St Edward's 150 Years - by Nicola Hunter

St Edward’s: 150 Years

Left: Sharon Keen teachingInesOcampo textile activity (cushion making). Below: Peter Dzhioez welding.

Opposite: Clockwise from top left: Emma Preston, jewellery inspired by nature; Tristan Benfield,ashsidetable;Charliehayes,cherryand walnut carving board; Peter Dzhioez, mild steel brazier;MaxStern,walnutandashgamesboard; Emma Cheng, jewellery inspired by nature.

THE DESIGN PORTAL Patrick Morton, an engineer by training, came to St Edward’s in 1964 to teach Mechanical Drawing to a group of spare-time enthusiasts. In 1979 he was asked by Warden Phillips to head a Department of Design and Technology. When I arrived in 1987 we were still pursuing mechanical drawing in S6 of the Science building. We had wood and metal workshops beside the Music School, and a classroom in the Memorial Library Building where the main computer room now resides – hardly a single portal. Warden Phillips was a great believer in Art and Design and funds were raised to build the current Art and Design Centre, opening in 1988. The building was very fine, with its terrazzo-floored foyer and grand stair, but workshop equipment remained distinctly traditional. For the high-tech setup that we enjoy today we must thank the very responsive approach of the Governors, and successive Wardens.

packed so full that the cleaners were unable to clean. For those of you who have seen Francis Bacon’s studio on display in Dublin, the St Edward’s art studio was its clone, only a great deal bigger. Along the way, we were joined in the Department by the legendary Kirsty Jones and Tim Greaves with their extraordinary talent and enthusiasm. They ran a type of art factory regime in the old boilerhouse where to the sounds of the blues, R and B, country and western, pop and rap (Tim was also a DJ), young artists were introduced to the fascinating world of Art. This was a big time for the Department; I replaced Nick Grimshaw after 25 years, Kirsty Jones and Tabatha Palmer were about to leave to be heads of departments at Clayesmore and Perrott Hill respectively, and Phoebe Brookes, Tova Holmes, Lorraine Turley, Adam Hahn and Sharon Keen all recently arrived, bringing colour and light to the Department. One constant factor throughout has been the one and only Phil Jolley who as Head of Ceramics, with Jane Bowen and Richard Siddons, has kept the wheels turning and kilns full and fired every week for the last 20 years – this despite Phil’s ten years as Housemaster of Tilly’s. In September 2013, Tova Holmes took over as our first female Head of Department. I am confident that Art at St Edward’s under her leadership will continue to challenge, provoke and educate to the highest possible standards. Please come and see our exhibitions in the North Wall Gallery, our window to the world where pupils and staff exhibit regularly. Peter Lloyd-Jones Head of Art 2008–13

Design at school level is a unique subject in that it allows the developing mind the opportunity to test creative ideas by putting them into practice, learning to find solutions to the gaps between the vision and the reality of a grand scheme. With our excellent facilities we are able to give our pupils quite an accurate preview of modern industrial manufacturing. We can draw, with the benefit of Computer Aided Design, complex organic forms and print them out in 3D with fused deposition rapid prototyping, in a testable hard-wearing plastic. This is a far cry from the inevitably flat-planed projects of the past: the roof rack, the shelving unit and the toolbox. On the metalworking front we have a CNC plasma cutter that allows accurate and repeatable metal profiles to be cut in steel or aluminium, ready to be welded together. This works well for finely curved chair frames and table legs. We have CNC milling machines that allow us to mill complex forms from the solid, such as a small aluminium killer whale for a water feature. Not forgetting wood, still the favourite material, we have a CNC router able to cut all the parts from a plank, complete with joints, in a single

operation, or form a low-relief decorative panel, or cut out a whole table top from pre-joined boards. I hear you wondering what happened to good old-fashioned craftsmanship with hand tools; surely that is the way to prepare our engineers, architects and furniture designers. There is of course still a great deal of hand finishing – gluing, clamping, welding, varnishing etc. – that requires good hand–eye co- ordination. All designers must understand the character and capability of their materials, so we run a series of projects in the pre-exam years designed to give that ‘feel’ and understanding. Every syllabus however must evolve with the times, and the current preoccupation is with Design for Manufacture, where the forms required must match the means of manufacture. Green Design encompasses ‘Cradle to Cradle Design’, where a product can be ready for a new life once its original purpose is achieved, either through reuse or easy disassembly for recycling. These are the challenges for which we prepare our current pupils when they enter the Design Portal. Ben Pyper Head of Design and Technology

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