Gweithdy Wood Totem. St Fagans museum, Cardiff

This sculpture was made for the new Gweithdy gallery at St Fagans museum of Welsh history in Cardiff. The gallery celebrates the varied crafts of Welsh artists. As a part of the development the museum commissioned six new sculptures as totems for the materials representing each seperate area of the gallery. This sculpture forms the wood totem.

My design for this sculpture attempted to incorporate elements of craft shapes associated with wood tools and trades of the museum collection. Including for example, cotton bobbins, rolling pins, mallets etc. But also and specifically I wanted to hint at the shape of the wooden templates. For example as used to make hats such as the tall hat associated with Welsh national costume. Likewise I wanted the silhouette of the sculpture to suggest, abstractly a face and head (of the large cone shape) wearing the hat.

More examples of the models made as ideas for this sculpture can be seen here