A few weeks back I visited St Mary in the Castle, in Hastings. It's an arts venue that stages exhibitions, shows films, holds gigs and other community events.
To coincide with the 950 years anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, there was an exhibition of "1066: A Medieval Mosaic", which is a re-creation of the Bayeux Tapestry made from 3,000,000 pieces of spring steel, a waste product from the textile industry. It's in the Guinness World Record as the largest steel mosaic and it measures 64 meters long and weighs 450kg. It was created by Michael Linton over 33 years, with the help of his daughter in the later years. They hail from Geraldine in New Zealand, but Michel is originally from Yorkshire and has links to the textile industry there.
Part of the making process is placing tiny pieces of steel onto a glued surface, which is then filled in with black shoe polish, before the illustartion can be painted on the surface.
Michael was there on the day that I visited and it was really interesting to talk to him about the work and his processes. He had a paint brush tucked behind his ear, which he assured me was the one and only brush he had used to create the work! There is a Facebook Page for the exhibition where you can see links to reviews and related events.
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