Finishing touches being applied to historic University mace

Inscriptions from an historic 15th century letter sent by Owain Glyndŵr to the King of France are to feature on a new university mace.

Extracts from Glyndŵr’s Pennal letter, written shortly after he was proclaimed Prince of Wales in 1406, are being etched onto the new mace of Glyndŵr University, which is named after the Welsh hero.

The ceremonial object, produced by students from the Wrexham university’s North Wales School of Art and Design as part of their degree work, will be used at graduation ceremonies from next month.

The 21st century mace is 1.5m long and has uniquely been constructed of lightweight carbon fibre, a material used to manufacture aircraft wings, in tribute to the importance of aircraft engineering giant Airbus to the north east Wales region.

Wrexham mayor Councillor Arwel Jones visited the art school on Regent Street this week to see how finishing touches to the mace were progressing – and to compare the students’ work with the mace of Wrexham County Council. He was joined by the University’s Chancellor Lord Barry Jones and Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Scott.

Andrew Coomber, a master silversmith based near Mold, has been leading a group of 20 students through the project, which has been supported through grants from the Welsh Livery Guild and the Drapers Society of London.

Andrew said: "We were given a brief to come up with a design which linked the history of north east Wales with modern technologies and the future and the students decided they wanted to draw on the themes of Owain Glyndŵr, Airbus and the coal industry of north east Wales.

"The final design brings together traditional and new materials – silver, gold and semi precious stones combined with carbon fibre, anodized aluminium, titanium and glass.

"Designing a new university mace isn’t something that many art students get the chance to work on as a degree project and it’s not something they’re likely to get the chance to be involved with again in their careers so they’ve been fascinated by the whole thing. They’ve loved every minute of it," said Andrew.

The mace, commissioned following the granting of university status to the Wrexham institution a year ago, is also one of the more unusual projects which Andrew has worked on during his 35 year career as an artist.

"I once got asked to produce a giant chalice for the Pope and I made the trophy which was awarded to contestants on the original series of The Krypton Factor on ITV," said Andrew, a former lecturer at the North Wales School of Art and Design.

 "But designing and making a mace is very different to my main work now, producing art in my studio. The whole project has been absolutely fascinating. On a personal note, it’s been wonderful to be involved as I go back a long way with the institution. It played an important part in my development as an artist and teacher and it’s great to see it finally get to the stage where it’s now a University."