Cat's Eye Carving

House signs.

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.

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House signs

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.

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Casting my stone carvings

There have been a few of my carvings that I simply can’t part with so I have decided to make moulds of them. This means that everyone who likes them can have a copy at a fraction of the cost.

My latest additions are my Hengist and Horsa bookends and my Medieval Cog bookends.

Cog Bookends;

I am really pleased with how these have come out, the jesmonite has been mixed with Lepine limestone dust to give it this off white colour. The casts are available to buy at £95 a pair. (book not included)

The originals were carved out of French limestone and took me roughly 30 hours to carve.

My cog bookends will also be available to buy from the Medieval centre in Sandwich, a proportion of the sale will go back to the trust to help with their work of building their own cog. The Nicholas project, please follow this link to find out more.

Hengist and Horsa;

I have mixed Tetbury limestone dust with these ones and I can change the dust to make them different colours. The original are carved out of Forest of Dean sandstone and took me 50hrs. The casts are available to buy for £125 a pair. (book not included)

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Events this year so far…

I am having great fun getting out and about meeting new people and demonstrating my craft

Last year’s day out at the Yorkley fun day reminded me how much I like to get out and about and meet people. This year I wanted to visit my family in Kent more but this would mean closing my shop so I have joined the two together and booked almost all my events this year in Sandwich in Kent.

My first event over the Easter weekend and was a medieval market in the beautiful St Mary’s Church in Sandwich in Kent. It was organised by the Sandwich medieval trust and it was great to be surrounded by so many other traditional crafts. I worked extra hard in the run up to this event to create a whole new range of carvings. On the way back to the Forest of Dean I visited a quarry near Maidstone in Kent to collect my Kentish ragstone so I could carve a set of my ever popular letters in local stone.

After this weekend I left 5 of my carvings for an exhibition at Ash Church over the May bank holiday and thanks to my parents for delivering and collecting my carvings as I couldn’t return for this events.

I returned on May the 9th for National Mills Weekend and I was at The White Mill in Sandwich demonstrating and selling some of my creations. I am working on a capital featuring 4 medieval type figures on the corners.

What a lovely Jubilee party at the Speech House Hotel in the heart of the Forest of Dean. I wasn’t demonstrating here so took the opportunity to wear a dress, which is rare opportunity for me.

My most recent event was a glorious weekend down at the Sandwich medieval Centre on the historic Quay. I had a super medieval tent and worked on my capital. I have made great progress and the figures are really starting to come to life.

I have met so many lovely people and have new customers to thank for helping to keep my small business successful. My year is still busy and my next two events are coming up so there will be more photos coming soon. Please keep an eye on my events and talks page for all the information.

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Demonstration Carving.

I am looking forward to spending some of my weekends demonstrating at a series of outdoor events.

My next outdoor event is at the Whitemill in Sandwich, one of the Cinque Ports in Kent. It takes place on the 8th of May and coincides with national Mills Weekend.

I will be demonstrating my historic craft and I have started a carving of a Cushion Capital, an integral part of historic architecture. This rough sketch gives you an idea of where it would go, the pillar below it and springer stones for an arch above it.

I have started the carving out of a cube of Tetbury limestone, it couldn’t be too big as I need to transport it between the variety of outdoor events that I will be doing.

I have chosen something that is identifiable as stonemasonry but also allows me the freedom to be creative, I am carving it in such a way that I can incorporate beasties on each corner. This rough sketch gives you an idea of what I am imagining.

The first thing I need to do is carve the round shape at the top, this is done by carving a series of chamfers, cutting the corners off then cutting the smaller ones until it becomes circular.

Once the top is shaped then I can carve the bottom ring and start to draw on how the beasties will appear.

As this is something I will be working on over the coming months I will update my website with my progress after each event.

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