Cat's Eye Carving

The Cherubs

This commission is to honour two young girls who were taken from this world prematurely.

It is inspired by a painting created by the Renaissance artist Raphael which features a pair of cherubs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael  Visit this site and scroll down to a picture of The Sistine Madonna, the Cherubs are at the bottom of the painting.

The brief was to use the motif but have the pair closer together and the little one looking up at the older one.

This series of posts will follow my journey from concept through to the finished carving.

The first thing I had to do was create a maquette in clay-a model that could be altered until it was what my client had in her mind.

I commissioned my friend Missfire a Blacksmith to make me some armatures onto which I could build the cherubs. I secured these to a wooden board and wrapped hessian around them.

As you can see, I layered up the clay, making the forms that I wanted, until I had the shapes I needed. I then started to add some detail.

Obviously it was unnecessary to add too much detail as this would all come in the final carving, however I needed to show enough so it would give my client a rough idea of what I had in mind.

I had my client’s approval so it was on to the next stage, Casting them in plaster.

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Exciting commissions.

I’m really excited about my up coming projects and I have made a good start on my cherub commission. Photos will be posted when I have made more progress.

The birdbath commission is taking interesting twists and turns I still have some more designs to create before I have captured exactly what my clients want.

I have some lovely Welsh slate arriving in about 3wks ready for house names and numbers, and I have some more blocks of beautiful carving stone in as well, from France and the Cotswolds. So watch this space for some interesting new stone carvings which will be available for sale at my workshop.

If you are already subscribed to Facebook, then please click on the link and it will take you directly to my page or just look me up. I update it regularly with snippets of things that I am doing, un-expected opening and closing times among other gems!

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Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and celebrated the beginning of the New Year in style!

I am well rested and ready to get on with some very interesting commissions, including designing and carving a Birdbath, creating a memorial using the motif of the Sanzio angels, and of course I have a few house names and numbers to get on with!!

I re-open on the 4th January 2012 at 10am.

I look forward to seeing you this year!!

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Acorn Commission

The three pieces completed!

My customer provided me with the names and dates in her own handwriting which I drew as closely as I could onto the two acorns-paying careful attention to match the character of the 2 men with the different acorns!

She didn’t want the engraving to be too noticeable and therefore I didn’t carve the letters too big or paint them afterwards.

The carvings were placed in an area of significance in the garden, a large Oak tree laying on it’s side, a giant sandstone Oak leaf which has lain there for years waiting for acorns to accompany it and of course candles lit in remembrance of loved ones.

I hope you like these-I think they have been my favourite commission to date.

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Acorn commission.

So the next stage in this commission was to start shaping the acorns so they were no longer just barrels!

Sandstone is a very brittle stone and if I try and take too much off at one time it has a tendancy to pluck out where I don’t want it too, so it is essential not to rush.
In order to keep the shape I scribe circles on the top and bottom getting smaller each time, I pitch the stone off to these lines so I can control the amount of stone I take off.
As sandstone is incredibly abrasive it wears my chisels away very quickly and therefore it is very important to keep my chisels sharp.
The main set I used were Pitch, Punch, 1 inch flat chisel and 2 inch bolster and several claw chisels with varying teeth sizes.
But the punch was the most used! needless to say I had to buy a new chisel once this commission was complete-I upgraded to a tungsten carbide tipped punch-lets see how it fairs!!

As you can see I used the gap between my benches to nestle the acorns in, by doing this I was able to turn incredibly heavy stone over and keep it secure while I was carving it!
As I mentioned before it is very important to keep moving the stone and not concetrate on any one area-this would lead to uneveness in the shape.
I am able to alter areas I don’t like by checking the whole shape. Like a painting, it is important to step back and have a look!

To be continued…. 🙂

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