Young Craft Citizens visit the Cox London foundry
20 July 2020
We like to combine our Young Craft Citizens meetings with trips out to meet people and organisations in the wider craft and design world. We often meet with other groups, and go on behind-the-scenes tours of workshops, collections or businesses to get the inside scoop on how they run and the teams behind them.
On this occasion, Crafts Council education supporters Cox London kindly invited us for a tour of their workshop in Tottenham Hale. Founded in 2005 by sculptors Chris and Nicola Cox, the company employs talented craftspeople to explore materials like bronze, blown glass and stone to create furniture, sculptures and lighting.
Young Craft Citizens at the Cox London Foundry, 2019
Because of the many different techniques used in each piece, different areas of the workshop are dedicated to specific jobs. The wax carving and melting room was full of the same shapes we had seen in the showroom, but carved out of dark green wax, ready to be cast in clay and melted.
The highlight of the tour was a live bronze pour. We all kept our distance as craftspeople in huge silver heat resistant suits and boots lugged a heavy ceramic mould in place to pour the bronze in to. A mechanical arm then lifted the pot of molten metal, which has been heated at incredibly high temperatures, ready to pour. The liquid bronze looks exactly like lava, or orange highlighter fluid!
Cox London craftspeople pour bronze at the Cox London Foundry, 2019 Cox London explain their process at the Cox London Foundry, 2019
After the bronze pour, the makers in the studio discussed their pathways into the industry. It was great to hear such a diverse range, and many of the makers have their own practice, including Jacky Oliver who exhibited her work at Collect Open this year. Everyone was so generous with their time and knowledge and it was helpful to network with craftspeople at different stages of their career journey.
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