Stone Carving and Letter Cutting
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!
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.
By taking measurements from the plaster cast I am able to map the important points on the stone and using my saw and hammer and chisels I can remove the excess stone.
I have a template that I put the model on I line up my squares and sliding squares to identify the one point, which is the height from the base, the distance in from the side and the distance in from the front-the three dimensions.
As you can see the more points I identify the more detail I can carve on the stone and the closer I get to carving an exact replica of the plaster model.
In effect I am mapping out points in three dimensions and then joining the dots. There is a certain element of visual mapping, I have to trust my eyes by comparing the points to each other and making sure that they look right. I also use calipers to check that my measurements line up with each other.
This commission represents approximately 130hrs work.
My latest commission was to carve a portratit of Marley, a Labrador/Rottweiler cross.
My clients were bought a voucher for a wedding present and chose to have their beautiful dog immortalised in stone!
The first stage was to model him in clay, I worked from photos and from Marley himself, however I only observed Marley!
As soon as my clients were happy with the model, I cast it in plaster. This involves several processes, the first is dividing the model into two halve with small squares of metal.
I then build up layers of plaster over the clay model, once this is completely dry I separate the two halves and dig out the clay.
The two part mould is cleaned and sealed using soap, plaster is poured into the two halves.
It is important to leave the mould with the plaster inside for long enough to dry out, I then start to cut away the outer mould.
The next stage is to use the plaster cast to take measurements from and start cutting the stone.
I am pleased to announce that preparations are well under way for my next Stone-carving event.
It will take place on the 24th – 27th May 2013 at The Llanthony Secunda priory in Gloucester. This historic site is on the banks of the canal near the beautiful Gloucester Docks.
The Stone-carving Festival will fall on the same weekend as The Tall Ships festival, this will give us the perfect theme. Everyone will be encouraged to carve something with a nautical theme, so I imagine mythical sea beasties, figureheads, all manner of sea creatures, maybe some boats and coiled rope.
All carvings created at the event will help to raise money for The LLanthony Secunda Priory Trust http://www.llanthonysecundapriory.org.uk/ and The Gloucester Geology trust http://www.glosgeotrust.org.uk/
Obviously as I have more details I will publish them, there will be a dedicated website which will be launched in the coming weeks.
Watch this space!!