Commissions

30 December, 2023 – 11:32 am

This is one of my latest commissions. I was asked to carve something unique to celebrate a wedding that took place in Bali. This is hand carved and painted out of a piece of Forest of Dean sandstone, with the national flower of Bali and holes for tealights.

3 Rectory Orchard will be my first commission of the new year.

Harecroft with the whimsical font wasn’t right for my customer so I re-drew it, the font is right but I need to make the nose of the Hare shorter, it doesn’t look quite right.

Each house sign is drawn from my imagination, so I don’t always get it right first time.

This is the next one on my list, but this is just a rough draft and I need to get the spacing and size of some of the letters redrawn.

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Greenman carving

18 December, 2023 – 6:12 pm

I finished my Greenman carving today, he’s got a real old grumpy look about him, but in a good way, maybe it’s just because I’m fed up with the weather and it’s coming out in my carving. He He He.

Here’s a video from my youtube channel and the finished photos.

This is roughly 25 hours work and costs £1200

Working on my Greenman carving.

There’s a mouse tucked in one side and a bird on the other.

I hope you like him, there’s two hares coming next 🙂

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Greenman carving.

17 December, 2023 – 8:34 pm

This Greenman is straight out of my imagination, I am not working from a plan or sketch. This is a fun way to be creative as things that I observe in nature and people that I meet come out of my sub-conscious and wind up as a stone carving.

Here’s a video of me carving him.

Working on my new Greenman carving.

I am using French limestone, it is lovely and dense and carves beautifully.

I am using cold steel chisels but some tungsten tipped chisels for when I come across a fossil.

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A Greenman portrait.

3 December, 2023 – 9:22 am

This is Ben Edge, an incredibly talented artist, he focuses on Folklore art and here he is as a Greenman.

Ben commissioned me to carve his as a Greenman and I relished the challenge. I hand carved this out of French limestone.

Once I had completed the carving, I made a silicone mould so that casts could be produced.

There are 13 casts and Ben is going to paint them in his inimitable style. These will be available to buy from him.

Here we both are with my original stone-carving, when Ben came and collected his casts.

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A plaque for the Lady Mayoress of the City of London.

23 November, 2023 – 9:08 pm

I was commissioned to carve this wonderful Puffin playing bagpipes for the new Lady Mayoress of the city of London.

Commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Masons , this is part of the family heraldry of Elisabeth Mainelli.
A liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Masons and the Lady Mayoress of the City of London.

The next stage was to cut and sand a piece of Forest of Dean Sandstone, then draw out the inscription ready to carve.

The completed carving had two bases, the piece of Forest of Dean sandstone I used for the lettering had to be relatively large to fit the inscription on, the letters were 1.25 inch capitals and 3/4 inch lower case. I used gold leaf in the letters.

The second base was to make the carving easier to display and was made from a thin piece of Welsh slate.

I finished the carving by painting the detail with enamel paint, this makes it suitable for outside, but I hope that they keep my carving indoors.

I was privileged to be invited to Mansion house in London to attend the presentation.

So much beautiful architecture, it was a sensory overload. The contrast between old and new really is awe inspiring.

The plaster work inside Mansion House is exquisite, if you follow this link, it tells you how you can book onto a tour.

The unveiling ceremony took place in one of the beautiful rooms of this magnificent building.

Left to right in the picture; the Renter Warden, Me, the Master, the Lady Mayoress, the Upper Warden and the Clerk.

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