FOCUS: Forging metals, meaning... and tiny toilets

Saturday 05 August 2023

With affordable homes of a reasonable size having become like gold dust in recent years, a local artist has set about building his own... using £1,000-worth of silver.

Ahead of taking part in ArtHouse Jersey's 'No Place Like Home' exhibition next month, Will Romeril spoke to Express about metal, making, and minimum space requirements...

"I was hooked!”

A self-confessed “massive history nerd”, Will was planning on studying history at university. Whilst he was waiting to re-sit his English exam, his father, local artist Nick Romeril, encouraged him to join the Art Foundation course at Highlands College and use the year “to explore”.

“Within the first four weeks, I made a silver ring with Glyn Burton, which I still have, and I was hooked!” Will recalled. “I remember going home that day and saying to my mum and dad, ‘I have already cancelled my art A Level.’ My dad was more than chuffed!

Pictured: Will Romeril was "hooked" within his first four weeks of silversmithing.

“I wanted to be an archaeologist, but from digging things up from a long time ago to actually making them, it was not such a big jump in my head. I’ve actually buried a few things I have made over the years! I quite like to find a random spot and chuck it down there.”

“Someone handed me a blow torch and a hammer at 19 – it was just fun!” Will continued.

“It just grabbed me! It worked well with how my brain works. All of a sudden, I thought, ‘This is a brand new experience.’ I felt like I was on the edge of a lot of knowledge I did not understand and it was exciting to go and explore.

“It gives me a nice satisfaction because there are so many little steps and so many different parts.”

Pictured: Will Romeril's 'Deep Thought III'. (Rosie Trott)

After the course at Highlands, Will went on to study silversmithing, goldsmithing and jewellery at the University for the Creative Arts in Rochester. It was during his time there that he discovered bronze casting. While he says he initially “never got along with it”, he has since incorporated it into his practice.

“We used blue wax, and I absolutely hated it, I could not make anything out of it,” he explained. “Fil Guy and Kate Webber gave me red wax, which is a lot softer. I started casting people like it was nobody’s business.

“Now, I am trying to bring the two together, the carefully fabricated silver side of things and the more expressive bronze side of things.”

Since graduating, Will has worked on several different projects, including a chess set made out of bronze and steel, and a series of pieces about time without a clock.

More recently, he has worked on silver decanter bottles for the New College at Oxford University. In between different projects and commissions, he has also started teaching sculpture at Highlands College.

Pictured: Will's silver decanter bottle which he created for the New College at Oxford University.

“I really enjoy teaching, it’s nice seeing people get something. It’s something I am really into, so it’s really nice to share my knowledge and get new knowledge shared with me.”

Will moved to Banff in Scotland, a couple of months ago for a year-long residence in silversmithing with the community interest company, Vanilla Ink.

“I have got a few things that I am going to be messing around with,” he said. “I made sure to complete all my jobs before I got here so I could start fresh with new projects. I’m going to make some new bronzes and big silver etched bowls.”

Although he wants to work on some more “traditional stuff”, Will’s current project is quite unusual.

No place like home?

Entitled ‘No place like home’, it’s a tiny flat made out of £1,000-worth of silver, complete with a tiny silver toilet and 16 silver plug sockets, which has been created for the upcoming Skipton Big Ideas project.

Pictured: The tiny flat is made out of £1,000-worth of silver and features a tiny silver toilet.

“I have designed it based on planning regulations for minimum space requirements in Jersey,” he explained.

“I do not want it to be too political but it’s about the inaccessibility of housing. For the same amount that I would pay to rent for a month, I have bought silver to make the flat.

“When you say, ‘It’s £1,000-a-month’, it’s a loosey-goosey term, but silver is one of those things that people look at and think, ‘That is valuable.’ There’s a correlation between space and value in Jersey – I just wanted a visual representation of it, but I am determined to stay apolitical.

“It’s a big, demanding task. I have absolutely no idea how I am going to finish it, but I like things that challenge me.”

Pictured: “I have designed it based on planning regulations for minimum space requirements in Jersey."

In addition to this tiny flat, Will has also promised to bring “some new, bigger stuff” back home.

“I just keep exploring and challenging myself. I like a job to be a pain in the ass because it means I learn something,” he said.

“It’s like being on the precipice of so much knowledge, there are so many weird things I can do!”