I’ve rearly enjoyed creating my creature at Furzey over the last month, he’s gradually come to life
When iI first started creating I imagined a pod or nest hidden amongst the trees, created from a variety of materials that I could find, trimmings left from the gardeners
During the stormy weather in January the tree split and I arrived to find most of it gone, it was quite disappointing but the gardeners had done what they could to save it so I decided to carry on.
I was really aware that we needed to put signage up so that visitors would know not to touch it.
Artist Jacqui Rolls working at Furzey Gardens Photographer Nick Carter
Artist Jacqui Rolls working at Furzey Gardens Photographer Nick Carter
The plants are dying back, now and the majority of the autumn leaves are gone and now, the skeletal forms the starkness and much of the hidden beauty are starting to reveal themself,
It was such a clear day the colours were so pure the nights have really drawn in now and so time is precious
I had an interesting day overwhelming in many ways, it’s hard to know where to start from there is no much visual stimulus the colours are amazing s.
The head gardener has shown me some willow, there is a limited resource and I’m loath to use too much but I need to start somewhere, and allow myself to just play and experiment”
I tend to work with dried willow as it shrinks so much so working with live willow brings its own challenges, it doesn’t hold its self so well together,
I decided to leave the leaves on for now and I’m just enjoying playing with shape and form there’s something really engaging about working with raw materials . as they’re even less predictable but that’s part of the challenge.
I thought that id make a little video I’m new to doing this but thought that it would be interesting to show you what I’ve been doing as photos don’t really capture it
One of the things that I enjoy at the gardens is the conversations that I am having with the gardeners and volunteers
Lots of curious discussions happen for example when a dead owl was found what happened to its head, was it killed or was it found and then eaten?
Walking down towards the bottom of the gardens near to the bottom meadow I was asked if I had smelt the toffee I was told that it came from a tree, so I asked them to show me it the Katsura tree comes from Japan it smells like popcorn, toffee and on this autumn breeze is very special, I did wonder if there were a lot of them would the smell be much too overpowering
n iI first started creating I imagined a pod or nest hidden amongst the trees, created from a variety of materials that I could find, trimmings left from the gardeners
During the stormy weather in January the tree split and I arrived to find most of it gone, it was quite disappointing but the gardeners had done what they could to save it so I decided to carry on.
