Description:
A bronze play dragon designed to work within the Celtic design of the scheme.
The sculpture is based on dragons as seen in illuminated manuscripts. It is 2.2 metres long with an arched body which allows small children to crawl or sit beneath. The head rests on the ground and the long tapering tail is gathered into a Celtic knot, by this device both ends of the beast provide seating or low level climbing for toddlers. The design incorporates typical Celtic motifs such as spirals and interlocked curved elements. The scales of the dragon were made in schools workshops allowing the local children to identify their own ‘scale’ on the surface of the bronze.
Philip also made a dragon footprint which was used to create a track of prints leading to the sculpture.
Commission Title:
Celtic Dragon - Play Sculpture
Sculptor:
Philip Bews and
Diane Gorvin
Production Period:
March - August 1996
Site:
St Wilfrid’s Park, Hulme, Manchester, England
Commissioned By:
Hulme Regeneration Limited after we were approached by Randall Thorp,
Landscape Architects, who designed St. Wilfred’s Park.
Production
Method:
Philip and Tracey Cartledge conducted several workshops in St Wilfrid’s RC
School and Chevassut County Primary School. In the workshops the children
made round plaster reliefs, inventing their own Celtic designs, these were
then used to form the scales of the dragon. Philip made a wooden armature
which he and Diane covered with clay and modelled the form of the sculpture.
When that was completed the final touch was to press each of the children’s
plaster scales onto the surface of the clay, the plaster was then removed
leaving the impression of the design in the clay.
Castle Foundry then made a mould of the clay original and cast the sculpture into bronze using the lost wax technique. The foundry and Philip sited the sculpture on a previously prepared concrete base using resin and stainless steel fixings. The contractors then poured a safety surface carefully round the sculpture site.