At the end of February, we arranged for 10 members of Grapevine to be taken on a tour by the brilliant sculptor Hamish Mackie around The Lockbund foundry in Oxfordshire followed by a visit to his studio.

This was an amazing afternoon, where Hamish took us through the whole complex process of creating a sculpture step by step.I think a lot of us had no idea about how many different processes have to be gone through from the very beginning to the finished article. We were treated to seeing these amazing sculptures at all their different stages including watching a bronze pour which was incredible to see and quite nerve-wracking to watch!

It was basically red/orange hot larva being poured into these moulds. Hamish was brilliant at explaining everything as were the people who play a bit part in all this at the foundry.

After our tour of the foundry Hamish then took us to his studio where we could see all his incredible pieces of work and some sculptures he’s currently working on.The afternoon was such a treat and we all learnt an awful lot about how these masterpieces are created, which is neither quick nor easy!