Lady Chainmakers Monument

The Lady Chainmaker was a commission granted to local Industrial Heritage artist Luke Perry. The original clay model pictured here was a 1 metre sculpture. A three metre Cast Steel version was erected in Mary Macarthur gardens in Cradley Heath in June 2012 as a monument to the women chainmakers of the area. The finished monument was the result of a year long collaboration between Luke and Micron. This project captured the essence of traditional craft and skill whilst making full use of cutting edge technology; A 3D scan was made of the clay capturing 8 billion bits of surface data. This data was then expanded digitally to create a CAD model suitable for the CNC machining of high density foam patterns. No coreboxes were used and the moulds were made using the time served moulding skills at Micron whereby all of the foam was removed by hand. The sculpture was made in 9 individual pieces which Luke himself skilfully welded together.

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