We’ve just run our 53rd course and it was a great one. It might have been somewhat easier for us because we had two returning students who were both doing their fourth course with us and we had two students who were familiar with the building and quite creative because we’d poached them from on of the clay courses run by Sculpture Lounge. So firstly we had Jackie who’d brought along lots of her Fathers old tools and wanted to make a piece from them to go in her garden. Once she’d mastered the welding bit, (which did take a bit longer than usual but bless her she had a word with herself) became really confident and went on to make a pelican / stork type bird. Bob, like Jackie was from the clay course and brought a small warthog made from sheet metal he’d bought on holiday in Africa as a starting point. He got the welding part pretty quickly because of his engineering background and went on to make a big warthog from old tools and bits of scrap metal. I think it’s fair to say the only bit he struggled with was finding exactly the right bits for his piece but he managed ok in the end. Robert came along for the fourth time with a picture of a lobster and went home with a big steel version of the picture. Strangely he used no cogs this time, something he’d done on the previous three occasions. Lastly we had Debbie coming along for the fourth time armed with her usual boxes of eBay purchased metal components. She brought even more this time because she wasn’t on public transport and went home with a lovely big bird made from agricultural plough parts. Thanks as ever go to my fellow professor Billy (David Mayne) who I co-runs the courses with me. All this years places are taken but if you drop me an email I can add you to the waiting list for next years dates or a possible cancellation.