Billy (David Mayne) and I ran our 48th sculpture course at the weekend and we sent four happy students home with pieces of work they didn’t know they were capable of making. We only have four students on a course so you get more contact time with us two and we can make sure everything runs smoothly. Most of our students have never welded before so it’s really lovely to see them produce something all by themselves (with a bit of guidance of course !) So, in my room were Mike and William, both were bought places on the course by their other halves. Mike, with his background in IT could render a spider in 3D but wanted to use his hands, get them dirty and make an actual spider. He managed not one but two and a robot, the second spider was so big it wouldn’t fit on his desk and has to live in the garden. William had A level art and wanted to tap back into that creativity and was clearly handy as he made four pieces of work. He came along with no ideas of what he wanted to make and was just happy to let the materials be the inspiration for him. While the other three were getting to grips with the welding he’d already made a deer head than a flowering plant, a pheasant and a duck plant holder. In Billy’s room Helen came along with lots of ideas to make three animals, so she adapted a couple of them to be cut from thick plate which gave her the opportunity to do some plasma cutting. She made a hare from beaten steel sheet welded to a wire framework, a technique which worked really well. Finally Brid came along with her own exhaust pipe wondering if it wasn’t a bit strange to make it into a person – not at all ! With the addition of some bike chain, fire extinguisher parts, steel plate and various other bits of junk metal she created ‘Jezebel’ who now stands in her garden. If you fancy having a go yourself, we’ll release next years dates sometime in October so to get on the waiting list just get in touch.