We’ve just run our 56th course and four happy students surprised themselves with their abilities creating some great pieces of sculpture. It’s an introduction to metal sculpture course so once we’ve covered the basics and shown you how to weld, you’re off and we keep an eye on you until you’ve made at least one piece to take home with you. David Mayne and I run the course with only four students at a time so you get as much guidance and input from us as you need. So this time round we had three new students and one who’d come back for her third time. In my room were the girls, Helen and Laura. Helen just needed a refresher as it was her third time then she was off making giant flowers for her garden from twisted cutlery and rebar. Laura borrowed one of my face moulds and made two heads, one from nuts and the other from ball bearings, definitely a change from her usual root canal work as a dentist. In Billy’s room across the corridor were Chris and Stu. Chris had ideas about making a cat and so it was just a question of deciding which were the right components and fitting them all together. The cat became quite elaborate so now it’ll be an outdoor cat after it’s been galvanised. Stu was bought a place on the course as a Christmas present so had had time to come up with the idea of some brushes and a dragonfly. Being a structural engineer, he did have to compromise on structural integrity a bit in favour of aesthetics but it was a lovely piece of sculpture in the end. We’re full up on course places this year despite slotting and extra two courses in so if you want next year’s dates before they’re released just drop me an email.