Making Holograms at the Castle

During the 7th International Display Holography Symposium, Dr James Gates and I, taught two holography workshops - to primary school Children in St.Asaphs, North Wales. The workshops were held alongside the Symposium's holography exhibition at Bodelwydden Castle, and we were working on behalf of the OpticTechnium and Careers Wales, to bring holography to the masses.

The workshops went well, all 28 pupils went away with holograms that they'd made (some better than others) and a Welsh dragon made by Inaki Beguiristain- the one that graced the cover of the symposium proceedings. The pupils were delighted. I was delighted to see Fred Unterseher being asked to sign autographs as he talked to some of the students about his work.

Here are some of the comments from the students - about the exhibtion and the workshops (spelling has been retained for purposes of authenticity) :-

"The lazers were great!" (I think that was 'holograms' were great', but at least the student remembered there was a connection.)

"We were scared to go up but we made it and told our designs were good."

"I couldn't decide on which was my favourite. A Spooky hollogram was a man (Hans Bjelkhagan with his dog) and he would stare at you and a fair amount of people got freaked out about it..."

(Actually that was a full-colour 1.5mx1m hologram and I was one of those 'freaked out' too!)

"We met some holographers and got their autographs." - (Bless!)

"I thought the holograms were great and thank you for your invite to the workshop".

"...we had a brilliant time making and seeing holograms. We think the lady with the cup of tea was brilliant." (Yes, me too Jeffrey Robb's Great Aunt. )

Doing the workshops on the last day of the Symposium was very rewarding, we created another 30 holographers - perhaps some of them might get hooked...