And so castles made of sand, fall in the sea, eventually

Another lovely Friday with horrific weather - unbelievable wind with sideways rain and its getting dark (only 1600hrs!). Scotland in winter is great...

We certainly can't be accused of being bored this week. Everything led up to our presentation on Wednesday to the Banchory Town Improvement Group. This is where we did the big reveal of our proposed artwork for Scott Skinner Square. Thankfully, things went really well with strong positive feedback from those who spoke. Needless to say it's been a stressful week and we are glad it's all done for now.

Next stage is to get all this artwork built up from sketches to full working drawings in conjunction with the engineer (Neil Dely from Buro Happold) and principle architect (Derek McWilliams from Aberdeen City Council). These guys are good - we're looking forward to working with them.

With these in place we will do a public exhibition of the proposal and take it from there...

Anyhow, back to Friday and back to the weather. Think its time to make ourselves feel summery and there is no better way to do this than with beaches and sandcastles. So the pic is from a very talented sandcastle builder Calvin Seibert - lots of interesting geometry in his work.

While we were working at Aldourie we met another amazing sand artist Delayne Corbett where he did a replica model of the castle. He works on mahoosive pieces - see his pics from Kuwait where he is just now. Top bloke too...

Oh well, just another 6 months or so till summer... - FIN

BLOG TITLE
Jimi Hendrix - Castles Made Of Sand
Axis: Bold As Love (1967)

Another lovely Friday with horrific weather - unbelievable wind with sideways rain and its getting dark (only 1600hrs!). Scotland in winter is great...

We certainly can't be accused of being bored this week. Everything led up to our presentation on Wednesday to the Banchory Town Improvement Group. This is where we did the big reveal of our proposed artwork for Scott Skinner Square. Thankfully, things went really well with strong positive feedback from those who spoke. Needless to say it's been a stressful week and we are glad it's all done for now.

Next stage is to get all this artwork built up from sketches to full working drawings in conjunction with the engineer (Neil Dely from Buro Happold) and principle architect (Derek McWilliams from Aberdeen City Council). These guys are good - we're looking forward to working with them.

With these in place we will do a public exhibition of the proposal and take it from there...

Anyhow, back to Friday and back to the weather. Think its time to make ourselves feel summery and there is no better way to do this than with beaches and sandcastles. So the pic is from a very talented sandcastle builder Calvin Seibert - lots of interesting geometry in his work.

While we were working at Aldourie we met another amazing sand artist Delayne Corbett where he did a replica model of the castle. He works on mahoosive pieces - see his pics from Kuwait where he is just now. Top bloke too...

Oh well, just another 6 months or so till summer... - FIN

BLOG TITLE
Jimi Hendrix - Castles Made Of Sand
Axis: Bold As Love (1967)

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Yes, here we go again, give you more, nothing lesser

The best part of the last six weeks has been spent in the studio sifting through the mountain of material we gathered in the engagement period in Banchory. We have started our creative process with a focus on Scott Skinner Square as the centre point for Banchory. 

The concept behind our designs for the square are based on the work of Scot Skinner - a surprising and colourful character - certainly not lacking in self belief, adopting the pseudonym "King". He was great at self promotion (if he was around today he would have a better grip on Facebook and Twitter than I do!). He was a bit more rock n' roll than heel n' toe!

We have presented our ideas to the Council and are now gearing up for presenting to the Banchory Town Centre Group next week. We obviously don't want to give too much away at this point, but below are a few of our development sketches. 

Enjoy! - Al

P.S. Incidentally, I think the music video for our blog title this time around has the best line up to date.

BLOG TITLE
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
Make Some Noise (2011)

The best part of the last six weeks has been spent in the studio sifting through the mountain of material we gathered in the engagement period in Banchory. We have started our creative process with a focus on Scott Skinner Square as the centre point for Banchory. 

The concept behind our designs for the square are based on the work of Scot Skinner - a surprising and colourful character - certainly not lacking in self belief, adopting the pseudonym "King". He was great at self promotion (if he was around today he would have a better grip on Facebook and Twitter than I do!). He was a bit more rock n' roll than heel n' toe!

We have presented our ideas to the Council and are now gearing up for presenting to the Banchory Town Centre Group next week. We obviously don't want to give too much away at this point, but below are a few of our development sketches. 

Enjoy! - Al

P.S. Incidentally, I think the music video for our blog title this time around has the best line up to date.

BLOG TITLE
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
Make Some Noise (2011)

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Our bones forever in stone, Monuments of life

After all this great weather we have been having (mostly...) it has turned pretty grim here. Not stopped raining all day and really getting pretty cold. Even weather warnings of high winds. Back to normal then. Looks like Nicolette and the team picked exactly the right time to visit Scotland and do all the pre-production filming at Aldourie Castle last week!

Ourselves? We are thankfully indoors for a while but it's not quite so much fun costing jobs and putting those kind of details together. The good news is that we are doing it for our jobs in Banchory and in Derby which are taking shape nicely.

Derby is all ready to go - just a few small details to work on regarding risk-assessments and timescales but we are happy with the way its sitting now. We have also come up with names for the pieces which has taken a long time (maybe three years or so!). Will keep it quiet for now until the commissioner gives it the go-ahead.

Banchory is also ticking along nicely. We had a meeting with Nicola from Woodend Barn this week to outline some of our initial ideas and she was happy with the direction we were taking. Lots more to do on the overall plan and concept but for the moment we are learning about new materials and techniques. Its like being back at Uni - with the exception of actually doing something.

Rather than finish on a note like that. Someone whose work displays techniques and skills that we would love to master was Michael Grab from Gravity Glue. He is due to be in the final movie as well and what he does by combining rocks with patience is incredible. Definitely worth looking at his website. - FIN

BLOG TITLE

Foo Fighters - Statues

Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007)

After all this great weather we have been having (mostly...) it has turned pretty grim here. Not stopped raining all day and really getting pretty cold. Even weather warnings of high winds. Back to normal then. Looks like Nicolette and the team picked exactly the right time to visit Scotland and do all the pre-production filming at Aldourie Castle last week!

Ourselves? We are thankfully indoors for a while but it's not quite so much fun costing jobs and putting those kind of details together. The good news is that we are doing it for our jobs in Banchory and in Derby which are taking shape nicely.

Derby is all ready to go - just a few small details to work on regarding risk-assessments and timescales but we are happy with the way its sitting now. We have also come up with names for the pieces which has taken a long time (maybe three years or so!). Will keep it quiet for now until the commissioner gives it the go-ahead.

Banchory is also ticking along nicely. We had a meeting with Nicola from Woodend Barn this week to outline some of our initial ideas and she was happy with the direction we were taking. Lots more to do on the overall plan and concept but for the moment we are learning about new materials and techniques. Its like being back at Uni - with the exception of actually doing something.

Rather than finish on a note like that. Someone whose work displays techniques and skills that we would love to master was Michael Grab from Gravity Glue. He is due to be in the final movie as well and what he does by combining rocks with patience is incredible. Definitely worth looking at his website. - FIN

BLOG TITLE

Foo Fighters - Statues

Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007)

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It's just a question of eliminating obstacles

We are back in the studio now for a few weeks while we put together our proposal for the artwork for Scott Skinner Square. This is a big piece of work and we have a lot of research to go through as part of this after the past three weeks spent in Banchory. Lots came out of the process that was very helpful and are delighted by the response we received from the people there.

The project itself has really dominated the last two months of our work and as we move into this next stage will really come into sharp focus - we should be going to planning in November. Obviously can't go into details yet but some of things we have looked at include James Scott Skinner himself, St. Ternan (the Saint associated with the town) and some of the other themes that always attract us - story and place.

A bit of background? Banchory is a town of over 7000 settled on the bank of the River Dee about 18 miles west of Aberdeen. The population has expanded rapidly in the past 10 years and new development continues to keep pace with this, particularly to the west of town, in an area called Hill of Banchory.

Its a friendly town with a reputation for a high standard of living and education (the local Academy boasts a very successful academic record). A large proportion of residents work in the oil industry in Westhill, Aberdeen and Dyce which with its high salaries has helped pushed house prices to be some of the highest in Scotland.

So a dynamic, growing, prosperous place but not without its problems and challenges.

We do like a challenge though... - FIN

BLOG TITLE
Sheryl Crow - No-one Said It would Be Easy
Tuesday Night Music Club (1993)

We are back in the studio now for a few weeks while we put together our proposal for the artwork for Scott Skinner Square. This is a big piece of work and we have a lot of research to go through as part of this after the past three weeks spent in Banchory. Lots came out of the process that was very helpful and are delighted by the response we received from the people there.

The project itself has really dominated the last two months of our work and as we move into this next stage will really come into sharp focus - we should be going to planning in November. Obviously can't go into details yet but some of things we have looked at include James Scott Skinner himself, St. Ternan (the Saint associated with the town) and some of the other themes that always attract us - story and place.

A bit of background? Banchory is a town of over 7000 settled on the bank of the River Dee about 18 miles west of Aberdeen. The population has expanded rapidly in the past 10 years and new development continues to keep pace with this, particularly to the west of town, in an area called Hill of Banchory.

Its a friendly town with a reputation for a high standard of living and education (the local Academy boasts a very successful academic record). A large proportion of residents work in the oil industry in Westhill, Aberdeen and Dyce which with its high salaries has helped pushed house prices to be some of the highest in Scotland.

So a dynamic, growing, prosperous place but not without its problems and challenges.

We do like a challenge though... - FIN

BLOG TITLE
Sheryl Crow - No-one Said It would Be Easy
Tuesday Night Music Club (1993)

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Any colour you like

Last week saw us complete our third visit to Banchory since the project started, and it is safe to say that the community engagement aspect is well under way.

On Thursday we opened our Drop In Studio, on the High Street. The idea being that folk can visit us to find out about the project and to share their ideas. It also gives us a great chance to meet the community.

To help kick things off with a sugar rush we ordered cakes from the cracking Birdhouse Cafe and then rented an urn so that we could chuck a little caffeine into the mix!

On the first day we had somewhere around 60-70 visitors, very much due to Vhairi Walker who basically grabbed people off the street! Things went so well we opened the shop again on Friday afternoon and had at least another 50 visitors.

We started working on a series of short interviews with the team at Cordiners Sawmills. As well as meeting some lovely folk at the West Church Friday coffee morning.

We are looking forward to coming back down next week! - AL

BLOG TITLE

Pink Floyd - Any Colour You Like
The Dark Side of The Moon (1973)

Last week saw us complete our third visit to Banchory since the project started, and it is safe to say that the community engagement aspect is well under way.

On Thursday we opened our Drop In Studio, on the High Street. The idea being that folk can visit us to find out about the project and to share their ideas. It also gives us a great chance to meet the community.

To help kick things off with a sugar rush we ordered cakes from the cracking Birdhouse Cafe and then rented an urn so that we could chuck a little caffeine into the mix!

On the first day we had somewhere around 60-70 visitors, very much due to Vhairi Walker who basically grabbed people off the street! Things went so well we opened the shop again on Friday afternoon and had at least another 50 visitors.

We started working on a series of short interviews with the team at Cordiners Sawmills. As well as meeting some lovely folk at the West Church Friday coffee morning.

We are looking forward to coming back down next week! - AL

BLOG TITLE

Pink Floyd - Any Colour You Like
The Dark Side of The Moon (1973)

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