Leadlight Originals

 NORSTAR MURAL

HERE WE HAVE THE LARGEST KNOWN LEADLIGHT MURAL IN AUSTRALIA

This is a customer’s upstairs office with a door out onto a balcony, he had no idea what ever what he wanted, and he just said would like that whole wall in coloured leadlight [4 meters x 3 meters] just come back to me with some options.

Well the challenge was there again and the work began, I was very interested in the business in which he was in and had already been down to the wharf to watch the ship being loaded, so I thought why not do a mural of all that he is engaged in and put the Melbourne sky line in the background. From here I went and took photos of all his operation. Then the Melbourne city. All the buildings Westgate etc.  Cleared a wall the same size as the office wall in my workshop and started sketching this great mural, this drawing went on for weeks, moving things around, going away, coming back, NO! can't have that, move it , change it, enlarge it, shrink it, all hand sketched from photos, pencil and rubber in one hand and the appropriate photo in the other. What a work!

Finally we made an appointment with the owner and unrolled this enormous concept in all it's reality, he had us include a few other things that were of significance to him, but he was just thrilled and simply said how much deposit and when can you start and when will it be finished? It was very hard to estimate the time frame; needless to say it took us many months. He did not want to see it until it was all installed, he gave a few guides on colour but said he loves blue the most, hence the beautiful hues in the sky, after this he just gave us a free hand.

Those piles of processed scrap metal in the back ground are true to colour, so much so we found glasses that where compatible of the correct colour, smashed them up, then melted them back together again how we wanted them.

There are trucks lined up along the wharf, with containers and you can see a crane with one container swinging it around to unload it into the hull of the ship, and even two more trucks in sight going over the Westgate. All the buildings are authentic some very old, some quite new, now time has passed over us and some new ones aren’t even there at all.

Above the door is a Qantas jet coming into land because he goes over seas a lot but likes coming home the best. A pair of birds in the foreground because the Egyptians painted them on the walls of their pyramids for good luck! There are men operating the machinery. On the weighbridge beside the main dark blue office is my own truck with the date and my initials on the number plate.

The infinite detail is actually quite incredible, most would say it is almost impossible to achieve. When it was all ready to install, it took a few days, the owner went away and returned when we were ready. He was so thrilled he wanted to call in the Herald Sun for an interview on the leadlight project but seeking to play a low key we declined the offer.