Stone Carving and Letter Cutting
Fund raising night at the Mitcheldean Community centre to help raise money for the new War memorial. Tickets are £12.50 each from the parish clerk; clerk@mitcheldeancouncil.org.uk or 01594 544723.
I have carved one of the raffle prizes, the Gloster’s Back badge, out of a piece of Mitcheldean sandstone. Tickets are £1 each.
After a successful trip to the quarry, I have chosen this piece.
As you can see from the first photo there were plenty of pieces to choose from but they needed to fit the right criteria.
8ft x 4ft to start off with, no visible flaws, interesting colours and of course good surfaces to carve into.
The second photo shows the surface that I will be carving the First World War names and soldier into, it has a uneven and slightly rough natural face and although this makes it more difficult to carve, to me, it symbolises the harshness of the First World War.
The next photo hopefully gives you some idea of the natural colour in the stone.
The third photo shows the other side, it was much more uneven and as the stone needed to be cut to the right thickness this was the side that was cut off.
This cut surface hopefully is a good representation for the Second World War, there are saw marks and scuffs where the stone has been cut to size and moved around. I hope that this symbolises the more mechanised and slightly more modern warfare of the Second World War.
This last picture is a carving that I have done in a piece of Mitcheldean sandstone. I have tried to carve a good representation of the Royal Gloster’s Regimental Back Badge.
The badge is 5.5inches diameter and the piece of stone is 12 x 8.5 inches at it’s widest point.
We were unable to use the Wilderness Quarry in Mitcheldean as it was mothballed about 9 yrs ago. Thankfully I had a piece left from my stock that I bought years ago when I used to use to use this quarry. The piece of sandstone is quite coarse and very hard so getting precise detail was very difficult, I hope you like what I have done.
The raffle tickets are £1 each and will be available to buy from me at my studio. You can see the carving here until the 5th of October and then it will be winging it’s way to Mitcheldean.
There will be other prizes on offer, if you think you would like to donate a prize, please get in touch using the Clerk’s contact details below.
The draw will take place on the 19th October at the Curry and Blues fundraising event in Mitcheldean. Tickets for this are £12.50.
There will be a local brewery selling their beer, great food and music. For more details or to purchase a ticket please get in touch with the town clerk; clerk@mitcheldeancouncil.co.uk or call 01594 544723.
Hi everyone, just a quick update.
I’ve been working on my commissions as well as getting on with some new pieces for sale in my shop, (please note that if you would like something special carved in time for Christmas you need to get orders in asap), and at
St Mary De Crypt in Gloucester where I have some of my carved letters and words as well as some of my Welsh slate and Sterling silver jewellery. I also have created a piece copied from the angel they have above the Pulpit, it is a jesmonite cast and 25% of the sale of this Angel goes back to the Church.
I’ve just been to the quarry to check the stone for the War Memorial which I will be carving for the parish of Mitcheldean and Abenhall. The piece of stone looks amazing and will be arriving at my workshop in March. I have almost finished carving the raffle prize, a 5.5 inch diameter carving of the Gloster’s regiment back badge. Raffle tickets will cost £1 each and there will be lots of other prizes, the draw will take place at the Blues and Curry fundraiser on the 19th October.
I am now in my second week of my charity swim, it is organised by Aspire, a charity that supports people paralysed by spinal cord injury. I hope to raise £500.
If you are able to make a donation I have a just giving page or you can put whatever you can spare into the donation tin that I have at my studio.
Follow the highlighted links for more info, and contacts.
Today is the last day of The Celebration of Craftsmanship and Design. I will be stewarding here so my studio will be closed. I have had 8 pieces on display and for sale here for the last 10 days.
The last 4 months have been hard work, I have been juggling my commissions, the need to carve enough pieces for the exhibition and obviously working on the design for the War memorial and some filming for a potential television series. ( I haven’t heard anything so I assume that’s not going anywhere)
My sculptures will be coming back to my studio on Tuesday, on Wednesday I am visiting the quarry to look at some stone for the War memorial and on Thursday it is my last have a go at stone carving for the Summer-this activity will return in October/November.
I am really looking forward to carving my way through my commission list and getting your orders out to you over the next few months. If you have been waiting patiently, thank you it has been a busy Summer.
I will be visiting the Forest of Dean Stone Firms quarry on Wednesday morning to start my search for the right piece of stone for the War memorial.
I will take some photos while I am there but it might take some time to find the right piece.