Concept drawing

My first concept drawing shows the proposed scale of the sculpture in Pool B, Gunwharf Quays.  The composition of the right hand diver will flow a little more as the sculpture materialises.

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Background research day

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David Sandiford organised a series of meetings and visits to potential sites for the monument by way of introducing me to the field of mine disposal and safe rendering of live ordnance.  In a nutshell, we, the general public, have little or no idea of what these teams of calm, sensitive service men and women do on our behalf.  To give you an idea, the team I met at the  Defence Diving School, Horsea Island are called out to attend to an actual or suspect  bomb approximately every 18 hours....and that is just one team....and that means that, despite the high level of training, skill and equipment, their lives are at very real risk once a day; and people are killed in the course of this work.  At risk of sounding pompous I felt, at the end of this day, a desire to say a big thank you to these men and women, on behalf of us all. Here are a few pictures from the day First stop HMS Collingwood to measure up a MkXVII mine. Next, the Diving Museum at Gospo...
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Making the mine

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The sculpture will be made, initially, at half-life size.  This is so that the composition, movement and details can be read in the studio as if one were looking at the finished work from afar.  Also, at this scale, it is a lot easier to make changes as the work develops. The first stage, before scaling too half-life size, is to work out what the dimensions are in reality.  We do this by taking the basic dimensions of the Mk XV11 mine, that I took on my visit to HMS Collingwood, and superimposing them onto photos.  From this, and with George's kind help, the finer details can be worked out. We construct a jig from which to create the basic form Then we make an armature to support the clay...the galvanised horizontal pole going away from you here will, once the mine is complete, be welded to a supporting back iron to hold the mine aloft. The first clay coat is applied and left to harden off for a few days. ...and in the meantime, we make...
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