TRAIL horse diary

Work has started on the armature for Dobbin; the first TRAIL  horse. Old garden fence wire has been shaped into his head.

We've been on the lookout for pieces of CURVED or curvable plastic that won't be recycled. The assemblage for the sculpture includes plastic coathangers and Christmas lights that don't work.

The assemblage for the sculpture

  This  bit of mudguard picked up this morning could be Dobbin's muzzle

Dobbin's muzzle?

 Here's a Dobbin we made earlier

coathanger Dobbin

The children at Starcross Primary School will  help with the horse project later this year - when the pile of rubbish could start to resemble the incredible Sayaka Ganz gallopers.

Sayaka Ganz Galloping Horses

 Plans are afoot for the school to make manes and tails.

Plastic pieces could be wired to the armature, but a stronger structure would be if the plastic were to be welded together. There's information on the internet about how to weld plastic to plastic. We'll try with a heat gun. A candle can be used to alter the shape of a piece of plastic.

Plastic can be chopped up into small bits, and toasted in a  sandwich-toaster  to make flexible plastic board.

Plastic can be welded together using a soldering iron and plastic welding strips


We need lots of help and advice with this project please. The Teignmouth Recycled Art in the Landscape sculpture trail runs from July until September.

Horses and Carriages on the Starcross to Exmouth Ferry

 acknowledgements to the late Jim Shapter

An extract from
A GUIDE TO ALL THE WATERING AND SEA BATHING PLACES
dated 1815

Ferry from Exmouth to the opposite side of the Exe
         Passengers and horses may cross over at
 all times unless it be in a hard gale of wind.
 Carriages cannot be taken over without risk;
though they are seldom impeded more than a
few hours

Prices of the Ferry::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
For a four-wheeled carriage ::: 3s.  0d.
For a two-wheeled carriage ::: 1s. 6d.
For a horse :::: ::::  :::: ::::              4d.
Man, woman and child ::::  ::::      2d.
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
On Sundays and likewise on weekdays
 after sunset, these prices are doubled

Starcross station. Starcross - Exmouth Ferry under way

 The entire book, by John Feltham, has been digitized by Google and is FREELY AVAILABLE  on
THIS LINK
the reference above continues:
[digital page 284]
 Miles. Distance from Exmouth to Exeter - - - - 10 .
Sidmouth, over the Peak Hill 10
going round to avoid the Peak Hill - - 14
Dawlish, (crossing the ferry) 34
Teignmouth ----- 7.
Newton ------ 14
Totness ---.--- 22
From Exmouth, by water, to Powderham Castle, is a short and beautiful row.
 From Exmouth (crossing the ferry) to Ugbrook is about 10 miles but every four-wheeled carriage should go with 4 horses from Dawlish and back again on account of the Haldon Hills

[reference to Exmouth starts at page 237 which is digital page 281]

How to make a horse from plastic junk

Sayaka Ganz makes dynamic animal sculptures from plastic junk.
Starcross History's entry for the 2018 for Trail Recycled Art in the Landscape at Teignmouth is to include a horse. We've sent a letter to the parents at Starcross Primary School, to ask them to start to save their disguarded plastic.
This video shows how Sayaka Ganz made her galloping black horse.

Wednesday, March 14th - Mosaics and Horses

The next meeting of Starcross History has been re-arranged to be on Wednesday, March 14th, 7:30pm in St Paul's Church.

 Alma Harding and Joanne Bickel will lead a workshop to create:

•  mosaics; to mark a Starcross History Trail
• Horses from rubbish; for our 2018 entry in Teignmouth's Trail Recycled Art in the Landscape

They'll show you how easy it is to create outdoor mosaics which will last a few years. There will be mosaics in various stages of production with which you will be invited to help, or you can bring your own design(s) to work on.

There will be some horses made from all sorts of stuff-which-would-be-thrownaway:
Christmas lights that don't work make wacky manes&tails.

Mousedrawn Horse

 
A broken plastic washing basket might get bent to make a saddle.
Plastic stuff  won in Christmas crackers will add colour

Will you start/make a horse/horse's head/something to do with Horse - and bring it along? Any size - but your sculptures will be open to all the elements on Teignmouth seafront for the summer SO they must be secure and will have to be securely anchored down using fence posts with metal drive-in spikes.

T.R.A.I.L. is a protest about wasted resources. That our horse sculptures look out to sea  will speak of the galloping plastic pollution of the 5 oceans.

This meet will also be the agm, so copies of the constitution and the chair's report will be available. Perhaps there might be some volunteers to take on a committee rôle or 3?

DATE AND TIME TO BE RE-ARRANGED Mosaic Mayhem

The next meet of Starcross History will be on

Wednesday 14th February, (which is also Ash Wednesday AND Valentine's Day) at 7:30pm in St Paul's Church.

DATE AND TIME TO BE RE-ARRANGED

There is no charge for membership and there is no charge for admission, but we need to cover expenses, so PLEASE BRING A RAFFLE PRIZE. 

Points on the Starcross History Trail will be marked with mosaics, so this meet will have a mosaic workshop, to get people interested in the project, and to show them how easy it is to make a weatherproof mosaic.
The workshop will be led by Alma Harding and Joanne Bickel. Materials including tiles and bottlecaps will be used on a wood base.

Ideas for the points on the history trail need to be followed up with a site visit, and permission sought to site a relevant mosaic in a prominent place.

If you have your own idea for a Starcross History mosaic, please get in touch so that we can tell you what materials you'll need to bring, and save a table for you. Outdoor mosaics can be on wood bases, on paving slabs or plantpots.

We'll also look at horse sculpture from plastic rubbish. Redundant Christmas lights make great manes and tails!

Our this year's exhibit on the Teignmouth Recycled Art in the Landscape sculpture trail will include this mosaic of a forge. The tiles need grouting, and the wood needs to be waterproofed with yacht varnish.

Starcross History's whole TRAIL exhibit will be titled Horse and we will add as many horse sculptures as we can. The sculptures will be made from plastics that are not usually recycled, and that will end up in landfill. Ideas for sculpting horses from rubbish from the internet: Sayaka Kajita Ganz uses all sorts of found plastic to make incredibly graceful horses

Sayaka Kajita Ganz uses all sorts of found plastic to make incredibly graceful horses

Coathanger Horse 2014 by Miriam Amery-Gale

Miriam Amery-Gale made her marvellous Coathanger Horse, in 2014.


This meet will also be the AGM. Maybe someone else will volunteer to be the chair, treasurer, secretary, projects manager, publicity officer, co-ordinater for schools, or chief researcher? Copies of the constitution will be available, and suggested amendments voted on. The chair will read the report about what Starcross History has achieved since its last AGM, and what its plans are.