Cat's Eye Carving

New look shop area

It always concerns me when I hear visitors say “it’s just a workshop we won’t go in” So I took this as a challenge and I have worked very hard to make my shop area clean, bright and smart.

I built myself a new shelf unit to make the most of a doorway that is out of use and made more of the display area that I have.

Here are some close up photos of the pieces that I have for sale. I hope you agree that they are much better displayed.

Further away you can see how everything fits into the space now and I am really happy with my new look.

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New Candlesticks.

Here are some images of my latest selection of candlesticks. I have hand-carved and painted the designs.

I have designed them to be decorative all year round, they have a felt base so as not to scratch the furniture.

The candle cups are copper adding a beautiful contrast to the stone.

The final 3 pictures are of my newest tealight holder;
I have carved a ball from a 5inch square piece of Tetbury limestone, then carved the petals into the ball,.
By off-setting the hole for the tealight I can rotate the ball and balance it in another piece of Tetbury which I have smoothed and carved a small hollow into the surface.

I have coloured the petals slightly by burning the stone.

I am working on some more designs and will keep you posted.
These are completely unique designs hand-carved and painted by myself.

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Portrait of a Horse in Welsh Slate.

I received a commission at the beginning of October to carve a portrait of a much loved horse. It was for a 30th Birthday present and the young girl has had the horse since he was 3yrs old.

The owner brought me in some photos to work from, her favourite recent pose of Sam the horse-he is still alive by the way in case you are worried!

I chose a suitable piece of Welsh slate about A4 size, enlarged the photo and drew on the outline.

It is very important with slate to remove only a small amount at a time to avoid any breakages. So as you can see I carve around the outline of the horse and remove some of the background slate before attempting to carve any detail.

I created an imaginary background to help add depth.

It is very difficult to create the illusion of depth when carving shallow relief so lines must be over accentuated.

Finally once I am happy with  the finished carving I treated the slate with Linseed oil to bring up the colour and enhance the definition.

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Stone-carving Festival.

Hi everyone, you will be pleased to find out that the official website for my exciting event has gone live.

Please visit www.stonecarvingfestival.co.uk  for information and press releases. Obviously more information will be added as soon as I have it. My event is still in the early days of organising but I hope to have some more news on sponsors in the next couple of weeks!

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Syreford limestone carving

Here are some photos of my new carving. This represents 4 days work.

I am carving a piece of Syreford limestone which is quarried in the North Cotswolds. The stone has been allowed to weather outside for 2 yrs in order to make sure that it wasn’t going to suffer any frost damage.

The stone is approx 12 inches square by 15 inches high.

I will post more photos as I develop the carving.

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