Years later, Bryan now runs his heraldic sign-making business from a World War 2 Nissen Hut at the Brookleaze Industrial Estate in Keynsham between Bristol and Bath. His work is what can only be described as a niche industry, that of heraldic signage. It’s a business that very few participate in but it needs a range of skills honed over many years to be able to manufacture from start to finish coats of arms for colleges, courts and other public bodies.
I now have an armoury of skills, techniques, facilities and contacts to make virtually any kind of sculptural, three-dimensional artistic product, in any suitable material”
Bryan says: “I have worked closely with other specialist companies including a patternmaker, and several foundries, some of them art foundries, from whom I learnt a lot about making casting patterns for various types of metal castings. Also I have worked in conjunction with a woodworking specialist on antique furniture restoration, from which I have learnt woodcarving skills. I now have an armoury of skills, techniques, facilities and contacts to make virtually any kind of sculptural, three-dimensional artistic product, in any suitable material.
“I enjoy the challenge of creating sculptural interpretations of the extremely diverse designs that I am presented with, but best of all are the occasional 'fine art' sculptural commissions that come along. These have included a fully three-dimensional sculpture of an eagle with a three metre wingspan finished in gold leaf, and even portrait busts.”
Art worker: Bryan first needs to draw the intricate designs onto a board
Commissions are mainly word-of-mouth and personal contacts built up over the years, although in recent times Bryan has marketing his work through the internet, SignLink magazine and Facebook.
He says: “The internet has been an important tool for the business. It is the ideal form of advertising for a niche company that can supply world-wide, and which is so specialised that, before the internet, people would have found it very hard to find. In the past month I have completed an order from the USA, and another from Japan. I have just had the website completely redesigned and modernised, which I believe will be a valuable investment.”
Bryan left school to attend art college in Somerset before completing a degree at Stoke-on-Trent in art specialising in ceramic art in the 1970s. Following a spell as a teacher of art he worked for a sign-maker, and after various ventures in business set up his own one-man firm first in Bristol and then in the period confines of the Nissen hut at Keynsham, near Bath.
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