Earthseed #1001 Broomhill

Earthseed #1001 Broomhill

A frustrating setback: the new cable I have ordered is a slightly different shade of blue. Easy to be corrected I hope. But there is always humour - it is not often that an electrical supplies business is confronted by a client who is returning an order and re-ordering due to the shades of cable not matching!

Earthseed #1001 Broomhill

To make it easier for me to secure the wire underneath the piece I have been fortunate to have the use of a forklift [courtesy of a friend who owns www.itsmykit.com ]. This has made the whole operation so much easier and quicker.

With the weight of the sandstone and cable (now 300+ metres) it was becoming too difficult to tilt it and then prop it safely for me to have convenient access.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the shape is deviating from the clean swollen lines which I had originally intended; the wavy and indented contours are giving it a life that has become more inkeeping with it being an 'earthseed'.

The body is starting to take shape. Although I had a fairly clear expectation of how I thought the form would develop, I'm finding that as I progress it feels as if it is starting to dictate to me how it should grow.

Today a passerby in the workshop stopped, looked at the 'basket weaving', thought for a few seconds and then asked, "What are you recovering from?" So this is what therapy is all about.

I did my first run of cable around the 'seed'. About 2 metres. Only ±400 to go. Already feel as if I'm getting into the flow of it. The actions of securing one loop to another are quite exacting and obviously quite repetitive. I feel a dose of iTunes / Spotify and the radio fast approaching.

Finished welding the framework which will support the carved stone.

Original sketch of my proposal

The concept and design I submitted to the competition jurors is for an 'Earth Seed' - a free standing piece using both man-made and natural materials. This has been a fairly consistent theme in my research and practice. For this particular piece I am using carved natural Cotswold sandstone [the 'seed'], ± 400m of 10mm diameter plastic sheathed electric cable, and thousands of industrial cable-ties.

I have carved one 'seed', but was concerned that it was perhaps a little too worked and flat in perspective, and wouldn't sufficiently enforce the notion of an earth seed being borne of the man-made elements. So I carved another which is higher and more rounded and a lot less worked. In the end I have decided on my first approach (so often the first instinct is the correct one) as although it is initially less visible it implies that there is much more of it encased within the man-made shell.