Aethered Forest Glade Has Arrived Home

And finally, the sculpture is installed into the void area at the main reception. The Aethered Forest Glade hanging sculpture takes influence from the Rowan tree leaf and berry which are resident on the Carlton Marshes near Athersley in Barnsley.  

Aethred is the old English name for Athersley.   First recorded in 1379 as ‘Hattirslay’ - it probably means ‘Aethred’s Forest Glade’. [On Our Street - published by the Roundhouse Partnership.]  Carlton Marshes - a nearby wildlife sanctuary has medieval links too. Perhaps a moat or pond for Monk Bretton Priory, this area is home to several trees and shrubs. 

The Aethered Forest Glade hanging sculpture has taken permanent residence in the void area of the Roundhouse Medical Centre.   Spanning two patient waiting areas and the main reception, the sculpture can now be experienced from the ground floor and from the windows in the waiting area on the first floor.   The sculpture is installed around the roof light.  It creates the feeling and memory of, the outside landscape appearing inside.  

The cast leaves with tones of greens, blues and violet, add diffused and distilled light with shadows appearing in new spaces at different times of the day.   It has a calming affect on the environment.

 After a few tweaks of placing the leaves at the correct angle, it's time to de-install the scaffold

 A view from the first floor lift lobby

 A view from the first floor waiting area

 The natural light, which pours through the skylight, transfers the colour of the leaves as shadows momentarily on the walls, floor and through the first floor window into the waiting area.

A view from the lift lobby

looking upwards at the mirror images that appear on the stainless steel berries

 let's dismantle the scaffold

scaffold safely dismantled

 close-up views from the first floor

A big thanks to Colin, Stan and Simon from Morgan Sindall for being very supportive!

The Beginning of the Final Destination

Time to call the experts in!  Here, Colin and Stan from Morgan Sindall are installing the drop bars.
Here's a few images of the preparation:

Tall scaffolding unit required.

Drop bars will be fixed to the purlins

Not that one - it's this one!

A little fine tuning!

Making good

next line please!

Neatly fitted!

Aethered Forest Glade is Coming into Bloom!

The proforma is complete, the mould has been made, and the first tests are here for inspection...

 The steel wires are ready for the leaves to attach to.

The wire will be encased within the leaf

The centre of gravity works with the wire

 The light is refracted and diffused as it passes through the leaves - perfect!

 The steel bars which hang the sculpture is now ready - we intend to perform a test next week

Aethered's Forest Glade is Growing!

The young shoots which appeared in the beautiful collages are beginning to grow with further experimentation and analysis.














All of the collages have taken pride of place in the studio.  You can see the maquette of the hanging sculpture in this image too

After many a study of all the favourite details contained within the collages, I get down to illustrating and trying out a few ideas based on the collages...

The illustrations begin to develop a new life of young shoots which is complementing the Aethered Forest Glade sculpture...

analyse the favourite bits!

There's some exceptional details found in the collages that were developed with the young people, as part of the creative engagement programme.

I've decided to abstract a few of these details and experiment with them.  I aim to capture the excitement, consideration, and energy, that the collages hold.