Shropshire Star

Shropshire firm helps create masterpiece at Winchester Cathedral

A company working to create amazing experiences at visitor attractions has completed a range of stunning new displays at Winchester Cathedral – including an impressive ghostly encounter – with the help of a Shropshire firm.

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One of the displays at Winchester Cathedral

The Pepper’s Ghost sits within a replica shrine and was just one of the things Sheffield-based Aivaf was asked to come up with to enhance the visitor experience at the cathedral.

For the Winchester Cathedral project, Jesmonite, based in Bishop’s Castle, was called upon to provide their unique building material, viewed by Aivaf as the ideal product to get the best results for the displays they were working on.

Aivaf has been in business 30 years creating exhibits all over the world including models, props, full scenic and film sets for visitor attractions like zoos, theme parks and museums.

Bruce Davies, managing director of Aivaf, said: “Around Christmas 2018 Aivaf Ltd were commissioned to produce an array of different displays for Winchester Cathedral including a Pepper’s Ghost interactive located within a replica shrine.

“After some extensive research and development, we found that the perfect material to make all our displays out of was Jesmonite. The material was easy to cast, fast setting, cold to the touch and cost effective.

“In order to produce the shrine we had to provide full 3D Computer Aided Design drawings showing all the intricate parts and detailing for the client to approve.

“With this digital model we were then able to CNC cut all of the parts out of model board. These elements were then used to create silicon moulds and finally cast in Jesmonite.

“The fabrication of the Shrine took around six weeks from start to finish for two of our team to create and bond together. The shrine was shipped down to Winchester as panels then fixed together and finished on-site.

“One of the benefits of using natural Jesmonite was the consistency of colour when bonding panels and touching up which would be extremely difficult if a dye was added.

“To accompany the shrine, we were also asked to produce a large amount of wall panels out of Jesmonite to hang ancient artefacts on.

“This may sound like a simple task but the panels had to have an almost mirror finish and had to have a direct digital print applied meaning they had to be perfectly flat.

“Through experimentation, we found the best way to achieve this was to cast the panels between toughened glass sheets and then give it a light buff back.

“The Winchester Cathedral project certainly tested our skills and the versatility of Jesmonite. In total we had to create: Textured finishes, mirror finishes, natural colour, pigmented colours, direct digital printing to the surface and engraving text into the panels

“The results speak for themselves, we have a great project in our portfolio and an extremely happy client.”

Tim Sharman, Jesmonite sales director, said: “Aivaf have done a tremendous job and looking at the finished project it’s easy to understand why they are so successful and why their work is always in demand.

“It was a challenging project but once again Jesmointe has proved just how flexible and easy it is to use and why it is becoming the material of choice in building, art and modelling – ideal for the sort of intricate work carried out by Aivaf at Winchester Cathedral. An amazing project and one we are delighted to have been involved in.”