Cat's Eye Carving

My Mermaid carving

Well here she is, I have finished the raffle prize and one lucky person will be able to take her home.

Here are some close ups, and my stonemasons mark in the centre of the middle photo

For just £2 you could buy a raffle ticket, if you can’t make it to my event but would still like to support my event by purchasing 1 or more tickets cheques should be made payable to ‘The Gloucester Stone carving festival and sent to Cat’s Eye Carving, Taurus Crafts, The Old Park, Lydney park Estate, Lydney. Glos GL15 6BU. All money from this raffle goes into the festival kitty.

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The Gloucester Stone Carving Festival

Well there is only 2wks to go before the start of this event. I have worked tirelessly with the help of some very special people.

I am currently working on a carving as a raffle prize, the tickets are £2 each and the money that I raise form this will go in the kitty to ensure a successful event.

For more details on this event please visit http://www.stonecarvingfestival.co.uk

Here are the latest photos of the raffle prize, tickets are £2 each and will be on sale until the 27th May.

I have carved her hair to look like waves rolling back to shore.

As you can see I am piercing through the stone to allow the light through the carving, it also helps to make the carving not only look lighter but feel lighter.

I still have plenty to carve so imagine it will take me another 2 days.

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The Gloucester Stone Carving festival

Well things are moving along very well.

Dates are The 25th, 26th and 27th May this year running alongside the Tall Ships festival it will be at The Llanthony Secunda Priory in Gloucester.

The prizes for the best carvings have been donated by Gibson tools, and the stone has been donated by Veizeys Quarry in Tetbury

There are a few side stalls The Gloucester geology Trust will be running activities, there will be someone from the Newport Ship Friends doing coin stamping, and The Greenman and The gatekeeper will have a stall.

I will be designing a carving based around a figurehead that will be in a raffle and as soon as I have drawn the design I will post images and the raffle tickets will go on sale.

The bulk of the profits will go to our chosen charities The Llanthony Secunda Priory Trust and the Gloucester Geology trust, and some will be kept back to start preparing for the next event.

More information can be found on the official website www.stonecarvingfestival.co.uk

If you would like any information please get in touch via my contact page

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Sampson, a portrait of a Harris Hawk

Here is the photo of my latest commission, I carved him in a piece of A4 sized Welsh slate.

The carving is very shallow relief only about a quarter inch deep, the difficulty was ensuring that I didn’t make him look friendly and this was achieved by making sure the eyebrow was the right angle.

Reliefs are particulary difficult to carve as although they are 3 dimensional one can only view them from the front to see them correctly, as there is very little depth viewing them from the side would reveal almost nothing. The shadows must be cast right.

I used the photo that I had taken but also one of Sampson’s sister Quickly to get the height of the tail right but also give me some indication as to the shape of the chest as Sampson was full after his lunch!

Here’s one of me holding Sampson.

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The Ice Age Sculpture exhibition

My partner took me to The British Museum on Monday the 18th to see the Exhibition of Ice Age sculpture from 40-27,000 years ago.
What an inspiration, the detail in the carving using just primitive tools, chronicling their lives. The most important thing to them was women-they brought new life into their unsure world. They carved using flints and rocks out of Mammoth tusks and bones. The women were carved before, during and after pregnancy. They carved the animals that sustained them, decorated the weapons that they used for hunting. This was their life, staying alive, they had no books, no t.v. Their food wasn’t ready butchered and they had no other tools than the flint and bone. I can imagine them sitting around their fire, carving what they saw that day, the miracle of new life. I don’t believe that there are any hidden meanings. They carved life.
I have always loved carving the human figure and often the female form whether just the face or the whole body, clothed or naked but I became stuck, unsure where to go next. I used to visit the British Museum alot, it played a big role in my A-level sculpture project, Egyptian Cats. Where my stonemasons mark came from, also during my degree.
I always planned to spend more time drawing and although I do there was always the business of running a business. Being away from that surrounded by beautiful historic figures, sculptures items from the natural world has re-invigorated me, I feel as though I can re-focus and get stuck in.
I have alot of drawings from throughout my adult life of things that interest me and now I understand how to portray them. I have some new designs and I am working on some new sculptures, once I have completed my first one I will publish a new post with the drawings and images.

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