I have been working from my most finished figure in my studio, gradually carving away the chalk to get four almost exactly the same..
I couldn’t get any further without looking at the original so I have spent a few days at Dover Museum.
It’s great working from the original figure as I can hold one of the replicas up and compare, by using my observational skills, I can carve the details.
I worked in my studio from my most finished one, but wanted to carve the faces of the other three from the original.
Here is where I have got to and I anticipate another day to complete them.
I have had some interesting commissions lately, no two are the same.
The cufflinks are made from stone and set into silver plated cufflinks, the bride asked if she could send me some stone from where the groom had grown up, a lovely touch and a very well received present.
The letter L was carved in a 5 inch square piece of hard limestone and gilded, as a small token of love to a dearly missed grandmother.
The Pink clock was a special commission for a woman who loves pink, it even had pink felt on the base.
House numbers are at the core of my business and I wouldn’t be here without them.
I did love carving the pussy cat, watch this space, seeing as my beloved cat lives at my shop now, there will be more cat carvings coming along.
I am currently working through my next batch of commissions, the Deal chalk man for Dover Museum, house signs and portraits.
I am pleased to say that I have been able to get on with my latest sculpture.
Inspired by the pain and joy of motherhood, my sculpture focusses on the hand cradling a child.
I needed to move the large block of stone from my small mobile banker onto my large wooden banker, thankfully I have a large crane in my workspace so that I can lift and move my piece of stone.
I put my hand up to see what it would look like what it would look like without one of the features that I had carved.
The curves need to be smooth and pleasing to the eye, giving the impression of flowing fabric.
Gradually chiselling away the stone, I also used my drill with a core bit to help me hollow out.
I am using rasps, rifflers and sandpaper to reach the final finish that I want.
My finished carving.
I have two more pieces of stone ready to carve my next sculptures, my ideas evolve and I see different ways of carving what I want to represent.
As you may know, I take part in events with the Sandwich medieval Centre.
I was lucky enough to fall in with the Medieval Centre for the Mayors Parade, celebrating 800 years of Mayors in Sandwich.
On the 2nd May, we paraded around Sandwich, I was so excited when they asked me to be one of the Standard bearers at the front of the procession.
Le Weekend at the beginning of June.
I set up a small selection of what I have for sale in my shop in the heart of Sandwich, it’s a great event to get involved with and I get out to meet new people and spend the days carving or giving people the opportunity to try their hand at stone carving.
I have introduced a new stone carving activity, for £15 you can carve a small piece of stone for roughly 10 mins to take home with you, this isn’t a taught class and only available at the events.
At the beginning of July, I had the pleasure of being invited as part of an evening of medieval festivities at Dover Castle. The passengers of a small cruise ship, docked at the Port of Dover, were bussed up in three groups, a fantastic medieval encampment set up in the grounds of Dover castle. Sword fighting, music and living history groups entertaining people from all many different nations.
I demonstrated my stonemasonry skills and talked about stonemasonry as an historic craft, but also as something relevant today. Some people were interested in trying it out, whereas most were happy to watch as I showed them how it’s done.
This was an evening event and as the sun went down on the camp, the fires were lit and the guests departed.
A few days later, I was at the Canterbury Medieval pageant. A trail of historic places was set up and the focus of this years festivities, was the Bayeux tapestry.
Back in May, at my stonemasons festival, I started my carving of the Dog chasing it’s tail, the plan was to finish it here, but my stand on the trail proved to be very popular, almost 900 people visited and I’m pretty sure that I poke to all of them. I was stationed on Burgate, in a peaceful garden outside St Thomas’ Church and at the foot of a medieval church tower.
I was able to demonstrate stonemasonry on a piece of Portland limestone that I had brought with me and show the visitors how the tooling on these medieval stones was done.
Why this carving, I here you ask?, well, the Bayeux tapestry was possibly embroidered at St Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury, there is a wonderful carving of a Dog chasing it’s tail, it was found in Canterbury in the 80’s and attributed to St Augustine’s Abbey. (now in the Beaney Museum and library). The ladies sewing the details would have sewn what they saw and this Dog motif can be found in the borders of the Bayeux tapestry.
My carving is almost finished and will be in an exhibition at the Beaney later in the year.
This past weekend, I attended the Sandwich Medieval Centre’s archery competition, I set up my shop and stone carving activity, I started a carving of a mouse with tusks. This was the piece of Portland limestone that I was demonstrating with at the Canterbury Medieval Pageant.
My activity is proving a popular option amongst the visitors and despite the heat, there was a good amount of visitors to the event.
I am looking forward to the next event at Betteshanger park on the 5th/6th September, where I will continue my carving of a mouse with tusks.
