The awakening

Art school was a wonderful new world, life was exciting like being able to dip into a magical box of chocolates. 

An article Norman wrote in later life evocatively describes his arrival at Gray’s and how he became a fledgeling silversmith and jeweller.

‘Arriving at Gray’s was a shock, but a pleasant one. One would perhaps think that the move from being a large-ish fish in a small pool to somewhere which was the exact opposite would be difficult, but rather it was exciting. Suddenly, I was surrounded by creative talent of all shapes and sizes, and art topics (with quality tutors/mentors always available) were taking up all my daylight hours, instead of just the school’s six periods per week.

During my time there, the Scottish art college system was, to my mind, an excellent one. Quite simply, it involved a four year course where the first two were about exposure to all that the college had to offer – drawing and painting, clay, printmaking, plaster, metal, typesetting, etc.. For a boy from an academic school, with no woodworking or metalworking department, what a playground this was! Until, that is, it came to David Hodge’s metal workshop.

I had had some self-taught experience of wood, but none whatsoever of metal – and it showed! The memory of this is very clear to this day, as I tried to hammer out a napkin ring. David told us all not to worry, as this was not a ‘markable’ subject at the learning stage but, just as I felt the relief of this statement, my hammer began, thrillingly, to ring true.

I was the only one to go on and make a set of six, whilst not realising at the time the seismic change that this would have on my entire future.