Monday, September 14, 2009

Electric Picnic crystal installations

The village of Stradbally has returned to just about normal after hosting the Electric Picnic for the fifth year running. During the summer I was emailed by the Irish Crafts Council to submit a proposal for art or installations for the Body & Soul area of the festival.There was an open brief, so basically I could make anything-which meant it was really difficult to pick anything! I knew I wanted to create something using crystals, but I was having difficulty deciding what!


I went to see where the Body & Soul area, to try and help with idea generation. The stage for the Body & Soul area is built into a natural ampitheatre in the grounds of Stradbally Hall and it very much has a natural feel to it, so I decided that I would make something that would compliment this 'natural' feel rather than detract from it.


I designed a pair of crystal cobwebs for the corners of the stage that were quite quirky looking-during the day they would glisten in the natural light but in the evenings they would be backlit by different coloured spot lights. They were a great project to work on as it gave me the opportunity to work on a very large scale and to a much freer design brief.


I made them using exactly the same techniques and materials as I would my bridal jewellery, but the challenge was to work on such a big scale! When they were installed, they looked quite subtle in the daylight but at night, with the spotlights on them, they completely came to life!

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