Artists’ projects created with our support during 2022: Jonny Walker and Tessa Lynch

Two highlights from 2022 from the Technical Team at ESW would be the Jonny Walker Life Size Lamb Cast for his presentation at the Edinburgh Art Festival and Tessa Lynch/Spartans Youth Group Bell Workshop and Casting for National Galleries of Scotland.

Both projects highlight the desire of contemporary artists from across Scotland coming to work at ESW to realise projects and commissions in a collaborative environment they would be unable to realise elsewhere. The technical support, facilities, attitude and space at ESW empowers members to undertake complex and empowering processes that give them, and other collaborators shared agency in making of sculptural commissions for national festivals and galleries.

Jonny Walkers was a challenge technically as we worked with an artist with no experience of Metal Casting – to take a 3-D model and PLA printout into a multi piece 450kg Sand mould with a suspended core. The scale of this piece required us to set a double furnace, double crew to pour the volume of Aluminium required to successfully cast the life size lamb in a single piece.

The lamb was then cleaned up and given a salt oxidization patina for its presentation in EAF 2022.

Tessa lynch was keen to give the children from Spartans Youth Group in Pilton a sense of agency within her commission for the National Galleries of Scotland grounds. We worked with her to develop a bell casting format where the Children would make the Patterns for casting into Bells and take part that day in the casting of a test Bell and ring it that day. It turns out due to Minecraft all the kids know what a foundry is and were delighted to get hands on. When the final bells are installed in the ground of NGS at Belford Road the young Spartans will see their own work installed and available to be rung.

All this work requires the generous support of the wider ESW membership and staff who are always happy to help out and offer helpful advice when required to problem solve.