Workington
Ground-breaking casting and fabrication techniques have been used in the creation of a major artwork which forms the central focus of a new town square in Workington. The grand scale work, by sculptor Simon Hitchens, required pioneering development work.
Inspired by the local Cumbrian landscape, it features a tall slender landmark sculpture made from Crystal Clear resin in-between two slabs of red granite; paving for the entire town square area in flame finished granite, small blue single LED lights that animate the 'coastline' feature of the paving, and twelve dramatic seats made from granite boulders which are left rough on one side and polished smooth on the other. Crystal Clear resin blocks with integral fibre optic lighting are bonded to the underside of a number of these seats.
We supplied moulding rubbers and a range of specialised resins, working on-site in helping to develop new techniques in processing. The work features “Crystal Clear” 207 and “Clear Flex” Grade 50 casting resins as well as moulds made from RTV 3040 platinum cured silicone rubber. Getting 1.2 tonnes of clear resin to successfully marry onto rough granite was interesting. Nothing quite like this has ever been done before. Workington was a challenge that we relished - the result is stunning.
