Last week I went to the Sculpture Workshop with Christy Symington, organized by the International Slavery Museum. It was an artist-led workshop with the artist who made the sculpture ‘Olaudah Equiano – African, slave, author, abolitionist’, on display at the International Slavery Museum, part of the Ink and Blood exhibition. I asked Holly if she wants to come and she did. I’m glad she enjoyed the workshop as much as I did.
The workshop took two hours, in which Christy told us about her techniques and about Olaudah too. After that, we’ve made our own sculpture. I didn’t imagine I would be able to do something that, even mildly, would resemble a person. Well, this is what I’ve made in those two hours. I’ve also discovered how amazing is to do sculpture. It’s something I would like to join in the future, as it is very relaxing.
This is how it started, from a piece of clay.
In less than 2 hours and for the first time, I was able to make this. I was ecstatic to see how it turned out. On the bust, on the left there is a representation of Africa and some broken shackles.
On the back, underneath his hair, I wrote “Free”. Because he was free. I also put his initials and more broken shackles and chains.
Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, was an abolitionist who lived in the 18th century. He wrote his autobiography and got it published in 1789. This book is on my to-read list, of course.
I wish I had a bit more time to work on his face. It was the first time I’ve tried doing something like this and it was so relaxing. I didn’t imagine that adding a bit more clay to create the cheekbones can be so relaxing and nice. Many of the others participants said the same thing.
As I’m not very good (that’s an understatement) when it comes to crafts, so me enjoying a sculpture workshop was a bit puzzling. I say that because I don’t like to do the things I’m not good at or, that I can’t be good at without practice. It was not like that though.
These were all the sculptures, each one so different from the other.
Have you ever tried a sculpture workshop before? Is it something you might like to do?
Sculpture must be so relaxing indeed. I would love to try one day! It’s great that you got to join sculpture with a little bit of History too. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Julia x
Thanks again for letting me know about this event. I really enjoyed myself. 🙂
Well done! I’ve never made a sculpture before but yes, clay is such a nice material to work with. Glad you had fun 🙂 x
This looks like it would be fun. I always seem to have trouble bringing to life what I see in my mind.