One of those mornings.

You know those days when things just do not go right, today is one of them! I have spent all morning working with coal...trying to create ideas for sculpture. It is a beautiful material when you really look at it. When you gently chisel into the layers the coal opens up and reveals the most interesting surfaces and colours: shiny black, beige's, burnt sienna type shades, really exciting!
Our exhibition is getting nearer...so the ideas I have, sketches, balsa wood ideas and photographs etc now need to be transformed into actual ' work'. My chosen subject is coal; the museum at Crow Nest already has some exhibits re coal. Having been successful in begging a sack of coal- of good quality [ Anthracite] and two original pit props which are really interesting; one is very old and has great colour and texture and the other is much newer. I now have everything I need to produce something interesting.

Having seen coal carvings before I just wanted to have a try and find out just how the surface can be altered and by using an engraving tool I achieved some pleasing results,however, the dust cloud I produced that settled on the surrounding studio spaces didn't go down very well and it isn't always possible to get into the workshops.

My sculpture will try to break down to a minimum the message I wish to convey; it will have subtle visual hints of the history of coal mining but in a contemporary way.