Claudia's workshops were carried out in Byron Wood and Pye Bank schools in addition to a single Open Access workshop. The decision to work in schools was taken as a great deal of information was needed to make the designs for the 8 metre glass screen, so a captive audience was useful!

A design was created first, simply using the poems, copying (tracing) directly the individual handwriting of all participants. Then the banners were put together to create another design. The text and the banners will be put together on a single piece of glass, using two different processes. The text will be sandblasted (creating a frosted effect) onto one side of the glass and the banners will be 'sand cast' (www.moltendesign.net) into the same piece of glass. Sand casting is a technique where the glass will take the shape of the designs of the banners.

It is incredibly difficult to show a visual of what the finished process is likely to look like but here are images of a very small sample, which has both these processes used on it (etching and sand casting).  I hope these pictures show you how the light will play across the surface of the final image and how light will radically change what you see and can 'read' in the work.  

Coloured light is to be used to light up the panel at night, which could potentially be changed for festivals and events.

An exhibition of the processes gone through and the designs of both art commissions will be put on display in Burngreave Library shortly.  A large (to scale) sample glass panel is to be made as part of Claudia's display and Amanda will also be showing a to scale design piece as well as samples of the perspex to be used to make the final feature.  Please feel free to visit and offer your comments or criticisms.

Photos by Claudia Phipps