Cat's Eye Carving

The Snow is melting

24 January, 2013 – 8:57 pm

Well I am back at work after not being able to get to my workshop, the snow is very pretty but a little inconvenient considering I live 25 miles away!

I have just started a new commission, it is a carving in relief of a beautiful white faced owl. The owners show birds of prey and look after these beautiful wild creatures.
They have chosen red Forest of Dean Sandstone which although is very hard to carve offers a unique colour and due to it’s close grain I will be able to get some good detail.

This is a photo of ‘Flute’ and my drawing on the stone before I made a start.

I have also made some progress on my latest slate carving of the spirals, I have managed to cut the whole design out and now I can concentrate on getting the depth needed to bring out the layered patterns.

You may have been following the posts before Christmas detailing the carving of the seated girl in Syreford limestone, I have been working hard on getting her finished here is a photo of her from last week there will be more photos coming I think I’ll make you wait until she is finished! I have named her Rachel.

Please feel free to post comments and ask questions!

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Snow!

18 January, 2013 – 9:53 am

I’m sorry but I will be closed until the roads become passable again.

Watch this space or visit my facebook page for updates.

Enjoy the weather!!

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Commissioned gifts

9 January, 2013 – 4:00 pm

Here are some photos of carvings I was commissioned to do at the end of last year.

A gentleman got in touch and wanted me to carve a poem he had read out at his God-Daughters wedding, unfortunately it would have been a very large piece of slate and ultimately more than he had budgeted for so he chose a line from the poem and I carved this in a beautiful piece of welsh slate roof tile-this helped to keep the weight down as it is only approximately 1/4 inch thick.

As you can see I have used a slightly italicised style of lower case letters, no paint was needed as it was clearly legible. This commission cost £75.

This Green Man was commissioned as a Christmas present and will be built into a house that is being constructed very near to Loch Ness!!
I chose Portland limestone as it has very small close grained particles, it is hard and takes fine carving, it is also a good weathering stone.

It couldn’t be too big, not only for budget reasons but also because it was being taken on a plane! It is 5 inches square and 41/2 inches deep. The rule of thumb when building something into the wall is to have 4 inches behind the wall line.

Because it was being built into the wall I over-carved the detail in the leaf to help add shadow so that it would be visible from the ground, obviously I couldn’t carve too much into the stone as it was on a small scale and too much detail can often ruin a carving.
This commission cost £145

The final photos are of a birdbath that I was commissioned to do in November, my clients were on their way back to Wales and called in to Taurus Crafts for a break, they stumbled upon my workshop and explained what they wanted- a rough boulder hollowed out to create what would look like a natural rock pool on their newly constructed rockery. Well some of you may be familiar with my rockery birdbaths and so I suggested that they have a look at my website at some of the previous pieces.
It was great to get a phone call from them telling me that they would like to commission one, I had a few boulders in my stock and picked out one that I had been saving for just this type of carving. As you can see the rock has the beautiful grey and red layering which looks so beautiful when carved into particularly when it is wet.

Hollowing out this stone is particularly hard work so I employed my angle grinder, my woodpecker and finished off with my tungsten carbide tipped bull nose chisels. This commission cost £275.

 

 

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New Year, time for a change?

6 January, 2013 – 9:00 am

Happy New Year everyone.
We all think about things that we want to do to make our homes more appealing both inside and out. I will be carving a new number for my flat for example. It’s the little additions that make a big difference!
This is a house name that I carved before Christmas-a present to their house. Castle View House. It is carved in Welsh slate from the Horseshoe Pass in Llangollen. Elegant Swash capitals and lower case italics. Size of slate 10×8 inches. Cost unpainted £145.

They have opted to take it away and put it up to see what it looks like before the letters were painted. If they decide that they want them painted they simply bring it back and for an extra £30 I paint the letters in whatever colour they choose.
They may decide that they like it as it is, it is important to give you the customer this choice as although I can remove the paint it is never the same as there is staining left, only removed by re-cutting the letter.

I have also included photos of another house name commission which was commissioned as a Christmas present. Esnadene. It is carved in Forest of Dean Sandstone and is painted with a gloss blue paint, which offers a beautiful contrast to the stone and makes it easily legible. The ‘E’ is 4 inches high and the lower case are 2 inches. you may notice that the ‘E’ is not in line with the rest of the word, this was a specific design for the customer. You remain in control of your commission-I am the facilitator of your ideas! As you can see it has been dug in to their bank and looks marvellous. The cost for this was £125.

The number 4 is carved in the same slate as Castle View House and is 5 inches square, it is unpainted. The cost for this is £25, if it were to be painted it would be £27.50.

For mounting on the wall I drill the holes and provide the fixings, alternatively they can be built into the wall. For a small fee I can carry out the installment for you (local area only).

 

I hope this gives you some ideas for what you can do to spruce up the outside of your house.

 

 

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Syreford limestone carving

13 December, 2012 – 5:00 pm

Here are the latest photos of my carving.

As you can see I have started to develop the hair more, trying to give the illusion of a body underneath.

It’s always a bit scary when I start to carve deeper into the legs and arms but the detail comes from these undercuts. There won’t be the really fine detail in the face as the stone which is from the North Cotswolds is very coarse and doesn’t lend itself to this type of carving.

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