My name is William Ashley-Norman, and I have been creating these wire sculptures for over twenty five years.
No formal artistic credentials, simply a happened upon hobby that started following a request from my Father to clear some garden fencing when I was 17.
For the longest time this has simply been a thoroughly absorbing hobby. A skill that I found to be a constant challenge as, over the years I tested myself with a myriad of different ideas & possibilities.
Following an exhibition of my sculptures in 2006; I was approached by a couple of teachers that expressed an interest in my sculptures and my methods, enquiring as to whether it was a skill that could be taught.
From this initial interest I arranged a number of workshops during holidays from my day job with a variety of different class sizes from Keystage 2 and Keystage 3 and beyond. The classes were well received and I was impressed with the interest and skills that the students showed.
Since August 2012 I have worked as a full time artist and I have had the opportunity to work with many schools, working across the age groups from simplistic sculptures for early Keystage 2, through to portrait work with sixth form students. In 5 short years I have taught over 10,000 students throughout the country.
The sculpture kits are a natural progression and a way to take the craft to a much wider audience.