Burning Mills – Inspiration:
Louise Hibbert tells us about her inspiration which led to making these beautiful mills.
Louise’s ‘Burning Mills’ made with sycamore
After a competition many years ago celebrating the anniversary of the Great Fire of London. I’ve loved the iconic black and white Tudor buildings ever since I studied them at school, even more so when we visited the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in West Sussex on a field trip. Following this, I thought it would be fun to make a special set of mills inspired by the Pudding Lane Bakery building where the fire started.
Experimentation
I turned the basic shapes in sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus). After some experimenting with scale and texture I marked out a design on the bases, inspired by the wattle and daub timber-framed shop with its tiny glass-paned windows and brick herringbone in-fills. I created the distinctive black and white pattern with pyrography and gesso. I then looked into paintings and etchings of the period for ideas for the flames, which I wanted to have on the tops of the mills.
Inspiration
I found a great etching from a book about the Great Fire by Samuel Rolle, written in 1667. I loved the roiling smoke and simple flames in the image and used this as inspiration for the design. I then created the extra texture in the flames with modelling paste, and painted on many layers of acrylic paint for the
smoke.
I was really pleased with the result because it is so different from my other work. I find it’s always refreshing and challenging to try new directions and a valuable experience in order to always move forward with my work.
Web: www.louisehibbert.com
