Monolith Project

In the months leading up to Christmas - in addition to the usual pre- Christmas rush - I have been involved in a project lead byWestercraigs Nursery School. This has involved a whole community of children. Westercraigs, two primary schools and one Secondary school were part of the project, involving a whole campus of schools and beyond. Some of the people involved are shown here:

This shows some of the funders, the makers, and some of the designers - the children from 4 to 17 years of age.

The pieces designed by the children and made in the studio are to be inserted into rough sawn planks about 75mm thick with the bark remaining on the ends. The pieces made will be inserted into apertures cut into the planks. These planks will be set up around the nursery playground to enhance and define the outdoor space for the children.

We brought the children into the studio to tell them something about glass, how it is put together and then heated in the kiln - as we had decided early on that kiln formed pieces would suit the designs developed by the children. We sent the children away with some samples of coloured glass to help maintain their interest and attention.

After several visits to bring their designs and see progress on some others, we began to seriously produce the 26 pieces required for the project.

These images show some of the techniques used to interpret the designs given to us. In a few cases the older children made the panels from design to kiln.

The following images show some of the panels as interpreted. We tried to keep to the spirit and descriptions given to us by the children. It has been refreshing working with people who are interested in primary colours - contrast is important to them.

One of the pieces in the final two images is repeated as there was a failure in the first firing of it.