Cat's Eye Carving

House sign commissions

Since the beginning of the latest lockdown, like many people I have struggled to develop my work flow in my new surroundings. I have finally got used to working in my living room with my paints, gold leaf and drawing equipment and then carving in my shed.

I have finished the commissions that I received before Christmas and over the last 2 weeks I have been pushing my online presence on Facebook in order to generate some new commissions. I am pleased to say I have had some new house numbers to carve.

Before I can carve the house names and numbers I have to spend some time drawing the designs on the stone, obviously this is more difficult as my customers are at the end of an email not in my studio. I draw a few drafts to pin down what they want and then once they are happy I can make a start.

The first thing I need to know is stone type, generally Welsh slate or Forest of Dean sandstone, then size and whether they would like sawn or natural edge. I have a good selection of stone in my studio-now in my shed to give my customers some choice, this may seem a lot of work but trust me the finished piece is worth the effort.

Here are some designs that I have drawn not all have been chosen but this is the starting point. I have some of these carved now but not painted/gilded yet and I also have one piece that I can’t publish yet as it’s a Wedding present.

These are some of my completed commissions including some in between photos.

I have some new commissions to get on with this week as well as ordering some stone but everything takes longer at the moment because of the pandemic. It’s very cold outside in my shed at the moment so that is quite a big factor in my work schedule but I have warm clothes and a good heater so I can spend a few hours out there.

Obviously I am looking forward to getting back on with the War memorial but the piece of stone is outside my workshop.

If you have an idea for a commission please feel free to get in touch and we can have a chat about what you would like.

Take care and stay safe

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Just a quick update.

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Drawing and designing.

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Some of my carvings available to buy.

During this lockdown obviously my shop is closed but here are a few things that I have available to buy from my shop.

My clocks are designed and hand carved out of a variety of stones. Cumbrian slate has a slightly blue/green hue whereas the Welsh slate is blue/black or heather coloured, My Cumbrian sandstone comes from St Bees and the Portland limestone from Dorset is either base bed which has less fossilised shell or Roach bed which has alot of fossils or voids where fossils didn’t form.

My hand carved calligraphy is designed by me and drawn directly onto the stone so that it works with the shape of the stone. I choose the paint or gold leaf finish depending on what I think will look right.

Leaves, flowers and the Green Man provide me with an endless source of inspiration. I have a wide selection of bookends but is one of my simplest pair, he natural beauty of the calcite and fossils being the only decoration that they need.

This selection of sculptures were inspired by the fluidity of nature and the simplicity of Ice-Age sculpture. Something that I have been exploring for a few years now.

I am happy to discuss commissions for most types of stone carving, sculpture and letter cutting

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Working from home.

During the last Summer I was able to work in my garden thanks to the lovely warm and dry weather that we had.

My boyfriend and I spent a day clearing a very rundown shed in the garden so if the weather turned so I still had a place to work. I didn’t finish kitting it out though as I didn’t need it…until now.
I spent a day last week collecting what I would need for my next 3 commissions and organising the space so I could work, as you can see I now have a space that allows me to work from home. 

 

Our living room flooded before Christmas so I used the carpet and underlay that was ruined to put down on the bricks and make a draft excluder around the bottom of the shed…there are quite alot of gaps.

The lighting is great in there now thanks to a friend giving me some halogen site lights with bonus extra warmth and I have hung an old tent outer shell up at the door as there are alot of gaps in the door too.

I partially dismantled the easel that Ed and I constructed in the Summer and it is now fixed to the brick wall that the shed is built against.

  

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