Cat's Eye Carving

Christmas gifts

At this time of year we are all trying to buy our friends and family beautiful and thoughtful gifts for Christmas presents.

I have been hard at work in my workshop at Taurus Crafts designing and carving especially for you. I have a very wide selection this year as I have been carving furiously to make sure I have enough-last year I sold out of so many of my stone carvings. I have come up with many different creations for you hopefully to suit all pockets. Some with Christmas in mind and some that will grace any sideboard, shelf or occasional table.

I didn’t have time to photograph everything before my short break so I will add some more when I return to my shop.

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I have been exploring casting as a way to produce small creations and I have included a couple on here, I either carve the original in plaster or model it in clay, then I pour molten rubber over to create a mould which I can take duplicate casts from. They are never exact copies as I always carve them a little once they come out of the mould. I use a material called Jesmonite, an acrylic based plaster, weather proof and non toxic. I have been painting these up as you can see the red calf and the gold roundel grotesque. I will be exploring bronze powder which is mixed with the jesmonite before pouring. This technique allows me to make more than one of a creation, still unique to me but as a more affordable alternative to my stone carvings (of which there will only ever be one)

I’m afraid that I can no longer guarantee commissions taken now for Christmas presents will be ready by Christmas but sometimes what people do is have a small piece of random stone to give as the present to tease the intended until the carving is ready, just a bit of fun….

I look forward to showing you more of my creations when I return to my workshop on Saturday 26th November.

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Commission to carve a Brown Bear

My sculpture of a Brown Bear is coming along well, the limestone has a lot of fossils and hard veins of calcite through it so it is hard to progress quickly.

As you can see I am working to identify where the forms are before I carve too much detail. Although the face is pretty much finished that was my primary goal as this is the most important feature and if it didn’t work I would need to make changes to the whole carving.

Thankfully I am really pleased with how he looks and his focus is definitely on the salmon that he is eating.

The next photos will be of him finished.

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What’s in my shop at the moment and what’s coming up

As I mentioned in my previous post I have been busy carving lots of new words for my shop, here they are on the shelves. I have also been carving some new bookends and plenty of new letters. These are incredibly popular and so if you would like some especially for presents please get in touch to ensure availability. My small clock in sandstone and slate are also proving popular so I have 3 more drawn out ready to carve-I will order some more hands to give you extra choice-I can change these for you to personalise your purchase.

I have also been busy carving a wide variety of commissions-I can’t put photos of them all up at this time as some of them are presents, but here are some more photos of some of my other works in progress which will be on the shelves in the coming weeks.

My waiting list is now 8-10wks there is still time to get commissions in for Christmas presents but please don’t leave it too long

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Christmas presents

Sorry, I can hear you all groaning as I mention the word Christmas but as some of you are well aware I carve everything I sell (with the exception of my popular hessian bags and my stone paper notebooks).

I am currently working to an 8wk waiting list for commissions so with this in mind I will need orders for Christmas presents in by the end of October to ensure completion and delivery in time. I will be taking Christmas and regular orders all the time but after October I can’t guarantee their readiness.

I am working on a lovely new selection of seasonal carvings as well as beautiful carvings that would compliment your home and garden. I have 4 new sets of Forest of Dean sandstone bookends ready to carve and some more Tetbury limestone ones that I will be working on in the next couple of weeks. I have designed two lovely flower friezes and some more sculptural pieces & a sandstone bowl that will be carved in a pretty piece of mauve Forest of Dean sandstone.

I am also working on 2 larger sculptures in Caen and Portland limestone, a small figure in a piece of marble & a lovely face in a piece of St Bee’s sandstone from Cumbia-this stone is very dense and is a beautiful red ochre colour.

Obviously I am still working on the carving of a brown bear eating a fish which is a commission I hope to have him finished in the next couple of weeks. This is alongside a variety of letter cutting both for my shop and for particular orders.

There are three markets at Taurus this year on the 3 weekends in December, fresh Christmas trees, wonderful produce from The Cowshill Farmshop and plenty of fabulous things to buy from all of us at Taurus Crafts plus the extra stalls that will be open.

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Designs for letter Cutting.

I am busy designing some lettering to carve for my shop.

The stone is sandstone from Birch Hill in the Forest of Dean. I am designing the letters as I go. These are not copied from a book but inspired by the many forms of calligraphy and my own imagination.

The letters will be painted in either gold or silver unless someone requests a different colour.

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