IBronze Gob

In 2018 I was commissioned by People Express and Nestlé to create a sculpture for the Salt Brook Heritage Trail in Hatton, Derbyshire. The work was inspired by the glassmaking industry that once thrived in the area, and became an opportunity to explore not only the physical processes of glassmaking, but also the language and stories that surround it.

A gob is the gather of molten glass collected on the end of a blowpipe before it is shaped. The glass is heated, gathered, blown and lowered into a mould, where it takes on its final form. This process inspired the sculpture: a bronze gob appears suspended within an open mould, constructed from stainless-steel rods that reference the tools of the glassmaker. Even the title carries a piece of the history — the familiar expression “shut ya gob” is thought to echo the closing of the mould around the molten glass.

As part of the research I interviewed retired glassmakers and visited a working glass museum, bringing together memories, technical knowledge and material processes to inform the finished sculpture. Cast in bronze and stainless steel and set into a pink Derbyshire sandstone plinth, Bronze Gob now forms part of a trail celebrating the industrial heritage of Hatton.