Last weekend saw a group outing for our wood sculpture competition winners to speak to chainsaw artist Andrew Frost about their designs and the ins and outs of how he plans to bring their creations to life!
Winners from Balckwell, Hilcote, Newton and Westhouses met in separate groups (to comply with current national restrictions) at the Crich Tramway Village where Andrew's outdoor workshop is based.
Surrounded by the impressive sight of a limescale quarry Andrews workshop marks the start of a woodland walk which is home to lots of his impressive carved wood designs and also a fantastic view of the Derwent Valley.
Andrew spoke to the winners about their designs, explaining to them the types of wood that would likely work best for their ideas and also the practicalities of working with the wood when it came to the more intricate parts of their plans. Everyone was surprised by the sheer scale that Andrew was planning on working with. Issac a Westhouses winner brought this dad along who exclaimed “I didn’t realise the final sculpture would be so big! We thought it would be about 2ft maybe, not 6!”
Jasmine, one of our Blackwell winners whilst surprised was pleased that her idea of giving her sculpture a purpose would come to fruit when it takes it place in the landscape “I wasn’t expecting to win! I really wanted my design to look like it had grown from the land. I wanted it to have a purpose so if I made it for the birds with the baths and feeders on it it would have a purpose as well”
James's design is based on his great Grandad who was a miner in Blackwell and his mum was proud that there would be a personal connection to the sculpture as well as a connection to the areas heritage “James never met his great grandad but we always talk about him. Where the sculpture is planned to go is where we always take the dog for a walk where the pit once was, it’s an appropriate place”.
So now Andrew starts the task of bringing the sculptures to life, lifting the ideas from the page and into the wood before they are permanently housed in the parish for residents to view whilst taking in the countryside. We'll be sure to have further updates about his progress and announcements when the sculptures make their way into Blackwell Parish.
