Stone Carving and Letter Cutting
I have been quite ill with Covid and as horrible as it was it gave my brain a rest from my work.
I have been designing some new sculptures and this is another one in my Broken Seashell series.
The smallest shard can give me the inspiration I need to develop my sculptures and show off the beauty of Mother nature.
I have hand carved and sanded this beautiful piece of French limestone, it is very delicate.
It stands 19.5 inches high and costs £1600.
Alot of what I design and carve maybe on the small side, this is to ensure that what I do is accessible for more than a small group of people and also ensures that my business remains a success, but my passion lies with the ability to design and carve larger sculptural pieces
I am inspired by natural beauty, whether it is found in the sea, in the forest or the elegance of our own forms.
I went to school at Sir Roger Manwood’s in Sandwich and at this time they had an excellent 3D art department, and this started my journey in sculpture.
I carried out a degree in sculpture in Canterbury from 1996-1999. The focus of my degree was portrait and figurative sculpture. We drew and sculpted from live models using clay and plaster, during the second year of my degree we had the pleasure of a 6 week stone carving course with the head mason from Canterbury Cathedral, Heather Newton. This began my rocky love affair with stone carving.
This first set of stone carving are inspired by the natural shapes found by the sea, I have extensive sketchbooks and found objects to work from.
These next set of photos show my sculptures that are inspired by the human form and from an exhibition I went to back in February 2013 showing the beauty of Ice Age sculpture.
As I scaled up my sculptures, I knew that in order to maintain the lightness and elegance of these forms, I needed to pierce through the sculpture to allow the light to pass through. I continue to develop my sculptures and with each commission that I get my ideas have time to form and mature and these paid jobs enable me to carry on carving beautiful and elegant forms.
If you would like to get in touch to discuss a commission, please follow this link.
Here is a selection of what I have available from my shop at the moment.
Prices start at £18 for my hand carved and painted hearts and letters.
Hand carved letters and words are my speciality, I also love designing and carving bookends.
I enhance my simple tealight holders with ornamental words to make a beautiful addition to your home or garden.
I can carve so many different things out of Forest of Dean sandstone and a variety of limestones. These are examples of Tetbury limestone, French limestone and limestone from Portland in Dorset.
Prices for some of my hand carved and painted words start at £45 and prices vary depending on the number of letters and the finish.
As well as sandstone and limestone I also carve Welsh slate. The last image is one of my designs featuring 2 fighting dragons with a knotwork deign.
I make moulds of some of my carvings and clay models using silicone rubber. The casts are created out of Jesmonite. I use the weather-proof version so that these could be placed outside or inside. I have some new additions to these, including three hares with three ears and casts of my Hengist and Horsa bookends. Prices start at £10 for my hearts and flower roundel.
I design and create jewellery using Welsh slate and sterling silver. I also use freshwater Pearls and seashells. I can make these to order as I make the hooks myself so they can be the length that suits you. |I can make stud earrings as well as clip-ons.
Please feel free to get in touch if I can help you with anything.
I always love getting out in the Fresh air and yesterday was no exception. Up on the hillside in Herefordshire carving a house sign in the wall.
I am never sure what the stone is like to carve until I put my chisel in, it’s often hard but not un-carveable.
This was local sandstone, and I was commissioned to carve house name and the date of construction.
My customer likes how I form my letters and was happy with how I had drawn it out. I didn’t initially draw the date on as they wanted to double check that before I made it permanent.
It’s pretty tricky wedging myself into the workspace but there were plenty of pieces of rock that I could use to stop the legs of my stool sinking into the ground.
We all came to the same conclusion that it looks better unpainted. In this image, I had only just washed it so even wet it is visible and when it’s dried the letters will be much brighter.
If you have a project in mind, please feel free to get in touch to discuss it. I am happy to travel, and I am in South-East Kent every 4-6wks.
I carve house signs to order and these can take many forms, this is my latest example.
I was asked to re-carve an existing house sign as my customer was having his wall dismantled and re-built. He brought the stone in to my workshop and the only option was to take the weathered surface back until I found good stone, I couldn’t take too much in case I hit the 2 bars cemented into the back of the stone.
Because of the bars I needed to raise the stone so I could mason off the surface so I screwed 2 pieces of wood together either side of the bars.
Once I had chiselled down and the stone was flat I sanded the surface and drew the letters on, I needed to make it as similar to the existing one that didn’t need re-carving. Using measurements and a photo of the other one I drew the sign on. Ensuring my customer was happy with the layout I set about carving and painting the house sign. You will be pleased to hear that when he collected his new sign he was delighted.
Feel free to get in touch if you have a sign that you need me to carve.