News
Diamond Jubilee sculpture unveiled
Friday 1st June 2012
A new sculpture has been unveiled in Lostwithiel to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee. The sculpture which also doubles as a seating area, has been installed on the Town Quay next to the river.
Scuptor Robin Guest who lives in Penpol, near Lostwithiel, designed the sculpture at the invitation of the Town Council. Robin said "I had an exhibition in the town many years ago and the mayor asked me to create a public piece for the town. So I designed this and presented the model to the Council for the Jubilee and they asked me to go ahead with it."
Robin was inspired to make a sculpture using the shapes of the letters of the town's name. "At first I couldn't think what to do, so one night I got up in the middle of the night and wrote the letters 'Lostwithiel' down and looked at them and thought 'Hang on a minute, they're all shapes' and that's where the idea came from. It was created at no cost to the Council or anybody else - my son Christian Guest financed it."
The creation and installation of the sculpture has been a collaboration of more than twenty people, all local craftsmen or people who are associated with the area.
The golden dot of the i was made by an 80-year-old friend in Couch's Mill who is a fine wood turner. He laminated wood together and then turned it, then another friend made the stainless steel rod inside it. Robin said "It's much more interesting and exiciting to do a lower case i so then we had to put serifs on the T which brought it together. I originally painted it black because I didn't want it to stand out too much, but then after discussions with my assistant once we'd got the gold letters for the Diamond Jubillee message, we decided to paint it gold."
