HERD – i can talk about this now it’s happened. All the sheep we made recently were part of a Kirklees Year of Music project where the music and sounds of Kirklees were recorded, mixed into different soundscapes and then played out through speakers inside the sheep at various locations throughout Kirklees. As part of the install and de-rig crew we carried them to remote locations, public spaces, fixed them onto various forms of transport then brought them all back into St Georges Square for a finale concert. It was a gloriously bonkers project to be involved with and went down really well with the general public who, even though they were a bit bemused by the music couldn’t help being impressed by the scale and majesty of the sheep. Well done Dave & Jane for leading the project and Artichoke for co-ordinating the whole event.

We’ve just tidied up after the end of this years exhibition and it’s been a really good one. At the main exhibition in the Civic Hall we had lots of visitors all week, they weren’t necessarily buying the higher priced pieces as usual but certainly bought a lot more of the smaller items. I finally sold my abstract horse head which was great and means it can finally sit in someones garden and i don’t have to keep taking it to different exhibitions. We had Open Studios at Sculpture Lounge after our first preview evening in a few years. It was the only chance the public gets every year to look round most of the studios in the mill and proved very popular. Now all i need to do is turn my workshop back into a workshop rather than a pseudo gallery.

We recently ran our 39th metal sculpture weekend and this time it was all novice students. In my room were Phil and Kirsty and across the corridor in Billys room were mother and daughter Kate and Kim. Phil had ideas about using chain to make a tree / bird feeder but we suspect he really wanted to make a rabbit because he brought a half finished wooden one with him so by the end of the weekend he had a larger than life size rabbit he’d welded up all by himself. Kirsty wanted to make a heron to go by the pond in her garden so drew it out on the floor with chalk, found junk metal pieces to make up the right shape then set about welding them all together. Kate brought a lot of old motorbike parts with her that belonged to her late husband and used them to make a lovely obelisk type sculpture for her garden. Kim brought along an old bike she’d got so attached to on a holiday in Vietnam that she posted it back home in pieces, yes she really did. Having barely ridden it in this country she decided the time was right to chop it up and make an owl and a fish  from it, as you do. Needless to say the course was great fun and all four students took home a piece of work they didn’t they’d be able to make in a weekend. Thanks as ever to David (Billy) Mayne for co-hosting the course with me, if you want to go on our waiting list for next years course dates just drop me an email.

I’ve been involved with a project i can’t say too much about at the moment apart from saying that a team of artists were assembled by a mate of mine Dave Young to produce 23 different looking and sized sheep for an upcoming music project. We worked in the old St Georges railway goods warehouse which was a brilliant place to be based despite the clamminess and the pigeons. Many of the artists had worked together before on previous community arts projects so it was great to hear all the different stories as we sat down for dinner each day. Paired up with my old sculpture lounge pal David Mayne (Billy), we pretty much spent all our time welding up the frames of various sized sheep all day (i also did a couple of days in my workshop making some junk metal legs and head for one of the sheep) but we did turn our hand to plywood flooring inside some of the larger sheep. All will  be revealed in mid July.

That’s another one under our belt and look how proud Greg looks with his creation. Yes David Mayne and i have just run our 38th course and four happy students all completed a piece of work and took it home with them. So, back to Greg, who was bought a place on the course as a present and had no idea what to make so just sketched something out, had a rummage through our materials then made a robin quickly followed by an excellent bee sculpture for his sisters garden. Christina had been on our course before so knew what to expect and this time channelled  her boundless enthusiasm into making a heron on day one and then an abstract circular piece on day two, then painted them both too. Mike, an engineer by trade, meticulously worked on his ‘dog’ sculpture all weekend incorporating mechanical elements into its design too. Finally Luke had no preconceived plans about what to make, he just wanted to explore the world of metal sculpture and slowly created a small world of intriguing objects that looked like they had a purpose but you couldn’t quite work out what. If you fancy having a go yourself we’ve got one place left on our July course and four on the October one.

I recently did the second school workshop making creatures from the ‘Heart of the Wood’ book and this time it was at Lacewood Primary in Bolton on Dearne. I made an armature of a T Rex and took it to the school together with lots of plastic packaging, anything that would bulk out the body and miles of sticky tape. Mr Bletcher’s class were great, it’s not easy all making components of one piece of sculpture and trying to fit them together in three hours but we managed it. Terry the T Rex as he’s now called will star in the performance in October when all the various elements of the project come together.

We just ran our April course last weekend and we had two return students on this one. I like to think they just can’t get enough of mine and Billy’s charisma but i guess it’s more likely that they’re more confident now after the first go and wanted to challenge themselves a bit more. So, first up we’ve got Robert who couldn’t resist the big cogs again this time and made a huge rock salmon, the idea was to include a rock he’d brought along but he just went purely metal in the end. Diane came down from Perth for the course and to see her mate Jules again. Being a jeweller she started off small but then obviously thought what the hell and made a quite elaborate weathervane. Jules made a running bird for her garden which kind of looked a bit like roadrunner which is no bad thing and a small train for her son Thomas. Mandy wanted to make a water feature for her pond, so spent a lot of time bending steel to look like foliage and hammering steel to look like leaves, so much time in fact that we had to help her out towards the end with a bit of welding. All the students left happy with at least one pieces of sculpture they’d made themselves by the end of the weekend. Thanks as ever to my sidekick and fellow sculptor David Mayne who i run the course with. If you fancy having a go yourself we’ve got one place left on our July course and four places on the October one.

I’ve recently done my first schools work in a long time and it was to work on a great project in South Yorkshire based on a book about two children who go on an underground adventure to learn more about their grandfather and his mining past. I had to make lots of rats with a class of pupils from Heather Garth Primary in Bolton on Dearne which will be part of the finale extravaganza to the whole project. We used plastic wrapping, sellotape and wire to form the rats and then electrical tape to colour them. A thoroughly wonderful morning in school and who’d have thought rats could come in so many shapes and sizes !

We’re back again running our courses for 2023 now the weather is (in theory) a bit warmer. I run the courses with my good friend and fellow sculptor David Mayne, check out his website too to see what kind of welded steel sculpture he makes. So, we had two returnees and two newbies last weekend, Seth and Tim have been three times now and we welcomed Deb and Jen to our studios. Seth, describing himself now as ‘veteran’ on his booking form worked with 5mm steel plate to make a fire pit then went on to make a grill for his pizza oven and a rack for his outdoor kitchen implements. Tim had big ideas too, this time to replace the panels in his garden gate with his own plasma cut designs. Deb is a silversmith based in Keswick and was bought a place on the course as a Christmas present, she decided to scale up some of her pieces into giant junk steel works of art and then make a firepit. Finally Jen who normally works with mosaic tiles made some rabbits from scrap steel and then decided to make a crocodile firepit, as you do. It was a great start to the years courses and everyone enjoyed themselves taking home a collection of pieces they’d made themselves.

My throne and arch have finally been sited in Barley Hill Park Quiet Garden in Garforth. It’s good to finally get these pieces out of storage and where they were intended. It was a great commission to work on, we met as a group in my workshop and sketched out ideas for the two pieces and then i went ahead and made them – a lovely way to realise commissioned work. There’s still some groundwork to do on the garden itself like path laying and the installation of toadstool seating round the throne but it should all be ready in a fortnight.

We’ve just popped up again in the old Tourist Information Centre in Holmfirth. This time it was a bit last minute as we were waiting on a couple of council decisions before we got started but we’re in and set up now. There are 18 of us in this time showing everything from painting, prints, jewellery, caps, textiles, ceramics and even metal sculpture. To attract people’s attention i’ve borrowed ‘Don – Man of mystery’ to put in the window and he seems to be doing the trick. We’re open Wednesday to Sunday 10-4 until New Years Eve (excluding Christmas and Boxing Day) and there’ll be a different one of us every day playing at shopkeepers.

Well that’s it for this year’s sculpture courses, we think it gets too cold for the students from now on in until March when we bravely host our first course of the year and it was a really lovely one to finish on. We had three members of the same family up from Cornwall and Kent plus my mate Carl, who as usual all surprised themselves with what they were capable of making. First up in my room was Al with his very ambitious wind powered sculptural helicopter. Luckily i had loads of scrap cones from Ikea lights which nicely fitted the bill and saved Al a huge amount of time. Carl was bought a place on the course as a present and fancied making a pig weathervane which he easily did and went on to make a garden bird too. Lou thought she’d just make a flower for her garden but after completing that went on to make a woodpecker from an old shovel. Finally Zoe worked in miniature, making a cake stand and some shelves for the tiny fimo clay cakes she makes at home and sells on Etsy. Thanks as ever to my marvellous co-host for running the courses with me, Billy or to use his real title – David Mayne. We’re going to be sorting out next years dates imminently and will email them out to our waiting list first so if you want to be on it just email me.

Can you hear the sound of dolphins ? No, me neither but Barry certainly could on this, his second time on our course. His abstract garden sculpture was inspired by dolphins, he said and it was so big, Kerry and him had to come in two cars on the Sunday so it could make it home. Kerry made a large garden sculpture too, a dragonfly using lot’s of scrap pieces of steel. With it being their second time, both Barry & Kerry easily handled the welding. In my room was Alan and Claire. Alan had been bought a place on the course and his inspiration was a tawny owl that lived in his garden, or was it a brown owl ? Anyway, he made his own unique owl with lots of character and a mouse too. Claire came on the course to learn how to weld armatures for her own work with ‘sand in your eye’, her company that makes landscape art. First time welding she made a heron so big that she had to come in a van on day two just so it could get home to Hebden Bridge. Thanks as always to my good friend and course co-hoster David Mayne (Billy) for another great course. Next years dates will be out next month not long after we run our last course of 2022.

I’ve just completed a series of kids junk sculpture workshops in various Kirklees libraries. With a time limit of two hours each and the fact that they took place in libraries meant i was a bit limited as to what i could do but everyone who took part went home with at least one piece of sculpture. We used sheet plastic as well as various bits of hard plastic like handles and wheels together with wire, sellotape and then used electrical tape to colour them. The kids went home with pieces such as cats, dogs, burgers, ladybirds, aliens, minions, snails, snakes, fish, rabbits, dinosaurs, submarines, boats and showering machines !

We’ve just done another course, this one is not long after the last one because we’re fitting our schedule around Billy’s social life at the moment. Anyway, as usual four very happy students took their work home with them at the end of the weekend, all surprising themselves with what they thought they were capable of. In my room were Selma and Adrian, both making garden sculpture. Selma made a pond cover which she adorned with lilies and a dragonfly whilst Adrian used his ex-engineer skills and made a motorbike themed garden obelisk. In Billy’s room, Melissa brought various bits of scrap metal from her own garden and combined them with our scrap metal to make a unique Etruscan inspired garden ornament, whereas Jules felt compelled to make a version of the solar system after easily making a strange animal head. Thanks as ever to Billy (David Mayne really) who i run the courses with, we’ve got two more this year which are full then we sort out next years dates. If you want to go on our waiting list and get those dates first, just drop me an email.