Cat's Eye Carving

Events for 2025.

11 May, 2025 – 5:26 pm

I will be at Dover castle on the 8th November, running my drop in stone carving activities.

Date: Saturday 8th November 2025 

Time: 10-4pm, Last entry 3pm

Venue: Dover Castle, Castle Hill, Dover, Kent, CT16 1HU 

This November we’re hosting a landmark day festival at Dover Castle – and you’re invited! Step into a landscape shaped over 400 million years and discover the hidden links between Kent and northern France.

This is your chance to get hands-on with real fossils, create geology-inspired art, and join interactive workshops, talks, walks, and performances that bring the stories of the Geopark to life.

Event highlights include:  

• Fun for all the family across the Castle grounds
• Talk and book signing with Dr Anjana Khatwa, author of Whispers of the Rock.

Visit the website for more details about the festival programme

Enjoy free entry to Dover Castle if you’re a local resident or an English Heritage member:

Residents living in postcodes CT15, CT16, and CT17 can visit free of charge as part of the Cross-Channel Geopark Festival celebrations. Please bring proof of address showing your postcode to gain free admission on the day.

All festival activities are free to enjoy. 

Some sessions have limited capacity and will run on a first-come, first-served basis, or may require advance booking.

Last entry is at 3pm.

Parking is limited, and holding a ticket does not guarantee a parking space, so please plan your journey accordingly.

Dogs on leads are welcome in the outdoor areas of the site. For more details about on-site facilities, visit English Heritage’s Dover Castle facilities page.

Free travel is available from Folkestone to Dover Castle and back via Crosskeys Coach:

• Folkestone Central (Tattoo Shop bus stop) – Depart: 9:30am, 10:30am, 11:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm
• Wood Avenue bus stop (Canterbury Road) – Depart: 9:40am, 10:40am, 11:40am, 1:40pm, 2:40pm
• Return from Dover Castle – Depart: 10am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm

This day offers a unique opportunity to celebrate our shared geological, natural, and cultural heritage, while also marking a major milestone in our journey to UNESCO status, with our application due for submission later in November. 

We hope to see you there!

With thanks to our official partners for the event.

With the generous support of English Heritage, we are delighted to have use of Dover Castle, as well as free tickets for local residents to attend.

The festival would also not be possible without our supporting partners Kent County Council and Cllr Martin Paul, Dover District Council, Folkestone & Hythe District Council, and SailLink. 

We very much look forward to celebrating this special occasion with you and expressing our gratitude for your continued support of the Cross-Channel Geopark. 

20TH ANNIVERSARY OF CAT’S EYE CARVING.

Saturday 22nd November, 1pm-6pm.

Come and join me for drinks and nibbles, to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of my small business.

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News.

10 November, 2025 – 12:46 pm

I have been so busy lately, working on my extensive and interesting list of commissions.

The Elephant is a piece of Hornbeam, this isn’t finished yet, but I have just finished the Maple leaf, out of a piece of pine.

I spent over a week, designing, carving and decorating some new letters and words, topping up my ever popular mermaid and sunset letters.

I re-organised my shop space as well, with the coming winter and cold weather, I am now working at the front of my shop, so if you’re passing, you can see me working through the window.

I have been working on several different commissions, the house signs are Robinsons in Welsh slate and Two Cents in Cornish slate, the memorial is Portland limestone and features a carving of her beloved pets.

This last one is a sculpture that I was commissioned to carve for a garden, I will be carving a bird bath with radiating tool marks for the same garden.

This is a really hard piece of Portland limestone and my customer had chosen a design from a series of drawings that I had made.

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Benenden Art Fair.

9 September, 2025 – 9:11 pm

I am really looking forward to taking part in this years Benenden Art Fair, from the 3dr to the 5th of October.

This looks to be a real highlight of my calendar and a place to showcase some of my more sculptural stone carvings.

You can find me at stand 8, diagonally across from the welcome desk, I’ll make sure that I have something special to draw your eye, such as this piece.

Inspired by the shape of a broken seashell.

or this piece

Inspired by ancient Ice Age sculpture.

I will have a selection of some of my smaller pieces in the form of bookends, faces, the green man and some of my carved words.

I am working on some new smaller pieces and I look forward to bringing these to you at this event.

Visit their website for more information.

https://www.benendenartfair.com/

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Medieval Weekend.

8 September, 2025 – 8:08 am

What a wonderful weekend I had at the Betteshanger Country Park, when pit heads dotted the landscape, this was a slag heap for the local coal mines, once a barren landscape, it has been turned into a visitor centre and nature reserve.

The Sandwich Medieval centre and the owners of the park decided to bring us all together here to celebrate and educate.

Here’s my set up.

https://sandwichmedieval.org/

https://www.betteshanger-park.co.uk/

Some of my fellow traders.

There was a shoemaker there who said that they could make me some steel toe capped medieval shoes. Might need to save up a bit.

I have been taking part in events with the Medieval centre since 2022 when I decided that I wanted to spend more time with my family but couldn’t just shut my business for a week.

This is the link to the first post I wrote that year, there are more detailing the progress and other events that I took part in back in 2022.

https://www.catseyecarving.co.uk/2022/05/demonstration-carving

I designed and started a carving that would showcase the wonders of stonemasonry and carving, a complicated project that would see me through the Summer of events. I based my design on a medieval capital, featuring 4 medieval characters, the capital, an architectural feature, standing on a pillar with an arch springing from the top. obviously that would be a corresponding one to support the arch on the other side.

As a result of this carving, I caught the interest of the Maison Dieu and so this collaboration was born and I couldn’t find the time to finish my carving.

As it is the 20th Anniversary of my business this year, I decided to get back out and take part in more events this year. I had to replace my vehicle and now I can get everything that I need in the boot with the seats down, so putting two bankers in and all my equipment, stock and shelves in although tricky, means that I can take more out. I brought my carving with me to finish and while I’m still a few hours away from finishing, I’m glad to say that it is almost there.

I decided to finish the top by carving a plait detail. I’ll put the photos of the finished carving up as soon as it’s finished. I might still carve a pillar and a pedestal for this though.

The line in the bottom of the stone was a flaw in the stone, I knew it was here and this was one of the reasons that I chose the stone for this demonstration piece, I need to keep the good bits for my commissions. I’ll tidy up and repair it properly once I have finished the carving.

I might even be able to fit more in.

Next event is at the Sunken garden on the 21st September, I will be demonstrating and you can come and have a go. I can’t get close with my car so I won’t be able to take much to sell.

https://thesunkengarden.co.uk/sunken-garden-eco-fair-2025/

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What’s in my shop.

3 September, 2025 – 11:36 am

I have been so focused on my commissions that I thought it was time to put a post up about my shop and what I have available to buy.

I design and create a wide range of carvings, exploring letterforms and mythological creatures.

The Greenman is an interesting subject for a stonemason, this foliate face appears almost everywhere and in many forms. I love looking at the leaves and coming up with new ways to interpret him.#

My Viking Greenman, started life as a Greenman, I stopped to carve a commission of a Viking and when I came back to my carving, the Viking Greenman was born.

Hand carved out of Tetbury limestone, this carving is 7 x 7.5 inches square and costs £850.

Lettercutting is a large part of what I do and I love to explore the creativity that can come with lettercutting.

Petrichor, my favourite smell, after a dry spell comes the rain and the bacteria in the earth is released, that is the smell we love.

Hand carved out of Forest of Dean sandstone, it measures 10.5 x 4.5 inches and costs £145.

Meditate is also carved out of Forest of Dean sandstone and measures 10.5 x 3 inches and costs £145.

These words are all designed and carved by me, prices vary depending on the complexity of my carvings, the size and finish.

My hand carved and painted letters are extremely popular, I carefully cut the stone to be the right size for the many different letter forms. Once I have drawn out the letters each one is hand carved using a hammer and chisels, I try and make sure that I have a good selection of colours, my Mermaid and sunset colours are slightly larger and prices for my letters range from £5 for the slate painted ones and from £18 plus for the hand carved ones.

I have made moulds of some of my creations, whether they were sculpted out of clay as the cat or the Hare, stone carvings such as the boat bookends and the Acorn and Oak leaf or plaster carvings such as the small Greenman and the cheeky grotesque. These creations remain unique to me and each one is hand finished. So even though they come out of a mould, each one is different.

These range in price from £3 for the resin hearts, £30 for a calf or a hare up to £125 for a pair of bookends.

My grotesque in the last photo, with the boat bookends is a stone carving. He’s hand carved out of Tetbury limestone and costs £1200.

This is a cast of the stone carving that I made for the Compass Rose, thankfully I made a mould of the original carving that no longer exists. This can be made to order at a cost of £225 per cast, finished with gold leaf and paint. Measuring 8.5x 11 inches.

This last set of photos shows you around my shop. I have so many interesting and wonderful things to buy.

I am always adding new carvings and creations to my shelves.

If there is something in particular that you would like to ask about please feel free to get in touch.

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Maison Dieu Re-awakening.

30 August, 2025 – 8:23 pm

Over the last three years, I have been working with the Maison Dieu re-awakening programme, you will have seen my posts from all the wonderful days that I have spent with them, whether demonstrating and running have a go sessions or carving my beastie for the handling objects.

https://www.maisondieudover.org.uk/

Creative Careers Café at Dover College.

Activities at Dover Castle in conjunction with the Maison Dieu and Christ Church University College in Canterbury, for SEND, an organisation for youngsters with special needs. I don’t have any photos of the children carving but I had a lovely set up in one of the historic buildings at next to the Keep at Dover Castle. Photos courtesy of Nastia Photography.

It was very exciting driving up into the Castle Keep area.

I also ran activities for the Heritage weekend last September at the Biggin Hall in Dover, in conjunction with the Maison Dieu and Future Foundry. Members of the public were invited to come and try their hand at stone carving with me, watch and meet the conservation teams involved with the restoration of the Maison Dieu.

This is my most recent commission from the Maison Dieu and I had to wait to show off the photo of my as it was a gift.

At the opening weekend on the 10th and 11th of May, I spent Saturday sitting outside in the sunshine. I was given a piece of stone from the original fabric of the building. (I could only do one of the days as I was still recovering from my broken ankle at this point).

I had cleaned and sanded the stone and then drew out the design on the stone in my workshop. I wanted to make sure that it fitted beautifully in the shape of the stone.
The Wyvern and the letter type is from the original William Burges designs, this font can be found around the walls of the stone hall and the Wyvern is found on the painted walls of the Mayors Parlour.
It is used as the logo for the Maison Dieu.

The carvings that I created were finally used for the purpose that they were commissioned for.

Above photos and the one of me carving, courtesy of Nastia photography and Martin Crowther.

It’s so exciting to know that my carvings will be inspiring and delighting young and old for generations to come.

I was within an hour of finishing and so I completed the carving in my studio.

I look forward to the continuing collaboration with the Maison Dieu, the next big thing is a stonemasons festival in May 2026, we’ve already sorted out some blocks of stone for the carvers to choose from.

I will be designing and carving something inspired by the grotesques of this wonderful building which will be raffled to go towards the upkeep of this magnificent building.

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