Marvel at the Practical Hat Opera Glasses in Newbury town centre
Sculptor Nigel Williams aims to make you smile. His inspiration comes from Heath-Robinson, Rowland Emett, Keith Newstead and all sorts of others, but he is ‘driven by a desire to draw attention to the loss of ability to design and manufacture quality goods from a country which used to be the centre of the industrial universe’.
On his return from two months travelling in New Zealand, local sculptor and mad inventor Nigel Williams MA has collaborated with optometrist Dr Valarie Jerome to facilitate the display in Newbury of the latest Edwardian optical device created by Nigel – the ‘Practical Hat Opera Glasses’.
Why is it that, whenever you get the best seat in the opera house, a gentleman takes his place in the seat in front of you who does not care to remove his top hat? Infuriating as that might be, there is now an answer to this problem, as long as you take along your Practical Hat Opera Glasses.
These are designed to allow you to see over the top of the gentleman’s hat, by siting the outer lenses of your opera glasses considerably higher than the viewing lenses at the inner end – just like the periscope in one of those new-fangled submarine contraptions. It’s a marvel!
The sculpture is now on display in the practice of Dr Jerome at 49 Northbrook Street and can be seen at any time.
In 2020, N2 profiled Nigel and his zany creations in ‘A Little bit of whimsy does you good’– you can read it at @newburytoday
https://bit.ly/3IPVfWJ
www.orlogikstudio.com/060-2102scuPracticalHat.shtml
Nigel Williams is a UK-born and based sculptor and photographer, who has also spent some time living and working near the Rocky Mountains in Western Canada.
His workshop, home and library is between Hungerford and Newbury.
He holds a masters degree in computer animation, but is entirely self-taught over many years, working with wood and metal, and in photography and image manipulation.
His sculpture work is mostly in sheet metal (copper, brass, steel, aluminium etc), often re-cycled and frequently with ‘found’ objects as a basis.
His influences and inspiration come from a wide range of sources, including industrial archaeology, heritage transport, modern abstract sculpture and ethnic mask-making.
Valarie Jerome Optometrists is an independent private optometrists.
In 2021, Dr Jerome was recognised in the Top 100 UK Female Entrepreneurs by f:Entrepreneur.
Visit www.orlogikstudio.com to see more of Nigel’s wild and whacky inventions – they’ll make you smile...
