Obviously this is quite a tricky thing to do as I can’t ever repeat what I have done-unless I work in the same manner as I did with the Cherub commission.

So I roughly drew on the surface of the stone what I wanted to achieve and started to cut away the waste. The stone stands 33ish inches high x 15ish inches wide and it had an incredibly hard shelly side and a lovely creamy side-so naturally I had to alter my way of carving to suit both types!

As I went along, more of what I wanted started to come to light and my progress became easier.

I hope you like him, and I hope my customer is happy with their very own Face in the Flowers!

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I am writing this on the day when I should be there carving, but the weather is horrendous out there-the event was cancelled.

Thankfully we were warned that this could happen and therefore I decided not to carve what I had planned but fail over to something I am confident in carving.

We had a small marquee-there were only 5 of us and we were situated next to the lake and the classic cars, excellent spot, shame the sun wasn’t shining.

The stone was a soft Cotswold limestone but when it’s dry I’m sure it’s lovely to carve! Thankfully my piece appeared to be drier than the others-I always have a good look at all the pieces to see which one is the best.

You know me I love to carve faces, and so I thought rather than be disappointed and not finish, I would carve Mother Nature herself!  Obviously I could have carried on for another day and I would have been much happier with the finished carving but I hope that you will agree she’s not bad for just 9hrs carving!

Because Sunday had to be cancelled, the competition side was called off, however people had bought raffle tickets, and mine was finished therefore it was not the winner but it was one of the prizes in the grand draw. I hope whoever won her will enjoy her and forgive me for not finishing her to the standard that I would have liked.

Next carving event is Ludlow in 4wks!

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Well here they are, I still have to carve the inscription and shape the stone blocks.

The inscription will be carved on a sunken panel. You will notice a hole under the hands at the front, this is to drain off the water that would otherwise pool.
I may put a lead spout so that the water is thrown away from the front of the stone. That’s it so far, there is probably another 2 weeks work I will put a post up when the whole thing is completed.

Thank-you very much for reading.

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Well here are the latest photos, as you can see I have started to carve more detail and there is a hand!

I decided to carve feathers between the wing and the shoulder in order to give strength but hopefully make it look delicate.

From mittens to fingers, I always shape the hands as mittens first so that I can get an idea of the shape without committing myself too early.

I hope that the way I have carved the hand on the face makes it appear that the fingers are pressing into the cheek.

I am coming scarily close to finishing these cherubs and the next stage is to put them on top of the other 2 blocks of stone and then to carve the stone into a more natural shape and finally the inscription.

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I will be having a 3wk break from commissions at the beginning of June in order to carve some more pieces for my shop, also to have some time to get on with my slate carvings.

The next few months are looking very exciting and I hope you are enjoying reading about what I do.

Please feel free to write a comment at the bottom of any post that peaks your interest-I will reply.

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Well as you can see the beautiful weather is ideal for working outside, this light is perfect for seeing detail and obviously once I have washed the dust off, I can see what needs to be worked on next!

Having put the first shapes over the hair I can start to work on the wings. I find it very important not to concentrate too long on any one feature as each area should relate to the next.

The wings need to be figured out, I have never seen a cherub so I used my imagination to decide how to carve the details. Obviously there is the primary wing but what happens then?! I consulted my extensive library of renaissance sculpture and carried on.

I carefully cut feather shapes to give myself a starting point-there is plenty of stone and so I could change the shapes as I saw fit until I was happy with what I saw.

I spent some more time on the hands and refining the shapes of the curly hair before giving the sculpture another rinse and then deciding on the next area to work on.

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I started to develop the eye shapes, but before I could go any further I decided to give the whole carving a good wash-this enables me to see the features without the layer of dust that comes with carving.
As you can see from the 3rd photo this washing off of the dust makes everything visible-including the imperfections. It is also an opportunity to see the carving in a natural light-which is always best and although I have daylight bulbs shining from different directions, I much prefer to work outside.

As you can see in the last four photos, I have started to develop the faces much more, creating the illusion of eyebrows without carving every hair, also developing the cheeks and lips.
Every stone has different properties and although this is a fine grained limestone it is not like marble and therefore it will only accept a certain level of detail.

I put a small nic where the nostrils could go but it is important not to actually carve them at this stage-in case I need to change the shape of the nose!

Be patient…

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As you can see I marked on the template the distance in from the edge of the stone (picture 3), I drew a line which I transferred onto the stone by using 2 rulers (picture 4), and more than one pair of hands!

I cut this area off and masoned the stone off completely square to the arm. I was then able to mark the heights of the measurements, in pictures 6 and 7 I have moved around the arm in order get a better understanding of the forms, I have started to cut under the arm to reveal the body of the Cherub.

As you can see the measuring is becoming more refined and I am getting closer to the finish!

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“All male persons born or hereafter to be born and abiding within the said Hundred of St  Briavels, of the age of twenty one years and upwards, who shall have worked a year and a day in a coal or iron mine within the said Hundred of St Briavels, shall be deemed and taken to be Free Miners.” the Dean Forest (Mines) Act 1838.

I was provided with this drawing which was done over 100 yrs ago.

The client commissioned Jackie Cox to complete the legs in order to make it a whole picture.
I decided to use slate as it is a very compact stone, capable of receiving fine detail, it is also a very durable material and will withstand the ravages of time without being populated by lichens and algaes-too soon!

I made a template by drawing around the outside of the two figures, once I had scribed this on the surface of the slate and marked a border I then proceeded to cut out the slate.

I then had an island in the middle to carve the Freeminers. I pricked through the template onto the slate to give me some guidelines to carve to. I had to use a little bit of artisitic license to fill in some of the areas that weren’t very clear on the drawing.

I worked on the areas that I knew were the deepest points, I then concentrated on the faces as this would give me the ultimate depth to work to for the rest of the carving.

I carefully carved some folds in the clothing of the figures. Possibly father and Son. The boy had his pipe behind his front teeth, this proved a challenge to carve. Then finally going over the whole carving to tidy up all the details.

This carving represents approximately 16hrs of carving!

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In order to do this, I made a template of what I had drawn on my bench and placed the plaster model of the Cherubs on this. I could continue marking lines on the template paper for guidelines.

i needed to find the point where the wings met in the middle, and how high this point was. I had left some extra stone on the back of the heads in order to give me enough stone to carve curls into the hair.

By using the models of the Cherubs, I was able to determine how far in I needed to come, to get the edge of the body, I couldn’t just saw down as this would take off the wing, so I sawed in horizontally to a point where I knew the edge of the body was.

I was able to put identify more measurements on the wings and this enabled me to start forming the shape. Obviously I can’t take too much stone away from under the wings-yet. This is because while I am still wielding heavy mallets and chisels, there is a danger of knocking the wrong bit off. When I start to spend more time on the hair, I will start to develop the wings more.

I am really pleased with the progress of this commission. The Tetbury limestone that I am using has a lovely golden hue and it is very dense so I will be able to carve some fine details.

Until next time…

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