sides of the bench we developed a lizard design which we then drew the on to the wood. Phill then used his router to cut out the shapes freehand.

and the Lizards emerged…

Sanding down the wood till it felt wonderfully smooth ready for the mosaic workshop.

We are thrilled to be working with Bridge Inn Community Farm in Formby on this sculpture. This is a wonderfully inspiring place where the clients run a farm with sheep and pigs, lots of vegetables and have a brilliant art programme where they create wonderful art. We has super support and enthusiasm from John, Karl and the rest of the team, who were thrilled to be part of this project.

We started them off with a workshop session, then left the bench with them so they had time to finish gluing mosaic tiles into all four of the lizards.

They all worked incredibly hard, coming up with some great ideas of pattern and shapes, using contrasting colours and finding the tiles which fit just right.

Meanwhile, we met the Natural England Team who took us off in their Land Rover to find a suitable site along the Fisherman’s Path Trail.

We  found a great site. It offers a chance to sit and relax, enjoying the beautiful surroundings. And who knows, the lizards may see the wood as a lovely warm place to bask when nobody is around.

 Finally we went back to Bridge Inn Community Farm to complete the grouting …

We then sanded back the wood and applied a fungicide, then the final touch of linseed oil and all was ready for the installation.

Well done to a fantastic creative team!

 

 

 

 

Metal Embossing- Mesolithic Walkway

We have been thrilled to work with two very special organisations to create beautiful artwork for the 6th sculpture in the sculpture trail. This sculpture was inspired by the Mesolithic walkway discovered in Hightown, where there is evidence of prehistoric man creating a pathway down to the sea shore, probably to hunt. An added twist is the likelihood that beavers also added to and used this track-way when man was absent.

Cambridge Children’s Centre was our first location where parents of young children took a well deserved break and took part in our art workshop.

 We also visited Brunswick Youth Club where the young people enthusiastically took part in our workshop.

Using an embossing technique on copper and tin, participants explored what prehistoric people hunted, gathered and ate – looking at mammals, sea life, plants and fungi.

Huge thanks and well done on such fantastic creative energy!

Lizard Bench, finding a site

We joined the Natural England team to look for a site for the Lizard Bench. We set off in the Landrover ….

and found the perfect spot…..

People already use these fallen logs as a sitting place, so our bench will be perfect here.

Located just down from Freshfield station, along the Fishermans path, this location is right along the Coastal path and also the crossing of two other paths.

 

Visit to Lunt Meadows Mesolithic Site

In preparation for the Walkway sculpture workshops, we contacted Ron Cowell of the Museum of Liverpool. Ron is working on the Mesolithic site at Lunt, set in the evocative wetland of the Southport coast, an important dig that is revealing new information about Mesolithic life. A display can also be seen at the Atkinson Museum, Southport.

Ron  met us on the bank and invited us to look at the valley ahead – the setting for the site and the area the people who lived there 8.000 years ago would have used for hunting, gathering and fishing.

Ron has been working on this site against the clock as the area is due for restoration which entails re-flooding the mash land where it is situated.

Due to several days of rain, the site was flooded and gave an idea of what lay ahead, adding to the spirit of the place, but we were able to see the strata being revealed and key elements of the dig.

We learned that the people using the site were hunter gatherers and would have used the rich resources of the flora and fauna the area offered: fish from the river Alt, bird populations; hazelnuts;  deer in the forest nearby, using every food resource available – perhaps even including the toad we spotted on the way to the site! 

Ron gave his time generously and painted a clear and enthusiastic picture of an era that was 8.000 years away from us. He explained how the Sefton Coast has shifted to and fro over these years so that the people living in this rich landscape would have moved between coastal resources, woodland, and fresh water marshes an wetlands.

We are enthused now to share this with the workshops for the 6th Sculpture on the trail. We aim to evoke the past through designs inspired by this visit and embossing them on copper – an element that was appearing  later in the era and beginning to overlap with the Neolithic hunting and farming communities.

Thank you Ron for sharing your knowledge on this, making the past come alive and creating links with the present.

Shipwreck Glass Workshop

On Wednesday we delivered two 2hr workshops in which we created art pieces for the Glass view Sculpture to be placed on Ainsdale sands

After discussing the shipwrecks and sharing knowledge on this subject we thought about the images that would be most relevant in representing this theme. We then introduced the group to glass scraffito work, a traditional stained glass technique, evocatively described as ‘drawing with light’. We used panes of glass that had been hand fused with beautiful and individual hues of blue, reminiscent of the sky and sea. We prepared these by painting them with a matt black glass paint, ready for the group to work on.

Choosing from a variety of images including anchors, rope, ships, albatross (traditionally seen as an omen of death and doom if spotted by sailors) and sextant, we then demonstrated how to draw the image onto the black matt and then scratch away the paint to reveal the glass beneath.

This was quite tricky as the process requires a drawing in negative, drawing with light – it took a lot of concentration and there were quite a few furrowed brows and tongues stuck out! However, as the images became more apparent the magic of the process was really thrilling as the beautiful glass was slowly revealed.

Everyone worked incredibly hard, the glass pieces look fantastic and are now ready for firing before we select 10 to be installed in the sculpture.

 

This sculpture is inspired by the shipwrecks to be found along the coast, with the glass views offering visions of a nautical theme. It is hoped that visitors will look through and gain a glimpse of the past, offering a reflective moment to consider how this shifting-sand coastline has dominated the lives of sailors and the locals who risked their lives to save them.

Wire Flora Sculpture Workshops

Over twenty people took part in our wire sculpting workshops in Formby, Bootle and Southport on Friday. The theme was to take inspiration from, and celebrate, the many rare, scarce and interesting plants along the Sefton Coastal Trial.

 

The participants chose a plant and then sketched out a quick drawing to get a feel for the key features. They noted the location and shape of the leaves, the size of the stem, the clustering of the flowers, the shapes and quantity of petals, the stamen, stigma and sepal.

The participants then explored ways of working with the wire using specific tools to create shapes that represented the plants. We provided three thickness of wire in a variety of metallic shades to maximize the effects they could achieve. During the workshops people looked at developing different ways of representation including coiling, twisting, knitting, platting and knotting.

 

The process of working with wire in such small and fine detail is very time consuming so participants were able to take tools and extra wire away with them to finish their work at their leisure. There were some very interesting interpretations being formed with people really enjoying the process – we will be picking up the finished work next week and are really excited to see what they have created.

A selection of the finished artworks will be installed in the 2nd sculpture on the sculpture trail, around the Birkdale sand hills.

Well Done Everyone!