I have been struggling to concentrate on my commissions and new pieces as the site gets busier and visitors like to stop me to ask questions. Which is fine and part of working from a visitor attraction. However when my flow is interrupted on a regular basis I lose focus and my work flow begins to suffer.
I have decided to close to visitors during the week except by appointment. I am open as normal to the public at the weekend. This means that I can get on with jobs I have been unable to do, simple jobs like cutting stone for some of my new carvings and sitting quietly designing how words are formed.
I thought you might like to see them before I start the carving process.
Obviously once they are carved I will be sanding the stone and then painting the lettering, I have some beautiful blues for the Mermaid…
Like these bookends which were inspired by swimming in an outdoor pool, something I love to do.
As you can see, the tail of the M has a wave crest and the tail of the a is terminated with a mermaid’s tail.
Serendipity is fluid and sing has almost note forms in the letters.
Each word is designed straight onto the stone and I may rub all or part of it off and re-draw it until I am happy that it looks how I want it to.
Obviously the next stage is to carve it and for that I will take the stone back to my workshop and do that there.
I look forward to showing you the finished carving and my next series of designs.
I am getting ready for some exciting events this year and my theme is Medieval and historical subjects associated with Kent.
The Dragons with knotwork is my own design from a series that I was working on back in 2017. When I first started on my own I used to carve Celtic knotwork taken from historical manuscripts but I always knew that I would eventually design my own and here is one of those designs. This is carved out of Welsh slate from the Horseshoe Pass in North Wales.
The first event this year is a medieval market organised by the Sandwich Medieval Trust. It takes place in St Mary’s Church in Sandwich. I thought it would be fun to design and carve a pair of bookends in the form of a Medieval Cog. These are carved out of French limestone.
The bookends featuring Hengist and Horsa are hand carved out of Forest of Dean sandstone. They were invited by Vortigern the King of Kent in the 5th C to help him get rid of the Picts and the Scots, they received Thanet as payment but it wasn’t enough. they wanted all of Kent so went to battle. Horsa was slain supposedly in Aylesford. Most of the writing is from 300 years after their escapades so there isn’t alot about them. I have incorporated a horse motif on Hengist’s axe and Horsa’s shield.
The Seashell is synonymous with pilgrims and symbolises St James the Great, this is the Church from the village I grew up in and also the symbol from one of my first jobs at Staple Vineyard. I have carved this out of Welsh slate from the Horseshoe Pass in North Wales.
The final pair of bookends are inspired by my love of swimming in crystal blue water, I used to love swimming in the outdoor pool at my school Sir Roger Manwood’s and still love to swim in the lido local to where I live now. These are carved out of Forest of Dean sandstone.
I am looking forward to collecting my Kentish Ragstone from Maidstone, hopefully this will be ready in time for me to carve some designs and a full alphabet.
All of these designs and the ones I haven’t carved yet will be available to buy at the events that I will be taking part in this year.
Last November I was notified about a potential commission, one which if I got would have taken me 10 months and would have been an exceptional project to be involved with.
Sadly I didn’t get shortlisted but I thought that I would share my proposal with you. I spent many hours researching and planning, I made a full scale maquette to help me realise how large the sculpture would need to be and to plan my scale drawings.
I sculpted it out of Plaster of Paris, built up over a wire frame and polystyrene and then carved it with smal chisels and a scalpel. She had a long nose a large forehead and a double chin but she wasn’t fat. It was the fashion in the 17th Century.
I carved her name in a piece of the French limestone that I proposed using in her handwriting.
These are my concept sketches and preliminary drawings to work out how she could be represented. I wanted her to be on the same level as the viewers and also to be something people could interact with.
Apparently she liked to sit in inns and write, obviously being able to listen in on conversations to help inspire her writing. I also wanted it to be almost like a stage and somewhere that people could actually sit with her. Part of the design incorporated a stone bench opposite her that you could sit at.
I wanted my statue to look like she was about to strike up a conversation, a bit like my What’s the question? statue that I carved.
The design incorporates 2 walls one carved like an open book with lines from a poem, I would have carved it in her handwriting. There was a porthole in the shape of an ellipse, like her image in her anthology, but you get to look through this and see the statue of Aphra sitting on the other side.
The other wall would have had a small mullioned window that you can see her through, underneath that was a quatrefoil like the ones found at her parish church, St Margaret’s in Canterbury.
This wall would be recessed to give the illusion of quoins stones and I would have built knapped flint into the wall to copy the walls of the buildings she would have grown up with.
Outside walls.
The inside would have had Aphra sitting at a table, her quill resting on the table and her hand around a cup of ale just looking up to speak. I would have carved ‘shelves’ with books on with names of people relevant to her, her contemporaries and people who have been inspired by her, a globe to represent her travels as a spy for Charles II among other objects that would have become more researched as I developed my project and obviously the bench for anyone who wanted to sit down with her.
Inside.
I also shared photos of my war memorial commission as an example of my large scale work.
And photos of my sculpture that I carved for Highgate cemetery.
I submitted this video as my presentation along with my supporting documents. I wanted them to meet me and to get and hopefully understand what I wanted to produce for them.
I really hope that you enjoy this and I look forward to producing many more beautiful pieces inspired by Aphra Behn for you to enjoy.
I have a wonderful selection of my own designs available to buy from my shop. Don’t worry if you live too far to visit though as I can post or arrange delivery.
My hand carved letters and words are very popular, I can design something unique for you or you can choose off my shelves. The letters start at £15 and are carved out of Welsh slate, Forest of Dean sandstone, Tetbury, Portland and Lepine limestone. Hope is carved out of Forest of Dean sandstone from Barnhill quarry and is £52. Meditation is carved out of Forest of Dean sandstone from Birchhill quarry and is £95.
Words of love come in all forms, Cariad (Barnhill Quarry) is £85 it is a Welsh term of endearment. Us (Birch Hill sandstone) is £25 and Shine (Blakeney sandstone )is £70.
I love designing and carving clocks these ones are hand carved out of Welsh and Cumbrian slate. the pink one is Cumbrian sandstone. I can make these to order, in most shapes and sizes and with different carvings on them and a multitude of colours. I can make these to be freestanding. Prices start at £65.
These clocks are casts of a stone clock that I carved. I have used a material called Jesmonite. I can then either add to the original or paint them as I like. As with all my clocks I can make them to order with whatever colour you like, I can make these to be freestanding. Prices start at £25.
These are some of my nature inspired creations and carvings. The Hare and the Calf are Jesmonite casts of my original clay models (£30 each). The Passion flower is carved out of Portland limestone ( £500), the flower panel (£125) and the Oak leaf with Acorns (£55) are both hand carved out of Tetbury limestone.
As with everything that I do there is time and patience involved. I design each piece to be unique sometimes the only drawing is the one that I do on the stone before I carve and others are meticulously planned. If you would like to discuss a commission or make a purchase, please get in touch via my contact page.
I started a new carving in November, here is how far I have got.
carving in my studio.
I have been working on a proposal for a commission so I didn’t finish my angel but I have been working on the wings.
Shaping the outside of the stone to make the wings curved, I have drawn on the feathers and started to chop in the details.
I have some more letter cutting commissions to get done and then I can get back on with my Angel carving. She will be available to buy in my shop once I have finished her.
If I am successful at the first stage of this commission bid then I will be shortlisted along with 3 others and I will be commissioned to carve a scale model of my proposal. I will know either way by the 16th of Jan and will share my design with you after then.
