The Maker
Piano ProjectBA Design Crafts: Glass, Ceramics and Jewellery.
22 March - 26 April 2025
BA Design Crafts: Glass, Ceramics and Jewellery.
A live brief delivered to both year 2 and 3 students at Swansea College of Art UWTSD.
Split into two parts; part one being the ‘Piano Project’ (with judge David Bird) where we deconstructed an unwanted broken piano destined for the skip and gave it new life in so many ways. Some students responded by directly using the original wood and keys, others worked on the sound it made or the abstract shapes that were moulded into other materials like ceramic and glass.
Part two was a site-specific response to the recently renovated Albert Hall, our next-door neighbours! Students investigated the architecture, the history and deeper stories connected to the building including famous performers such as Madam Patti. This in-depth research into storytelling led to all kinds of curious discoveries! Daisy Thomas of Loft was the judge for this element; selecting work to appear on the big screen at the Albert Hall - bringing it alive in the very space that inspired them.
Mission Gallery Director, Rhian Wyn Stone, viewed all completed works at the end of the project; selecting those who excelled in bringing concept, process and materials together in a finished piece.
Thank you for the support of our wonderful Judges David, Daisy and Rhian from Mission Gallery. We are very excited to showcase a selection in this wonderful gallery space.
Anna Lewis
Programme Manager
BA Design Crafts: Glass, Ceramics and Jewellery
Nissma Brown
Sound Fusion
Terracotta sculpture with black glaze
Nissma is a year 2 student exploring form through experimental ceramics. Her response stems from a focus on the original piano forms and carved edges of the wood. Looking closely at these, Nissma created a series of metal dies to allow her to extrude unusual edges into clay. The forms create abstract swirls that become symbolic of the way the sound flows around the original piano. The idea is to also interact with the piece so you can view through it much like a camera lens and gain a different perspective and a narrowed focus.
Grace Ceridwen
Driven by a fascination with both the conceptual foundations and the functional beauty of art, this Swansea-born multidisciplinary artist, with a particular passion for woodwork, presents a piece that reclaims silenced voices. This work blends the story of a discarded piano with the suffragette history of Swansea’s Albert Hall.
The piano’s lid, repurposed as a stool – with legs, frame, and storage box beneath all from the salvaged wood – honours its lost music. Research into the Albert Hall project highlighted Clara Neal and Emily Phipps, WFL leaders fighting for suffrage. Screen-printed images of these women and WFL advertisements of the time are framed and displayed both above and beneath the stool, each piece stained with an experimental wire wool and vinegar solution, meticulously crafted to mirror not just the piano’s aged wood, but the very essence of time’s passage etched upon it. Within this project, it was crucial for the artist to highlight that, just as the piano's voice was silenced, so too were the voices of women denied their fundamental rights. This work is an act of restoration, a visual symphony where the piano's lost notes harmonize with the enduring voices of those who fought for equality.
Julie Doel
The Enchanted Diva: Adelina Patti
Medium: Clay sculpture (Coil technique)
Julie is a sculptor from Neath who’s imaginative narrative-driven pieces transport viewers to other worldly realms. Her work is imbued with magic and darkness, seamlessly blending animals and architectural elements, to offer glimpses into the intricate stories hidden within each creation.
Julie’s latest piece, “The Enchanted Diva: Adelina Patti,” is a bust, that captures the essence of the renowned Victorian – era opera singer; Patti is painted in porcelain slip and oxides catching the details of this intricate sculpture. The back is showing the coiling method and giving a nod to one of the oldest techniques. Her crown is ingeniously fashioned from the windows of her castle, with the skulls of her long-lost parrots that were trained to shriek "cash”, symbolising the lack of rights women faced in that era and guarding her like sentinels. Jewels cascade down her face, representing the exorbitant diamond dress she famously wore.
Through these thoughtful details, Julie weaves a narrative that pays homage to the historical figure, while inviting viewers to delve into a fantastical world where whimsy and reality intertwine.
Seren Trodden
Piano Man
Seren is studying Design Crafts at Swansea Art College. She currently works in a range of different materials - found objects, natural forms, cardboard, fabrics, paper, plastic, as well as more traditional craft media such as glass. The creative process often starts for her with collecting objects, some connected, others apparently quite random, and the materials, forms and textures from these found items can bring their own inspiration and motivation to creativity. She is very much inspired by creatures of all sorts, both in nature and invented. Her passion is to make objects that people want to examine more closely, that will decorate spaces and be used or worn. She is also intrigued by the art of puppet-making and mechanical movement.
Piano Man, is a puppet-like torso figure of a music hall musician made entirely from old piano parts, all connected and animated by fishing line. The dismembered wooden parts of this large musical instrument with their strange forms and angles were the perfect springboard for creating this musician figure, also making a circular reference back to the origin of Piano Man’s various parts.
