IOW Workshop at AJ Wells & Sons Ltd
REPORT
September 2009
September 2009
During a warm and sunny week in September 2009, AJ Wells & Sons hosted a large scale enamel workshop at their purpose built factory on the Isle of Wight. Pat Johnson led the workshop, and I acted as facilitator/organiser for all involved.
This event has been nearly a year in the planning. It was a first for AJ Wells, working with so many artists all at once, and a new development for workshops run by the Guild and BSOE.
Eight students applied and were accepted onto the workshop. These were a mixture of Guild, BSOE, and non-members, who had either been told about the workshop by a Guild or BSOE member, or had seen it announced on one of the websites. Most had enamelled before, but a few hadn’t.
This event has been nearly a year in the planning. It was a first for AJ Wells, working with so many artists all at once, and a new development for workshops run by the Guild and BSOE.Eight students applied and were accepted onto the workshop. These were a mixture of Guild, BSOE, and non-members, who had either been told about the workshop by a Guild or BSOE member, or had seen it announced on one of the websites. Most had enamelled before, but a few hadn’t.
Accommodation was found in Ryde, where everyone stayed at the same house. Laura Boswell came over Sunday afternoon to give us a presentation of her work on the Aylesbury Project, produced at AJ Wells earlier this year. This also gave our students an opportunity to ask Laura questions concerning large scale commissions, working at AJ Wells, and how she coped with producing 6 very large enamelled panels by hand, every day for over 2 months!
Transport was arranged to give everyone a lift to the factory at Newport each day. Breakfast and a self-serve packed lunch were provided within the cost of the workshop, (as there was no canteen at the factory).The real work started on Monday. Having arrived at AJ Wells just after 8.30, the students were taken on a tour of the factory. I thought we’d lost them! All found the experience fascinating, seeing how large and small panels are batch produced within a factory environment, and getting their first glimpse of the very large furnaces (the size of a small room!)
After that exciting start, Pat showed the students some examples of her own work, and then demonstrated several techniques for using the spray gun in a spray booth. With the use of a small test kiln in the studio space, which proved invaluable, not only was everyone able to experiment with combining the three types of enamels – liquid, lead-bearing ground enamel, and enamel inks – the small kiln also ensured that no time was lost while large scale work was drying or being fired. By combining the three types of enamelling, some ground-breaking pieces were produced during the course of the workshop.
Each student had pre-ordered individual steel panels to work on during the week, at an additional cost to the workshop fee. Included in the fee was a test panel, and AJ Wells also supplied extra test plates throughout the week for further testing. All steel was costed to cover liquid enamel and several firings. Enamel inks were also supplied for use as an additional technique - this did not include silk screen printing, although some students did use the inks with riso screens.
