Joanna Migdal – Queen of Sundials The hand engraver and sculptor Joanna Migdal is a world-renowned maker of contemporary, unique hand-made sundials, with a broad range of clients ranging from individuals to museums and institutions. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection museum’s director commissioned the artist to create a special sundial at the late collector’s Venetian home. The 4orty 5ive sundial was unveiled in 2017. Sundials can be awash with symbolism. They may function as memorials or carry mottos for the improvement of future generations, whether explanatory, advisory, religious, reflective, thought-provoking, humorous, astronomical or simply joyful. They can be figurative or abstract, interactive, public, private or corporate. They can be made from many different materials – Joanna loves working in bronze – and they are built to last for many centuries. If her name is familiar, it’s possibly because Joanna Migdal was the first female professed horologist to serve as the Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, the world’s oldest horological society. She is also a Patron of the Hand Engravers Association of Great Britain. As a child, Joanna always loved drawing and maths and had to choose between the two at school. Art led the way until she joined the studio of sculptor and sundial maker Edwin Russell, where she stayed for 21 years. She was first an apprentice then became a journeyman to learn engraving, engineering and welding. Her sundials are precision instruments, so her love of maths accelerates the production process. She said, “I love making sundials because each design has two features. One part is utterly fixed by the rules of astronomical principle and the other artistic side gives total freedom to design what a client wants, in an unlimited way.” Each sundial is made using a transformational process, starting with a client’s visit to the studio to look at models of past work, when the brief is taken. The artist then visits the location for the piece, to gain a better sense of the commissioner’s needs. Then there is reflection, typically followed by the client being offered several ideas, accompanied by small models of potential designs. This helps the customer visualise the sculpture. Once the design is agreed, a full-scale wooden mock-up is made and tested on site. The next stage is to draw up accurate engineering drawings, followed by metal cutting. The masterpieces are made in the studio and at foundries and Joanna hand engraves them all, so the lettering and markings sparkle with life. Joanna’s creations are not only individual and beautiful, they keep accurate time for the place for which they are made. Joanna concludes, “When a sundial is finished and set up, watching the shadow move precisely to the hour lines ‘on time’ is truly the most extraordinary feeling. The mathematics makes the process totally unforgiving. The dial is either right or it is not, and that is what I love.” Joanna's husband George White is a renowned horologist himself and often says that around the world one of her many sundials is always telling the time. Discover more about timekeepers before the introduction of the pendulum at the Clocktime Digital Museum here.
