It's been an interesting first few days at Loughborough; I've started working on a large mould of a cart wheel which belongs on a very old European dogcart of unknown origin. The cart itself (and its other wheels) is in my studio in Stroud, but fittingly the one wheel travelled the 4 hours by train with me to Loughborough. Going straight into making (after a couple of hours of drawing and introductions) enabled me to imediately feel at home, forced me to find my way around and start to build a relationship with students and staff. 
In between making the casing for the gelflex mould I spent some time sketching and writing; more about the first couple of days here.
Eventually i hope to use the gelflex mould to cast multiple paperclay wheels which can then be re-softened slightly to be manipulated and altered by the students and staff as part of a participatory piece. This could run alongside a 'drawing conversation', again involving others in a making and 'undoing' process.
I was feeling a little like a child in a sweet shop after talking to Pete in printmaking; we talked about translating some of my miniature pen and ink drawings into etchings and talked also about other ways of transfering prints onto 3d objects (perhaps ceramic) using a balloon or flexible surface. I'm excited by the ways ideas change direction through conversations like this.
