Questions from Ocklynge School, answered by Will Nash

Q. What made you think of the idea for the HANDS UP! Project? (4W, 6ST & 6Z)

A. I wanted to find a way to include as many members of the Ocklynge Junior school community in the project, when I saw that the theme for this term was “the body” I thought that I could use an outline of a part of the body, because hands are quite small and easy to draw around I thought that I could use lots of them to make up one big sculpture.

Q. What metal will it be made from and what will happen if it rusts? (3D, 4MO & 5WR)

A. It will be made from mild steel, to stop it from rusting it will be spray coated with zinc then it will be powder coated

Q. Will there be too many hands to fit? (4B)

A. I don’t know yet, it depends on how many hands we get and how big they are. Q. How will the sculpture be made?

A. The collected hand outlines will be arranged together then digitally traced in order to create the pattern for the sculpture. The sculpture parts will then be cut from mild steel using a CNC laser cutter. The parts will be bolted together to make the final shape of the sculpture.

Q. How did you become a sculptor: did you always want to do this and how did you train? (5BD)

A. I wanted to be a sculptor from a very young age, I did also want to be a pilot, maybe I can learn to fly planes when I am old. I trained to be a sculptor at art college in 1994, recently I went back to art college to become a ‘Master of Arts’ that’s when I started doing community projects.

Q. Why do you enjoy working with schools and the wider community? (6Z)

A. A lot of sculptors work on their own making sculptures without involving other people, I have done that but recently I have been working with different types of communities, I enjoy sharing the creative process and like the unpredictable nature of collaborating with hundreds of people to make something new and different.

Q. Is there a way that children can identify their hand in the sculpture?

A. I am going to try and make that possible by making a map that shows the location of each classes hands in the sculpture, I might not be able to say exactly which hand is where but the map will show roughly where each hand is. You will have to put your hand on the sculpture to try and match it!

Q. Ocklynge logo located somewhere? On a sign explaining the project?

A. I think that a sign would be a good idea; it depends on what the school would like.

Q. Sections could be arranged for each section with bigger hands at the bottom.

A. That is a good idea, we will try it out at the studio to see if it works.

Q. Hands could be arranged in cup formation, praying, different angles etc...

A. We can try these ideas out during the school visits to my studio, I have tried a few small arrangements of hands already, once we have a few hundred laid out it will be easier to make decisions.

Q. Will the sculpture be multicoloured or red to represent school colour. Can we choose colours?

A. It could be either, because of the way that it is made we can’t have too many colours, probably six at most. I would like pupils from the school to help me choose the colour or colours. We should include red, as it is the school colour. Maybe it could be six different shades of red.

Q. Could it be a big archway that can be walked through into the school.

A. It could be a big archway, but I don’t think that we can put it in front of the entrance, just in case any large deliveries need to be made, it would be annoying if they could not fit. Keep checking this blog to see what shapes I come up with.