Inspired by Hastings Jack in the Green
Hastings Traditional Jack in the Green takes place over the first May bank holiday weekend. I have been closely involved with the tradition since the mid-1990s, both as a participant and as one of the Bogies—the Green Men who escort and carry the Jack.
The tradition has inspired several pieces of my work. The earliest was the Oak King jewellery collection, produced during the 1990s and sold internationally through galleries as far afield as Osaka, Japan. For the original photographs, the model was painted entirely with blue body paint—long before such an effect could easily have been created in Photoshop.
In 2007, I was invited to create a new face for the Jack. It was my first attempt at sculpting a foliate face. I studied the faces of the Bogies and combined their facial characteristics to create a face that represented the group as a whole. Sculpted in clay, the face was moulded in silicone and cast in fibreglass. More than twenty layers of paint, built up from deep black-green to lighter highlights, give the finished surface its rich, translucent colour. The face has been worn by the Jack since 2008.
Later works include limited-edition silver Jack pendants and a unique miniature of the Jack’s face, created for my own use by 3D-scanning the original mask and casting the reduced design in silver using the lost-wax process.
The tradition has inspired several pieces of my work. The earliest was the Oak King jewellery collection, produced during the 1990s and sold internationally through galleries as far afield as Osaka, Japan. For the original photographs, the model was painted entirely with blue body paint—long before such an effect could easily have been created in Photoshop.
In 2007, I was invited to create a new face for the Jack. It was my first attempt at sculpting a foliate face. I studied the faces of the Bogies and combined their facial characteristics to create a face that represented the group as a whole. Sculpted in clay, the face was moulded in silicone and cast in fibreglass. More than twenty layers of paint, built up from deep black-green to lighter highlights, give the finished surface its rich, translucent colour. The face has been worn by the Jack since 2008.
Later works include limited-edition silver Jack pendants and a unique miniature of the Jack’s face, created for my own use by 3D-scanning the original mask and casting the reduced design in silver using the lost-wax process.
Oak King Collection: pendant in silver and gold.
All items © Marti Dean. All rights reserved