Cat's Eye Carving

Recent events and new commissions.

My last couple of commissions were a carving of the Star Tarot card, a commission for a wedding anniversary present.

Hand carved out of French limestone, 14 x 19 inches square, this carving took roughly 120 hours to carve.

House names and numbers are my bread and butter, this next commission started with a rather scruffy piece of stone, the surface needed chiselling back to a clean surface and so I called on my stonemasonry training to square and flatten the surface ready to carve the new house sign. My customers are having this built into their new wall.

Before I left for Kent, I made the drawings and templates for the Grotesque carving for the Maison Dieu commission.

The last two events have been a success, the White Mill in Sandwich was open for National Mills weekend and this was when I started the grotesque carving for the Maison Dieu in Dover.

I set up my display of my stone carvings, letters and words but I was also demonstrating. There was lots of interest in what I was doing.

The next event was in Market square in Dover as part of the Medieval Pilgrim’s trail. I set up outside the Museum, and while I was demonstrating for some of it, I also had a carving of the Maison Dieu Wyvern and lettering for people to take a rubbing from. I had 6 pieces of limestone as well and this was incredibly popular for people, young and old to come and try their hand at stone carving.

My latest commission saw me travelling up to the centre of London, I have been engaged as the stonemason in residence, every year I will go to the hall of the Worshipful Company of Founders to carve into a stone plaque and paint onto a gilded plaque, the name of the out-going master.

I have a busy couple of weeks ahead so I’ll be updating again soon.