We had a great time last Thursday on our College visit to North and West Devon.
First stop after about 2 hours on the coach from Plymouth was the Burton Gallery in Bideford. The current exhibition shows drawings from the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2009. Took a few pictures to give a general idea of it.
We then went on to the Dartington Cyrstal factory, which was fascinating. More pictures of the intense team work from the glass blowers and 'carriers'. Watching the process from start to finish of them making a carafe/jug not sure which, but it was fast. One guy (young trainee) gathers glass and blows a bubble, that is then picked up by the blower, who blows the glass into a foot-operated water cooled mould to generate the shape and size, it is then passed on to another guy sitting at a bench who then attaches another gathered and marvered blob of molten glass (held by another guy) onto the jug. The shape of the blob is made into a handle and then taken by the carrier to the huge Lehr kiln. Phew. There were one or two that didn't make the grade but it is pretty intense team work. See the photos following the process.
We then had some lunch and then on to a talk from the head designer, Hilary Green. As Dartington Crystal now owns much of the factory glass making in this country, there were examples of pretty well all they conceive and make in the showroom. A rather expensive blue and gold decorated bottle has been developed for the Chinese and Russian markets to celebrate the 2012 Olympics, which will apparently contain single malt whiskey, bizarre. Anyway there is a picture of the bottle, at the bottom of this post, so you can see for yourself.
