The Darragh Bronze

Good Morning.

I am just waiting for the rain to pass over, before I nip down to the harbour to photograph more cruisers.

Today's medal was also a commission and also designed and made in 2007.

In this instance, however, i actually made the mould, the waxes, designed the patination and oversaw the whole casting process at a local foundry.....

Ooops! the rain seems to have passed so i will leave you with this picture, but will pick up the rest of the story later!

Okay! am back at my desk

i think I am becoming immune to cruisers. They are not so awesome (in the true sense of the word - not the L.A. Ink sense) any more. Or perhaps it was the light today - Although the sunshine flirted with coming out from behind the clouds from time to time, overall the light was overcast, flat and grey and even the duck photos, which should have had zinging colours against the grey pavement - in fact looked grey too.

I thought I was going to be blown away because there are three cruisers in today. So from now on I will have to become a bit more choosey. Not just taking photos of any old cruiser in any old light, but waiting for the perfect photo-opportunity.

But back to the medal.

This medal was first of all designed for a competition run by BAMS (British Art Medal Society - for those who are not tuned into my blog yet). I wanted to show the spread of BAMS influence and importance in promoting the art medal by using the well known saying "From little acorns, great Oaks grow" A simple sort of concept but I thought that it was a nice image. for the BAMS medal I had the acorn on the reverse and the great oak on the obverse.

But remodelled for the Kildare County Council I was asked to put a crest on the reverse and move the acorn onto the front. So I did.

The Oak is one of the symbols of Kildare which is why they liked the design when they saw it in my portfolio

It did turn out nicely and they were very pleased with it. However, as it was a large order - eg 50 medals, if i remember rightly, I had to make 50 waxes! Not to be sniffed at as i only had one mould and limited time. Also there was a bit of a disaster at the foundry during the casting and about 20 of them had to be recast! So that was 20 more for me to pour.

I remember the time well, because I was trying to squeeze an extra bit of social life into an already full timetable of work and events. Something had to give and I think it was probably my sanity - it always is :-) But I also very nearly lost my social life - even worse!

The Darragh Bronze - presented annually to persons of high achievement.

Approx 8cm Diameter.