Cat's Eye Carving

Memorial sculpture for Highgate Cemetery

It is always an honour to be given the responsibility of carving a memorial to help remember a loved one.

This commission is giving me the opportunity to use all of my training as a stonemason, artist, sculptor and letter cutter.

I was asked to design a sculpture memorial incorporating an Art Nouveau style woman. Due to restrictions the stone could be no wider than 14inches.

I decided to use Portland limestone it is excellent for letter cutting and detailed carving. It will show off the curves and form of the dress. Importantly it is a hard durable stone.

Here are the photos showing the design and the starting process.

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Final installment of our trip to Breckenridge.

Well here are the final photos. As you can see despite the altitude and climate we were able to complete our dragons.

We had to have a shade put up as the glorious sun was melting our carving and detail was being lost. On Wednesday Ed carved the ice we had made from some of our melted snow into teeth, they looked amazing when we attached them late on Friday night but by 10am on Sat they had melted slightly so weren’t as effective.

On Friday I worked primarily in the shade as I was carving the belly and under the neck. It was so cold, I felt like a child again when we used to play in the snow. After a while though I realised just how cold I had become. Thankfully there were hand dryers in the rest rooms, these helped me thaw out a little so I could continue. I think you can get an idea of this from the photo of me sitting up just how cold I had become. Eventually however I had to find a job in the sunshine my poor frozen butt couldn’t take it any more! I moved into the sunshine to work on re-shaping the second dragon’s head and neck.

We worked until 11pm on the Friday night but we became too tired to carry on and didn’t want to make anymore mistakes so we decided to get back to it on Saturday morning. There wasn’t a lot more we could do and we finished in plenty of time. Sadly the German’s sculpture collapsed due to melt and I am really sorry but I didn’t get time to take photos of the other sculptures. These can be seen http://www.gobreck.com

Unfortunately I developed acute bronchitis and ear infections and so our day off on Sunday I spent in bed. I was naturally very disappointed as my partner and team mate Ed Francis and I were going to explore and take photos and generally enjoy some free time. It also meant that I missed out on the farewell dinner and the lit up sculptures. The level of skill was incredible and if I were ever to do it again I think I would want to spend a bit more time acclimatising before getting stuck into what can only be described as the hardest thing that I have ever undertaken.

Thank you to everyone for following and your continued support, I really hope that I did you proud.

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Breckenridge part III

The glorious sunshine was lovely to see, Colorado has 300 days of it, the sky is so blue and so big. I really glad that my boyfriend Ed was on the team not only as a great team mate but also for moral, physical and mental support (all of these were being tested) as well as to experience this incredible country.

Even with the dry, thin air we were making good progress and once I could visualise what Marie’s design looked like in the snow I was able to work faster. My struggle with the altitude was more manageable but it was still such hard going. At sea level this would be so much easier! The challenge and learning how far to push oneself in such extreme conditions was a real learning curve.

Luckily for us some of the other teams pitched in when this 2 ton block of snow needed to be removed.

Once this large block was removed and Ollie had roughed out a space for me to work, I was able to get up on the what was going to be the belly.

I bought my tools from Dean Mowers in Blakeney, they are Wolf Garten gardening tools and the handles are interchangeable which was so useful, I had two favourite ones, the dandelion puller and the edge cutter, and with red handles they couldn’t get lost!

They’re finally taking some form, let’s see what the rest of the week holds for us.

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Breckenridge Snow Carving Championship (part II)

On Monday morning we had a few more hours in Denver to have breakfast and look around the immediate area. Gorgeous sunshine and blue skies.

At 11am we were picked up in a huge luxury 4×4 provided by one of the many sponsors. We climbed up into the mountains through gold and silver mining communities, prospects still available to buy and people still sinking everything into the uncertainty of gold mining. The landscape was something out of wild west movies, there was snow and huge pine trees, we saw a herd of buffalo on a reserve. Breathing was becoming more difficult, the snow was getting deeper and the mountains were getting more impressive. There were frozen lakes where the locals fished through holes. It was obvious that this was going to be a difficult week.

When we arrived we stopped to get our keys and welcome pack so we could get settled into the condo, it was cold and windy but it was so warm in the vehicles and buildings. Our first stop was the local supermarket, we had a lovely couple called Fran and Roy who were our hosts and helped us when we needed supplies. We decided to spend our breakfast budget so we could cook breakfast in the condo and then head down to the carving area-there wasn’t always time for breakfast and altitude sickness diminished my appetite. I think I shocked the locals when I had to take my snow trousers off in the supermarket. It was cold outside but I had jeans on under my thermal trousers and it was just too warm. Obviously the locals know better than to wear outdoor clothes over normal attire!!

Our condo was about a 10 minute walk away from the snow blocks but due to the rarefied air it took anything up to 30mins as I had to stop so often and rest.

We had an amazing view of the mountains, you could see the snow billowing off the peaks but it was warming up and the snow was melting.

On Tuesday we had a welcome breakfast, to meet the other teams and be formally welcomed by the organisers. I did not feel well and couldn’t breathe, thankfully there was oxygen tanks that we could hook up to if and when we needed. At 11am there was a canon start and the event began.

The block of snow was 10ft square by 12ft high. We were lucky enough to be next to the Estonian team and they kindly lent us their chain saw-not what it sounds like. It’s a chain with nuts and bolts fixed through the links-ideal for sawing snow. The first job I was given was to section off the block into thirds so our captain and the designer could start mapping out the dragons. Ed was given the job of hacking off the top of the block and helping Marie to saw some of the snow. I’m afraid I had to take some Oxygen.

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Breckenridge Snow Carving Championship.

What an amazing experience. I have only flown to Norway and Jersey before so a flight halfway around the world was a daunting prospect.

Our flight changed in Iceland which from the air and coming into land is truly beautiful, iceflows and enormous river deltas no Northern lights sadly either out or back.

We were able to follow our journey and see what we were flying over and when the clouds cleared I was able to see the ice flows around the Canadian coastline, I’m pretty sure I could see walrus’s!

As we were travelling back in time 7hrs we followed the sunset and landed in Denver in the dark. There were mounds of snow but it wasn’t cold. The air was very dry and I found myself thirsty all the time and being a mile high, the air was thinner.

Our team captain had hired a car and once we had shoehorned our luggage and the four of us in we set off for downtown Denver. Thankfully my googlemaps helped us find our way to our hotel, The Curtis an interesting pop art themed hotel, very nice but they were redecorating the floor we were on so I’m sure it will be even nicer when they finish.

We decided to find somewhere to eat as we needed to stay up to break the jetlag. There was a great diner just across the road and they had everything on the menu it was endless. The food was great but I wouldn’t be able to have a good cup of tea until we got home!

We’d all been awake for about 24hrs by this time and I couldn’t stay up any longer unfortunately I woke up at 4.30 am so sleep was going to be an issue and so thirsty.

On Sunday Ollie took us to a stop I had been dying to go to The Boot Barn! I bought cowboy boots and a new straw hat. The clothing there was amazing and the boots went on for miles. After this we went on to Red Rock and amphitheatre built during the Hoover administration to help people during the depression. the men were paid  money which was sent home to their families and they were given food and a place to sleep. Music festivals are still hosted here and there have been some incredible concerts here.
The sky was so blue, the colours were intense but the air was even thinner up here and climbing a normal set of steps made me feel like I had never climbed stairs or exerted myself in any way. Catching my breath was a challenge and this did not bode well for the onward journey another 5000ft up into the rockies.

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