Head of sculpture filmed for Channel 4’s Time Team

A Coleg Sir Gâr lecturer from Kidwelly, helped-out a team of archeologists on Channel 4’s Time Team as they excavated a copper foundry in the city of Swansea.

Andy Griffiths, who heads the fine art sculpture department at the college’s School of Creative Arts in Carmarthen, was consulted for his expertise in metal casting as a copper and iron artist. He was filmed by the TV crew at the site of one of the very first copper works, which was called White Rock, near the Hafod.

As a busy port, Swansea once led the world in copper smelting and shipped its products overseas. The programme tried to re-create one of the foundry’s most popular products at the time, which were manillas – which were bracelet forms used as currency for transactions in the slavery trade in West Africa.

“Due to their worth at the time and at that stage of the dig, it was unlikely that the archeologists would find a manilla,” said artist and lecturer, Andy Griffiths.

“They’d already tried smelting copper to recreate it, but had failed, so we used a two-piece mould cast in sand and molten copper in a charcoal furnace, which worked very well.”

This isn’t the first time Andy’s expertise has been in the public eye. He organised Ironstone, an international exhibition of contemporary cast iron art at Kidwelly castle and was instrumental in setting up an annual exchange programme for art and sculpture students to study at Kansas State University during their studies.

Andy added: “The facilities we have at the college are pretty unique as we’re one of the few colleges in Europe to offer sculpture courses with casting facilities in bronze and iron, so we are often asked to take part in international projects and we celebrate this work locally by organising annual iron pouring events, which are a spectacular and imaginatively artistic sight.”

The programme broadcasted on Sunday, 26 February and can be viewed online http://www.channel4.com/programmes/time-team/4od