Cat's Eye Carving

January Sale

I need to make space for some new carvings so here are the carvings I have available in my sale.

As well as these carvings there are some of my Christmas carvings available in the sale with up to 25% off until the end of January.

The Girl with an Alice band in her hair, carved from Portland limestone and she took me 55hrs to carve, I have reduced her from £700 to £300. 10 x 10 x 11 inches. I created a head in clay and cast the model in plaster, this was the basis for this carving and as I was working on the very hard piece of Portland limestone this head grew out of the stone. The Portland limestone was bought from Albion Quarry on The Island of Portland in Dorset. The quarry had recently dismantled an old building I was lucky enough to be able to purchase a pallet of Quoin stones (corner stones) and these pieces have been carved into many lovely sculptures.

This carving has now sold.

Beastie, carved in Tetbury limestone his price is £650 now reduced to £300. He is 12 x 12 x  12 inches, the cost of the stone for a piece such as this would be about £100, this carving took me 40hrs so as you can see this is an absolute bargain. Beastie was inspired by a carving I saw on a visit to Cardiff. He is now sold.

Octagonal Birdbath was £450 now only £300. This stands 31.5 inches high. To give you some context, this price only covers the cost of the stone, if you would like to commission something like this it would cost from £600 depending on the amount of design, detail and type of stone.

The snail carving is inches and is carved from Tetbury limestone, this carving is reduced from £450 to £300.  (size to follow)

Half egg birdbath, carved from Syreford limestone. This is one half of an egg that I carved out of a 2ft x 15inch square piece of stone, I decided to hollow this stone out once I had determined that it wasn’t going to fail in the frost. I plan on hollowing out the other half and these could be purchased as a pair for £300 or singularly for £175 each.

These prices do not reflect prices of commissioned pieces.

Posted in Carrie's News | No Comments »

My latest carvings and creations

Well I have been busy making some lovely new carvings and jewellery, here are the latest photos.

Please click on the photo for information including dimensions and prices.

My bookends have been incredibly popular, I have been buying Forest of Dean sandstone in slab form, choosing the pieces with the most interesting colouring and the rough hewn edges, each piece is unique. Prices start from £45 for the simplest design.
They are approximately 2.5 inches deep and 9 inches high but sizes do vary slightly so if you need a specific height this can be carved to order.

Candles are always very popular on these cold winter nights bringing warmth and light into our homes. I try and be as creative as possible and on some of the pieces I have carried the motif through the candle holders and onto the bookends.
My inspiration comes from shapes and forms of things I observe in nature my surroundings and everyday life.

Faces are always fun to carve I get to make things appear from a hard lifeless block of stone. I have been carving a lot of the Forest of Dean sandstone so I decided to carve something a little softer and that didn’t require me to wear a dust-mask. The Barn Owl carved from a piece of Caen Stone-the original Cathedral building stone is my latest creature, inspired by the commission I undertook last year not as detailed and slightly smaller hence the very reasonable price of only £185.

I have been exploring the flower in architectural form, and of course the star, I am going to do more research into fractal form in order to carve a more realistic snowflake but here are my offerings for beautiful and ornamental pieces.

My pendants and earrings are proving very popular and I am having fun exploring my creative side from an alternative perspective, I like sewing so it seems natural to me to sew silver wire, I particularly like the button stitch that I have done on the Welsh slate pendant, soldered for a permanent finish. These lovely earrings are a commission for a climber who doesn’t have her ears pierced and after purchasing a pendant wanted some matching earrings it took me a while to come up with the design for the connecting wire but I like it.

I am a letter cutter as well as a carver and stonemason, so here are some examples of the latest collection of words carved and painted in beautiful Forest of Dean sandstone. I can use gold leaf but in this instance I have used gold paint it still looks lovely and will endure outside.

These designs are the latest in my collection and obviously there will be more coming but once these are gone I can only try and carve similar never the same.

And finally the last image, I sold this a couple of weeks ago but I loved this piece, it has led to a commission and hopefully it will be brought out every year and ultimately become a family heirloom.

Merry Christmas to you all and thank-you for your continuing support.

Posted in Carrie's News | No Comments »

Some new ideas for Christmas presents.

Here are some more images of my latest carvings  for sale in my shop.

Obviously as these items sell I will be making more but they will not have the same design so if you are keen on a particular carving please get in touch with me.

Posted in Carrie's News | No Comments »

Ideas for Christmas

Well that time is upon us, I am busy carving some wonderful things to inspire you here are a few of the latest, I am still making so I will update my website as I have more to show you. Please click on the image for description and price.

Candles are always lovely at this time of year as it is dark and gloomy at night and the twinkle of a tea-light adds magic to any room.

I have started carving some pretty flowers which can be mounted on the wall inside and outside and will add a little extra lasting decoration to your home.

I have also been carving some seasonal words, ideal to place in your window or on the mantel piece.

How about some fun decorations to hang on your tree or even outside, carved in Chinese slate and painted where necessary I have hung them on waxed cotton or pretty red ribbon, not too heavy if you are worried about hanging them up!

I have been busy making some more pendants and earrings to add to my repertoire, I have soldered the sterling silver wire and they are very light to wear even though they are made of stone.

As an earring wearer myself I wouldn’t make something that I couldn’t wear comfortably.

I am currently making a pair of clip-ons for a customer to match a pendant that she bought a while ago, so I can make anything to order-that is the beauty of making everything that I sell!

Posted in Carrie's News, Gifts and pendants | No Comments »

Church visits.

When I’m out and about I like to make time to stop and admire the Churches on my route.

A few weeks ago I found myself making a detour home because of a road closure and this beautiful Church is what I found. It had a timber framed brick tower with some lovely carving around the doorway.

Upleadon is between Ledbury and Tewkesbury. there are also a number of very fine quality Sandstone and slate memorials in the Churchyard. Hard to imagine that these are up to 300yrs old and the carving is barely worn. The chisels would have only been iron but they would have been forged to a very high standard.

I was installing a memorial at Orcop Church just South of Hereford and once the job was complete I took some time to have a look around and take some photos, this one memorial with a charming inscription, no fancy carving but this gentleman was obviously much loved.

On the other stone. you can see the lamination that takes place over the 200-300 years. This Churchyard is high on a hill and probably gets a lot of extreme weather therefore erosion is more apparent in contrast to Upleadon which is down very low and is well protected.

On my way home, I stopped at Weston Under Penyard Church on the A40 between Ross on Wye and Huntley.

I appears to have been a Norman Church originally looking at the pillars and carvings inside, but there was obviously much later architectural features on the outside. There were once more some exquisite mid 18th century headstones and tombs outside, showing small amounts  of wear but what surprised me was that some of the modern granite memorials were dissolving under the Yew trees where the local sandstone ones were fine. it just goes to show that the local stone is more durable.

I like looking at things that are interesting, carvings that I see may sit in my subconscious and one day I will be carving some detail and it will have been inspired by what I have observed.

Looking at tombstones and memorials helps to inform me about the various stone and how it weathers in different landscapes, altitudes and the impact surrounding flora has on it. It is also about the styles of lettering how it was carved and the fashions of the day.

Maybe next time you are passing a Church you will stop and just look.

Posted in Church Visits | No Comments »