Cat's Eye Carving

Christmas Shopping.

8 December, 2025 – 2:20 pm

I have been working hard to bring you so many wonderful Christmas gift ideas.

This lovely gift bag is the gift that keeps on giving, beautifully hand made, there is lots of choice as to the type of fabric and sizes, prices start at £5.

The hand painted slate letters start at £3, but the one shown is £5, resin paperweights with curious creatures, shells and fossils, prices start at £17 and my sweet little resin hearts at only £3 each, various colours available in each of these items.

From small stocking fillers to beautiful sculptures to ornament the home and garden.

My gorgeous new carving designed from the butterflies that were in my Mum’s garden this year.

I have been busy working on commissions, but I have also found the time to carve some new stone carving and letter cutting.

This grotesque is carved out of a very soft piece of French limestone, very similar in texture to Bath stone, but without the fossils. I thought it would be fun to carve him with his hand holding a tealight.

New carvings and some of my other pieces available to buy in my shop.

All of the above are available to buy in my shop in Sandwich.

Some of my most recent completed commissions.

Griffin Cottage was a re-do, My customers brought their existing, worn house sign and wanted me to re paint it, but without the image, I cleaned up the wood and re-painted the board before drawing out and re-painting the name.

The Shrubbery was carved out of Cornish slate and painted to my customers specifications

The birdbath was carved out of Portland limestone, it compliments the leaf sculpture that I finished last month and I will be putting them in my customers garden before Christmas.

The memorial is a simple, timeless design and is going to be placed in a memorial garden on my customers property.

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News.

10 November, 2025 – 12:46 pm

I have been so busy lately, working on my extensive and interesting list of commissions.

The Elephant is a piece of Hornbeam, this isn’t finished yet, but I have just finished the Maple leaf, out of a piece of pine.

I spent over a week, designing, carving and decorating some new letters and words, topping up my ever popular mermaid and sunset letters.

I re-organised my shop space as well, with the coming winter and cold weather, I am now working at the front of my shop, so if you’re passing, you can see me working through the window.

I have been working on several different commissions, the house signs are Robinsons in Welsh slate and Two Cents in Cornish slate, the memorial is Portland limestone and features a carving of her beloved pets.

This last one is a sculpture that I was commissioned to carve for a garden, I will be carving a bird bath with radiating tool marks for the same garden.

This is a really hard piece of Portland limestone and my customer had chosen a design from a series of drawings that I had made.

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Benenden Art Fair.

9 September, 2025 – 9:11 pm

I am really looking forward to taking part in this years Benenden Art Fair, from the 3dr to the 5th of October.

This looks to be a real highlight of my calendar and a place to showcase some of my more sculptural stone carvings.

You can find me at stand 8, diagonally across from the welcome desk, I’ll make sure that I have something special to draw your eye, such as this piece.

Inspired by the shape of a broken seashell.

or this piece

Inspired by ancient Ice Age sculpture.

I will have a selection of some of my smaller pieces in the form of bookends, faces, the green man and some of my carved words.

I am working on some new smaller pieces and I look forward to bringing these to you at this event.

Visit their website for more information.

https://www.benendenartfair.com/

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Medieval Weekend.

8 September, 2025 – 8:08 am

What a wonderful weekend I had at the Betteshanger Country Park, when pit heads dotted the landscape, this was a slag heap for the local coal mines, once a barren landscape, it has been turned into a visitor centre and nature reserve.

The Sandwich Medieval centre and the owners of the park decided to bring us all together here to celebrate and educate.

Here’s my set up.

https://sandwichmedieval.org/

https://www.betteshanger-park.co.uk/

Some of my fellow traders.

There was a shoemaker there who said that they could make me some steel toe capped medieval shoes. Might need to save up a bit.

I have been taking part in events with the Medieval centre since 2022 when I decided that I wanted to spend more time with my family but couldn’t just shut my business for a week.

This is the link to the first post I wrote that year, there are more detailing the progress and other events that I took part in back in 2022.

https://www.catseyecarving.co.uk/2022/05/demonstration-carving

I designed and started a carving that would showcase the wonders of stonemasonry and carving, a complicated project that would see me through the Summer of events. I based my design on a medieval capital, featuring 4 medieval characters, the capital, an architectural feature, standing on a pillar with an arch springing from the top. obviously that would be a corresponding one to support the arch on the other side.

As a result of this carving, I caught the interest of the Maison Dieu and so this collaboration was born and I couldn’t find the time to finish my carving.

As it is the 20th Anniversary of my business this year, I decided to get back out and take part in more events this year. I had to replace my vehicle and now I can get everything that I need in the boot with the seats down, so putting two bankers in and all my equipment, stock and shelves in although tricky, means that I can take more out. I brought my carving with me to finish and while I’m still a few hours away from finishing, I’m glad to say that it is almost there.

I decided to finish the top by carving a plait detail. I’ll put the photos of the finished carving up as soon as it’s finished. I might still carve a pillar and a pedestal for this though.

The line in the bottom of the stone was a flaw in the stone, I knew it was here and this was one of the reasons that I chose the stone for this demonstration piece, I need to keep the good bits for my commissions. I’ll tidy up and repair it properly once I have finished the carving.

I might even be able to fit more in.

Next event is at the Sunken garden on the 21st September, I will be demonstrating and you can come and have a go. I can’t get close with my car so I won’t be able to take much to sell.

https://thesunkengarden.co.uk/sunken-garden-eco-fair-2025/

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What’s in my shop.

3 September, 2025 – 11:36 am

I have been so focused on my commissions that I thought it was time to put a post up about my shop and what I have available to buy.

I design and create a wide range of carvings, exploring letterforms and mythological creatures.

The Greenman is an interesting subject for a stonemason, this foliate face appears almost everywhere and in many forms. I love looking at the leaves and coming up with new ways to interpret him.#

My Viking Greenman, started life as a Greenman, I stopped to carve a commission of a Viking and when I came back to my carving, the Viking Greenman was born.

Hand carved out of Tetbury limestone, this carving is 7 x 7.5 inches square and costs £850.

Lettercutting is a large part of what I do and I love to explore the creativity that can come with lettercutting.

Petrichor, my favourite smell, after a dry spell comes the rain and the bacteria in the earth is released, that is the smell we love.

Hand carved out of Forest of Dean sandstone, it measures 10.5 x 4.5 inches and costs £145.

Meditate is also carved out of Forest of Dean sandstone and measures 10.5 x 3 inches and costs £145.

These words are all designed and carved by me, prices vary depending on the complexity of my carvings, the size and finish.

My hand carved and painted letters are extremely popular, I carefully cut the stone to be the right size for the many different letter forms. Once I have drawn out the letters each one is hand carved using a hammer and chisels, I try and make sure that I have a good selection of colours, my Mermaid and sunset colours are slightly larger and prices for my letters range from £5 for the slate painted ones and from £18 plus for the hand carved ones.

I have made moulds of some of my creations, whether they were sculpted out of clay as the cat or the Hare, stone carvings such as the boat bookends and the Acorn and Oak leaf or plaster carvings such as the small Greenman and the cheeky grotesque. These creations remain unique to me and each one is hand finished. So even though they come out of a mould, each one is different.

These range in price from £3 for the resin hearts, £30 for a calf or a hare up to £125 for a pair of bookends.

My grotesque in the last photo, with the boat bookends is a stone carving. He’s hand carved out of Tetbury limestone and costs £1200.

This is a cast of the stone carving that I made for the Compass Rose, thankfully I made a mould of the original carving that no longer exists. This can be made to order at a cost of £225 per cast, finished with gold leaf and paint. Measuring 8.5x 11 inches.