Stonemasons descended on this beautiful example of a Medieval town to carve an unknown stone in order to help raise money for St Laurences Church in Ludlow.

We were given the choice of two sizes of local sandstone from a quarry near Shrewsbury-it was incredibly abrasive and quite crumbly, but so many beautiful carvings were created.

Saturday morning we all made a good start at 8am, stone was flying as we all knew that we had less than 2 days to show off our skills and create something worthy of selling in the auction!

I was unsure as to what I was going to carve as I had designed something for the alternative size stone, so I took my inspiration from what I had seen and experienced in the journey up, stopping at Kilpeck Church and Hereford Cathedral then having the chance to see some of the magnificent carvings on the local buildings!

So many interested members of the public eager to find out how we trained, where we worked and what we were carving, the sound of our fellow craftsmen chipping away and the traditional sound of Mediaval music spurred us on, but the day flew by and before we knew it the day was over and we were enjoying a lovely evening with good food, good company-and obviously good local beer from The Ludlow Brewery!!

Sunday morning is always hard as we know that we have to finish by 3pm, I had an early night and made a good start at 8am! We had lots more visitors as the doors opened to the public including the Mayor and local dignitries-all looking forward to seeing how we were progressing!

I am happy to say that we all finished in time and the standard was so high!

There were lots of interesting side stalls including a Blacksmith demonstration, traditional craft skills, childrens activities and historic talks and walks!

From the sale of the carvings approximately £4300 was raised to help restore part of this beautiful Church!

See you at the next one!

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http://www.stlaurences.org.uk/ludlow-conservation-weekend

This promises to be a very exciting weekend with many interesting events talks and walk as well as the opportunities to watch professional stonemasons at work, at the end you will have the opportunity to bid on your favourite carving and help raise money for the restoration of St Laurences Church!!

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My carving from last year raised £120 for The Pied Piper Appeal and Gloucester Cathedral. The auction was drawn on the Saturday and the lucky winners were very proud to win my Gargoyle!

Over the whole weekend I carved a Green Man in a piece of Fish-Hill limestone, very hard and shelly!!

Saturday saw a rather cloudy day, but people came out to enjoy all the fair had to offer. I was able to get on with my carving very well and set myself up to finish him on the Sunday. Deadline was 4pm on Sunday when the raffle was drawn for this years carving.

Sunday brought sunshine and plenty of people, I was able to wheel my banker outside and carve in full few of everyone! We managed to raise £232 for the charities from the sale of raffle tickets for my Green Man, and the lady who won him was incredibly excited-especially as his Great Grandfather was a stonemason!

I am very proud of my carving and as with all my pieces I will miss him!!!

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I will be organising an International Stonemasons Festival in 2013 at The Llanthony Secunda Priory in Gloucester. It is located near the docks on the canal!

The charities that this event will be supporting  are The Llanthony Priory Trust and The Gloucestershire Geology Trust.

I hope to attract over 100 stonemasons from all over the world, we will have live music, side stands, hog roasts, beer and cider tents among other things.

If you think that you would like to take part, exhibit, provide sponsorship or help please email me via the form on my contacts page!!

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An invitation to masons, carvers, sculptors and stonework apprentices to take part in a Stone Carving Festival organised by The Conservation Trust for St Laurence, Ludlow, as a fund-raising event to contribute to the £27,000 urgently needed to conserve the stonework and many important monuments in St Laurence’s.

OUR THEME: WORLDS

• The World of Myths and Magic
• The World of Imagination and Imagery

Come and join us for a weekend of carving and conservation in the centre of historic Ludlow, one of the most beautiful towns in England.

We are indebted to Grinshill Quarry of Shrewsbury, which is supplying sandstone in blocks measuring 12” long x 12” wide x 7” bed height or 8” long x 8” wide x 12” bed height.

Two prizes will be presented for the best stone carvings, one judged by ‘the people’, i.e. the visitors to the Festival on Saturday and Sunday, and one by ‘the peers’, i.e. the participants.

All stones will be auctioned on the afternoon of Sunday 22 May, and the proceeds donated to the Conservation Trust.

Registration Fee
£10 person, all skill levels.
Price includes food (excluding breakfast) as outlined below
Accomodation can be booked from £23.50 a night B&B

Friday 20 May
Arrive afternoon/evening – registration at St Laurence’s before 8.00 pm
3.30 – 8.00 pm Register at St Laurence’s Church
Refreshments available

Saturday 21 May
09.30 – 6.00 pm The Stone Carving Festival!
Food and refreshments provided during the day at St Laurence’s
7.00 pm Evening meal and entertainment

Sunday 22 May
09.30 – 3.00 pm Stone Carving Festival continues
Food and refreshments provided during the day at St Laurence’s
3.30 Auction of stone carvings to the public

For information on how to book, please contact Rosemary Wood who is organising this event.

Email rosemary.wood3@virgin.net

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The first thing I had to do was to set up the spiral so that it would fit comfortably into a 300mm x 200 x 200 cuboid of stone. Once I transferred the shape to the surface of the stone and then worked off a series of chamfers to create the smooth curved outer shape. 

Saturday was a very long and hard day, in order to stay on track I had to remain disciplined and focused. Once I had created the outer shape of the shell I then had to smooth the surface of the stone, this was very difficult as the stone was very hard and brittle and several areas had plucked out as I was carving.

After having spent 12 hrs carving on Saturday with few breaks I needed to have a good nights sleep!!!

Back to work at 8am on Sunday morning, having finished the outer surface shape of the shell, I was able to concentrate on the air chambers of the cross section-thankfully I was getting used to the brittle nature of the Wormsworth Magnesian Limestone and was able to create beautiful sharp features.

The auction was due to start at 3pm so time was of the essence, I didn’t want to appear rude to the ever inquisitive public so I tried to answer their questions as best I could and keep working at the same time!!

Thankfully I was able to finish my carving, hope you like it!

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We will start early on the Saturday, the general public will be able to wander about and watch. There will be a buzz of excitement as we all start work and finally see what everyone is going to carve!! I have a few ideas, but I will decide next week what to carve.

Every mason knows the time limit is short-the auction takes place on Sunday afternoon!! So we must choose something that we know we will finish, but also this is a competition so we also are aware that we must push our skills to the limit.

From last years festival in Norway, I know that I can achieve alot in the short space of time, but I also know that I set my level high and must keep my reputation!!!

I hope to see you there, wish me luck.

Carrie.

Visit www.yorkminster.org/learning/york-minster-works-department/stone-carving-festival/  For more details.

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There were 6 of us with differing skill levels, we all had a ft cubed piece of Fishhill limetone from Broadway in the Cotswolds. It was very shelly and quite difficult to carve!

This year there was no theme, one stonemason carved an Avocado in 2 halves, another one did a Monkey, I carved my devil grotesque, there was a lovely Scarab Beetle, so it was very varied.

The Marquee that we were working in was in the heart of the fair and so we were well received by the general public all itching to know everything about our carvings, the stone and how we came to be stonemasons!

We must have talked to about 300 people on Saturday, as well as working to a very tight deadline of 3pm on the following day.

Some of us stayed overnight, and we joined the Medieaval village by their campfire for some wine and good company. Knowing we had to make a good start in the morning we turned in for the night.

Come Sunday morning, we were pretty tired, taking part in an event such as this is exhausting and exhilerating, adrenalin helps to keep us going and work twice as fast to create something which would normally take 3 or 4 days!!

I had made a good start on Saturday, so this enabled me to finish in time.

The judges came round, so while they were deliberating, I went and had some well deserved ice cream!!!

All the carvings were put into a silent auction and the money raised went to Gloucester Cathedral and The Pied Piper appeal.

Finally they had finished and to my surprise I was awarded 1st prize!!! what a great finish to a great weekend!!

Hope you like my carving!

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This is the clay model I will be working from!

The carvings will be auctioned off on Sunday afternoon in aid of Gloucester Cathedral and The Pied Piper appeal.

There are many more attractions, Wood carving, a Medieaval Village, Craft stalls, live music and entertainment, classic cars and much much more.

Come along, the weather forcast is good, and you never know, you may win one of the carvings! There will be about 10 of us carving so the range of carvings should be quite broad.

For more information, visit, www.highnamcourtspringfair.co.uk

Hope to see you there!

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The website will be updated with more info during Feb.

www.stone-festival.org

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