My Workshop
31 August, 2008 – 10:04 pmFor those of you unable to visit me, or who haven’t had a chance to come down lately, here are some photos of my workshop!!
Meditation, A Tetbury Limestone Sculpture.
23 August, 2008 – 7:12 pmAs you may have read from some of my other posts, not everything goes to plan when carving detailed sculpture.
This is an example of when everything goes right.
Meditation is a bust of a woman, she is wearing a scarf around her hair that drapes around her neck.
This stone carving was inspired by some of my charcoal drawings. Our model was a very elegant woman. She sat perfectly still and when asked how she was able to maintain her pose so well, she replied that she was meditating.
As with all my carvings I roughly mark on the surface of the stone where I want the features to be. The most important lines I mark on are the axis lines, imagine a line down the centre of your face and one from side to side through your eyes. These lines determine the angle at which the face is, whether her head is tilted to the side or the front.
The natural bed of the stone runs vertically through the stone to give strength to the carving, as the finished carving will be delicate through the neck.
I started with my punch, the chunky nail shaped chisel, and the pitching chisel-for removing large amounts of material. ( I will put some images of my chisels on a separate post!). Then my claw chisel for defining some of the features. Of course I had to leave enough material in order to create the scarf. But as with all my carvings knowing how much to leave on comes with experiance.
As the carving developed, I was aware that this carving was going to be something special.
The fabric was beginning to look as though there really were folds and the detail around the nape of her neck was beginning to take shape.
I just needed to soften the features to create a more reflective feeling to the carving, and put the finishing touches to the hair, neck and shoulders.
This carving is of a more mature woman she looks as though she has a strong character, I believe that this reflects how my carving and myself are developing.
Dancing in the Wind. Stone Sculpture
4 August, 2008 – 7:00 pmThis Carving was completed about three months ago. It is the most detailed stone carving that I have created on such a small scale.
Every time I start a new carving I have an idea of what I would like it to look like in my head. This one was inspired by the elegance and free flowing form of the Art Nouveau Period.
The piece of stone that I used was from Veizeys Quarry in Tetbury, Gloucestershire. It is approximately 18″ high. There was quite a lot of shell within the material which adds to the finished effect.
As it was a complete rectangle I was starting with a completely blank canvas-in so much as it had no surface features to guide me to the final shape.
I sketched on the surface what I wanted the carving to look like and from this I could block out the bits I didn’t need before concentrating on the features. I didn’t do much on the back to start with as all the time I had a flat surface I could lie the stone down to work on it.
By taking out the middle portion, I was aware that this could add weakness to the stone, however I had the natural Bed of the stone-how it it formed in layers-on its edge, ie running from top to bottom. This gave the stone an added strength, if it was carved naturally bedded, ie side to side, then there would be a weakness across the middle.
By taking out the unecessary stone from the middle I had left the carving top heavy, so proceeded to take some of the weight from the top. This carving had to give the feeling of light, delicate, free flowing movement, something that stone is not known for!! The idea was to have a figure dancing, with her arms holding fabric above her head, which in the light summer breezes is billowing above her head and draping across her body. I am striving to push my abilities and test the limits of the stone!!
The big chisels that I use are not needed for long, and soon I am moving onto my finer carving chisels, these are able to rough out on a smaller scale, as I work in the details of her body, working on the scale of 1:7, head to body ratio. If you were to measure the size of your head, then it should fit into your body 7 times.
During the Art Nouveau Period the limbs of the female subjects were often elongated to add more grace to the paintings, drawing and sculptures. however although I worked on the principle of 7:1, I kept this idea in mind and used my judgement to decide what looked right to me.
As the sides of the carving were progressing I couldn’t leave the back out of the carving otherwise it would look like an afterthought. As I have mentioned before It is important to keep the flow of the carving consistent in order to maintain a balance.
The idea that I was working from was fluid in my mind and each time I started working on my carving I could see where improvements could be made. Features could be improved upon, I pushed the stone trying to find the limits to which I could carve. unfortunately I pushed too hard. I was working on her arms, both raised above her head, as she faced forward, as I was chiselling with a mere 4mm chisel the centre section of her arm came off. This was not a fault in the stone, just my own inexperience of this subject matter. however I look on every misfortune as a learning experience. even the gentlest taps with a chisel would be too much, it was time to get out the files and rifflers.
I had always finished any figurative carving that I had done with my chisels, so the thought of sanding and filing to finish this carving was quite alien to me. However this is me learning something I hope never will stop.
The final finish would not have been possible if I had not made that mistake. To correct the issue of the arm, I removed all evidence of its position, I still had enough material to put it in two places. One behind the fabric and the second up behind her hair, which was long and flowing so could be carved to look like there was something behind it. the latter is the one I chose. In order to make this look convincing, I had to twist the body around.
I could not have hoped for a better outcome as this was a better pose than I had originally thought of!! The movement and freedom of my Dancer was just as I wanted her to be.
I hope you agree, and just remember it is not a mistake if you learn from it.
Pins and Needles Stone Sculpture
14 July, 2008 – 5:00 pmThis is Pins and Needles, so called because if she ever stood up that is what she would have!!
When I carve I never concentrate on any one feature, it is important to maintain a flow between each feature. This was the biggest and first full figure that I had carved. So it was a very exciting new challenge. The piece of stone I had for this was from the scrap pile of my favourite quarry, Veizeys quarry near Tetbury in Gloucestershire. It has beautiful carving qualities, its hardness enables me to create strong lines and good detail. It is very dense and consistent in it’s bed. The bed is how the stone is laid down and formed.
The piece was not a full rectangle it had a slight slope at the back and was missing a corner at the top on the right. This encouraged me to create the shape as it is. I made a small clay maquette (model) to identify the proportions. It was not something for me to copy but a visual aid. It was only about 5 inches high and sadly I knocked it off my stand and it shattered, it was only made of clay.
The first thing that I do is to roughly sketch on the face of the stone the design that I would be carving. Then set to work. First of all I start with a half inch chisel and carve around the pencil lines. Once I have these safety cuts in place I go in with the big chisels. The punch which is like a big nail, this is for roughing out. The pitch, which has a slight angle on the end-the edge is placed against the stone at a bit more than 90 degrees and struck hard with a hammer, this removes large amounts of material, but can only be efficient when used on a flat surface.
I remove more stone with my punch and roughly identify key elements of the carving, until the time when I can start using my claw, this is used to remove material in a more controlled way and using this I can start to identify more features.
As I was working 2 faults emerged from the stone, before I start I check the material for defects. One method is to tap the stone with a chisel , if it rings then the stone is good otherwise there may be a dull or rasping sound. The same way a professional may check a bell or a piece of porcelain. However when I checked the stone I missed this. I continued working to see if these faults would work out, one being down the front and one down the back, obviously this was my main priority it would be pointless continuing if the stone was dead. These defects did work out and actually helped my progress as all the while I was concentrating on this problem I was removing large amounts of stone fearlessly.
The next decision I had to make was putting the hollow through the arms to join the front to the back. If I left it I would have a front and a back, which may not join up, but the carving would be safe until it was time. I had to carve through the underneath of her arms in order to maintain the flow of the carving.
It was important to ensure that I left enough stone to carve in the important final features.
As the details became more developed the tools that I used became more delicate, features became more refined, the hollows were finding their way through as I became more confident. I had put hollows and windows through some of my other carvings but I had invested so much time in this carving I got a little burst of excitement with each one.
As I started putting the finer details in I turned my attention to the hand on her knee, unfortunately the fault that ran through the front reared its ugly head!! As I was carving her fingers the first three sheared off, I couldn’t say too much because I was surrounded by onlookers it was a lovely sunny day and I was working outside!!
I finished the carving which was only a week, sawed through her wrist and chopped out the dead stone. I pushed clay into the cavity and built a new hand. From this I carved a new hand in a colour matched piece of Tetbury Limestone. Each time offering it up to see how much more there was to come off to make it fit. Once I had it fitting snugly I drilled two holes in the new hand and two corresponding holes in the thigh. I glued one stainless steel dowel in the hand and then grouted them both in the thigh and filled the surrounding cavity with this grout. A liquid mix of lime and stone dust. I allowed this to dry for a week before trimming the new hand to fit the wrist and the knee. This is an invisible repair and is as strong as the stone itself, and is a testament to my training as a stonemason!!
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In some Roman and other historic sculptures this is how they fixed arms, hands and heads. Obviously not using stainless steel dowel!!
So some of you may have been looking at Pins and Needles on my gallery but here is her story.
Bull Mastiff Carving
17 June, 2008 – 10:12 pmThe Commission of the Bull mastiff head, that I mentioned in my earlier posts has been completed.
From photos to a clay model, from a clay model to a cast in plaster, and finally from the plaster cast to the finished carving in all its glorious Tetbury Limestone!!
It was not an easy commission and took about 8 days to complete. Working from photos is not easy as I have to imagine the 3 dimensional object from a 2 dimensional image.
The challenge however is to get someone’s pet just how they remember it!
And hopefully my customer will comment on my site to let you know!!
Thats all for now.
Be back soon, Carrie.
My New Workshop Layout
9 June, 2008 – 10:09 pmFor the last three days I have been reorganising my workshop!!
I have wanted to do it for months now but you know what it’s like, there’s always something else to do. When I moved in there in January 2007, the previous occupier had re-hung the door so I designed my space to work with that, and any of you saw it then will understand why I have done this. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, the sink was in my gallery space and I had a lovely even magnolia wall in my workshop space.
The first thing was to shift about half a ton of stone from one end to the other, then move my benches and my tools and equipment, now this all sounds quite easy, however the benches are old wooden ones and under each one I stored tools, sand, buckets of lime, clay and other such stuff! I also had to keep my gallery space reasonably accessible because I couldn’t close to the public!!
By the end of day one it looked like a bomb had gone off in my workshop, I left at 7.15 in the evening wondering if I had done the right thing.
Obviously this is a very strenuous thing to do so my back was playing up but a few stretches and a hot bath later I was ready for a good nights sleep, ready to face the mess that was my gallery/workshop in the morning.
I was able to crack on with the painting of my gallery area on Saturday morning and as soon as it was dry, start putting up shelves for my carvings to go on. The benches were in place and all the gubbins was back where it belonged. It was beginning to look like I had started something good!!
My friend displays some of her beaded jewellery in my gallery so once I had moved the cabinet I was able to get my engine hoist into its new home on the back wall. I had to move more of my stone to make room for my tool chest and then the shelves where I dump everything had to be moved!!
I could then move the half ton of stone to its final resting place and there it was my gallery, it looked bigger than it had done up the other end, probably because this end is a lot lighter due to the light coloured wall, the other end wall comprises of very dark Forest of Dean sandstone, it is part of the original old dairy.
6.15 arrived and I decided that I had done enough for the day, Ed my wonderful boyfriend who put this blog together for me was off to Silverstone at 7 am on Sunday morning, so I decided to get up when he left, to make an early start.
I arrived at my workshop at 8.30 and the first task was to re-hang the door, sounds easy enough, however I had made it into a stable door last year to keep the draft out in the winter (people won’t come in when the door is closed, I think it’s a British thing!!). Anyhow I digress, I thought I could do this and move the piece of stone I use as a plinth before ten, when the site opens to the public-I couldn’t have been more wrong. I had finally started putting the first hinge back on when I heard the tearoom girls turn up, didn’t think much of this, they often get there early, it was when I heard the voices of the other workshop owners that I realised the time. Fortunately the public don’t generally arrive too early on a Sunday. I got the door done, it needs tweaking, but it works well enough for now!!
The large block of stone required my brain, it’s amazing what I can move on my own with a bit of thought, I levered it up with my bar then onto the rollers. Once in position I had to stand it upright, again with the bar, I levered it up put a block underneath, I did this a few times until I could just lift it with the bar, sounds pretty impressive huh!!
The public aren’t allowed in when I’m doing this sort of thing. Then comes the power of the legs, sitting down I pushed the stone into position. The next bit did require some help, my carving of a mermaid’s head needed moving and she is just too heavy to lift on my own!
The rest of the day I spent tidying my working area, it’s still not quite how I want it but it’s getting there. It was quite busy on Sunday so I spent quite a lot of time with the public. I was going to take photos of the work in progress but I left my camera at home on Saturday and Ed took it with him to Silverstone on Sunday.
I will take some photos so that you can get an idea of what I have been explaining.
Work in Progress
9 June, 2008 – 10:06 pmI was hoping to get the dogs head finished on Sunday but my workshop took longer than I had anticipated- sorry to my customer if he is reading this. I hope to get him finished on Tuesday.
Old chapel house is finished and looks gorgeous, I have another one to start on Wednesday, Sleepy Hollow, the customer brought their own piece of stone, this is absolutely fine, but I need to inspect the stone first to make sure it’s not to weathered or too hard! I will be gilding it with 231/2-carat gold leaf it will look fabulous when it’s done.
Gilding is very tricky, the glue has to be at the right tackiness otherwise the gold doesn’t shine, too wet and it leaves a dull finish, too dry and it’s patchy and must be touched up.
I carved the craft centre sign, the landlord now wants it gilded, it will probably take about 50 leaves of gold as its so big, also it’s outside so I will need to have a cover over me, we can never guarantee a completely dry or still day. I love the British weather!
Wye Valley and Forest of Dean Tourist Association
9 June, 2008 – 10:05 pmYou will find a new link to this website, which I am proud to be a member of.
There is information about B&B’s, where to find specialist shops, which is where you will find me, things to do and see among other things, check it out!
The Stonemason’s Festival 2008
9 June, 2008 – 10:00 pmOn May 24th, 25th and 26th, the Harts Barn Craft Centre hosted its first and by no means its last stone-carving weekend. I was frantically setting up with the landlord and his son, the Canadians arrived and after travelling all around the south west of England, they got stuck in. we knew the weather was going to turn nasty so any smallish blocks of stone from my workshop wound up being tied to the gazebos, that we were putting up for the visiting masons. The Forestry Commission had very kindly lent us some marquees, which they don’t generally do, but could obviously understand our plight! The other masons started turning up as the evening wore on, bear in mind, that these guys had just finished a days work. They gave up their Bank Holiday to help us raise money for our chosen charities. These being The Mitcheldean Scouts, Guides and Brownies who are trying to raise £30,000 for a new hut and trust me after having spent some time with them, they need one! Also The Forge Centre, who provide support for the blind and partially sighted a very worthy cause.
After a fantastic BBQ provided by our wonderful hosts my landlord and his wife, we chatted, drank and re-acquainted ourselves with one another. After all some of us had only met once, Stonemason’s festivals are like busman’s holidays, lots of hard work socialising and carving!! Some of the masons I have worked with on Gloucester Cathedral others I spent time with when I was on block release down in Weymouth. One of the Canadians I met briefly when I was working on Woodchester Mansion near Stroud. Then there were a few that I had never met but now have widened my circle.
On the Saturday morning, we awoke to a lovely day, granted most of us awoke with a slight hangover, but that is to be expected!! The carving started in earnest, however I didn’t get started til about 1.30pm, I was running around like a headless chicken organising-looking back it was so much fun. I carved a Welsh Dragon, there were a couple of Green men, my friend Rita carved a baby dragon and her partner carved Neptune-he is a very fine carver, we all have our own styles, no 2 people are alike in this craft. There was a sculptor taking part, who carved a pair of wrestlers. They were fantastic. The apprentice of Wells Cathedral, who did a wonderful carving of a sun god. There were some more girls, one carved an otter chasing a fish, man she is good, one carved a hand holding a child, and my student, who has only just recently started taking lessons carved a cheeky devil. The range of skill was varied but the standard was exceptionally high. The general public was amazed and hopefully it achieved what I wanted it to, to allay any fears that this is a dying craft-it’s very much alive and kicking. And of course that there are plenty of girls doing it!!
Come Saturday evening everyone wanted to keep going, none of us had got as far as we wanted, there was a bbq waiting for us however, and obviously we were all famished. My family were visiting from Kent so I went off to a local pub and had a fabulous meal with them.
By the time I had got back, at 10.30 everyone was in bed, eager to make an early start. The enthusiasm that the general public had shown was something we hadn’t expected so we were all behind-me especially!! On Sunday morning everyone started about 7am, we stopped for a fantastic breakfast provided by The Old Dairy Tearoom then got straight back on with our creations. By this time the weather had taken a nasty turn, so I brought the carving in, that one of the girls was working on, into my workshop. I wish I could have made room for everyone in there.
Despite the weather the public kept coming, which is what we wanted, fair play to them for braving the weather. Most of the people who turned up out of curiosity came back over the whole weekend to watch the progress and decide which one they were going to bid on at Mondays auction.
Sunday night we all piled into the landlords house and his wife kindly cooked us some hot food. The others were cold and wet, it had been a ghastly day but spirits were high, The Tearoom had laid on a hog roast and local real ale /local cider was on sale-which obviously the carvers made full use of!! The Canadians kept warm with a bottle of whisky, no we are not all alcoholics but the odd tipple doesn’t hurt!!
Straight after tea some of us sloped off to our carvings to get a couple more hours in, I had been commissioned to make a house number for a charming German couple who were going home the next day so obviously that needed to be done. There were 2 of us carving in my workshop till 11pm. If we hadn’t have done that there would have been no way we would have finished. As my workshop is my business as well I couldn’t turn away any business that came in, but my apologies to anyone who I couldn’t give my full attention to.
Unfortunately because we had to carve late into the night we missed the evenings revelries however I made up for it the following night.
We had been waking up at about 6am each morning so it was lovely to have a half hour lay in on Monday morning. We started carving again at about 7am then stopped again at 9 for breakfast. It hadn’t stopped raining and just seemed to get worse. We carved till 1.15pm when all the carvings were collected for the auction, scheduled to start at 2pm.
It really started coming down in stair rods when the serious bidders started turning up. Adrenalin was pumping and the auction started. Several people bought more than one but they got some real bargains, I believe that had the weather been better we would have had three times as many people and the carvings would have gone for three times as much. But I am not complaining, we raised just over £4000 from the sale of the carvings. Once we have worked out how much is profit-I’m not sure yet until we get all the receipts in, but I’m sure that there will be a nice little sum for our charities.
I was going to go home on Monday night, but when I learnt that the Canadians weren’t going until the morning me and a couple of others decided to get some fish and chips and stay on with them. It was the first time since Friday that I had had a chance to stop and chat. The landlord had laid on a meal for them and once that was done we piled down into the kitchen and Danny one of the guys from Canada got his guitar out and we just sat around drinking the landlord’s cider. It was great.
I got up to see off my friends Richard and Rita, who are both stonemasons from Stroud, on Tuesday morning. Then proceeded to tidy up. My stock of adrenalin was running out and I had hoped to get off early to take a shower and catch up on my sleep, as it turned out there was quite a lot of people around so I didn’t get to go home till the usual time of 5pm.
It was a marvellous weekend, all the carvers that took part want to come back next year, including the Canadians and one of the carvers went to the German Stonemason’s festival, the following weekend!!, singing the praises of our little event, so it looks like it will be bigger next year. It can’t rain again but if it does we will know how to deal with it!!
Thanks to the general public for giving their support to such an unusual event and buying the programmes and the carvings.
My thanks have got to go out to all those who took part, it wouldn’t have been anything without them. To rdp photography who organised the format and printing of our leaflets and programmes who sent many e-mails drumming up support for our event and of course supplied the all-important pa system.
The organisers of the children’s activities, if it had had been sunny then they would have been outside and I am sure they would have had more takers.
The guides and scouts for helping in the pouring rain to sell our programmes and of course Nigel who sorted the parking on Sunday and Monday.
The Forge for their lovely bell ringing and singing performance, and their helper who came out to help sell the programmes as well.
The Old Dairy Tearoom for keeping everyone fed and watered and everyone at the craft centre for putting up with me all these months while I put my hair brained scheme into action.
The forestry commission for lending us their marquees, all the press and radio stations who gave us air time, particularly BBC Radio Gloucestershire for giving us such a lot of coverage.
And finally to Howard and Linda Duberly, the owners of the Craft Centre and their son Edward our site manager, for their roles in this event and for putting their faith in me to pull this off.
Here’s to next year guys, thank you.
New images in the Gallery
4 June, 2008 – 4:08 pmI’m pleased to say we’ve managed to get even more examples of Carrie’s work up onto the blog’s gallery section for your perusal. Please feel free to have a look at the gallery to see the new images.
Enjoy! 
Ed