We have launched a crowd funding bid to create a Bird Henge near Stonehenge. There  will be Giant Birds about ten feet high in the Scraptors sculpture mad garden and they will be next to a public path so visible 24/7. Click here http://www.sponsume.com/project/bird-henge-near-stonehenge The birds will be the Great Bustard shown here, the Red Kite, the Kestrel, the Barn Owl, the Raven, the Lapwing. Please look at our film and support. The bird above is Fergus of the Great Bustard Project which is re-introducing the world's heaviest flying bird to nearby Salisbury Plain using eggs from Russia.

A morning at Stourhead

Anthony went  into the archives at Stourhead to study the life at Stourhead before World War 1 and how the people there were affected. The National Trust has gathered material from families of former employees as well as the owners. The research was to facilitate a sculpture project from 2014  - the centenary of the outbreak of that War. Percheron horses were bred at Stourhead before the War as draft horses -  a breed that was particularly used in the War. It was raining but the scent of the rhododendrons was intoxicating.

Stuff we like made from odds and ends

 In London yesterday one could see the Horse's Head by Robert Bailey in the Antique Fair Olympia - hardly an antique but still. It is made from a piece of found wood. And below at the Hayward Gallery  Nek Chand's figures from the Rock Garden in  India. They look ethereal because they are shot through glass. Behind is a London bus. 

Finnish mission finished

Paul and Rachel and Evie went to Finland , Paul was there primarily to put on an exhibition with His friend Jeremy and also to run some workshops with local Finnish kids and some Refugee children from Afghanistan , Somalia and Albania .The picture above shows the results from a workshop mural created in a subway in the small Finnish town of Kiiminki ...there were 4 images chosen as part of a competition . We helped the kids realise their ideas on a large scale and tied it all together as one piece , it was a very successful project and we made the newspaper :

Paul was described as "The tall Brit".Heres what was said about the project from the organisers : "The feedback on the Kiiminki subway project has been excellent from the authorities, they plan to use the project as a good example of a project well organized and realised in the future! "

The Yellow Monster reappears in May in Scraptors sculpturemad garden

In  May the gorse comes into flower and the Yellow Monster reappears in the Scraptors'  sculpturemad garden. The box head needs a trim to regain its eyes and mouth. In the background the Yew Monster and and Avian High Priest (work in progress ) intended for the Bird Henge.

Scraptors Paul and Rachel Go To Finland

http://teatteri.ouka.fi/festival/en/complimentary-activities
Paul is travelling to Oulu in Finland next week to run Graffitti workshops and an exhibition .After that he travels to Helsinki for the Wildlife Festival to paint murals and a show of prints.Rachel and baby scraptor Eevy are coming along for the fun.Photos and story to come .

Scraptors may be back at Stourhead

 Anthony went to an exploratory  discussion with the management at Stourhead, the eighteenth century landscape garden in Wiltshire owned by the National Trust. The plans are for a series of sculpture trails from 2014 to 2017 as centennial commemorations of the outbreak of World War 1 and its effects on Stourhead and the immediate area. The gardens were closed because of dangerous gales, but these views were from the lane.  It would be great to be back at Stourhead where in 2011 we did a sculpture trail.

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