Commissioned by Nottingham City Council for the Nottingham Hoodwinked public art trail 2018. My design ‘Royal Robin Redbreast, sponsored by Castle Rock Brewery was inspired by the heritage of royalty at Nottingham Castle. William The Conqueror first built the castle in 1067 and Royal residents have included Henry II and Richard The Lionheart. I wanted to create a Robin with a rich, regal feel with golden wings, a jewelled Robin Hood style crown and quiver of golden arrows. Every Robin has an individual red breast so I wanted a lot of the detail to go into this area. I worked entirely freehand creating lots of swirls and patterns in different shades of red glass to create the effect.
The sculpture took over 200 hours to complete placing more than 10,000 individual pieces of mosaic. It was voted the most popular sculpture on the trail and went onto raise the highest bid at auction for Nottinghamshire Hospice.
“We’re really excited for people to see this beautiful mosaic robin as part of the Hoodwinked trail. Our congratulations and thanks go to Julie who has worked painstakingly on it for months, from the planning stages to hand-cutting pieces of mosaic and getting every detail right. It’s a stunning, colourful and intricate sculpture and we know it’ll look amazing outside Nottingham railway station” Lewis Townsend, Head of Marketing Castle Rock
