Cat's Eye Carving

York Minster Stone Carving festival

On the 14th and 15th of August, I will be taking part in a stone masons festival at York Minster. There will be about 80 carvers and masons from around the country and abroad. We have the choice of 2 types of limestone depending on what we would like to carve, I have not worked either so until I get there I won’t know what to expect!

We will start early on the Saturday, the general public will be able to wander about and watch. There will be a buzz of excitement as we all start work and finally see what everyone is going to carve!! I have a few ideas, but I will decide next week what to carve.

Every mason knows the time limit is short-the auction takes place on Sunday afternoon!! So we must choose something that we know we will finish, but also this is a competition so we also are aware that we must push our skills to the limit.

From last years festival in Norway, I know that I can achieve alot in the short space of time, but I also know that I set my level high and must keep my reputation!!!

I hope to see you there, wish me luck.

Carrie.

Visit www.yorkminster.org/learning/york-minster-works-department/stone-carving-festival/  For more details.

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A little bit of everything!

I have been working on quite a few different projects.

Obviously the one I have been dying to get on with is my big waves! here are some photos of how I am getting on.

This is a very large piece of Tetbury limestone from Veizeys Quarry near Tetbury. It is approx 2ft cubed, but obviously as I carve it the size and shape changes. The finish will be completely smooth, at the moment, the punch and claw are still the chisels of choice, but I am starting to develop the lines and shapes more using the inch flat chisel.

I am very proud to announce that I will be displaying some of  my sculptures at Lower Slaughter Manor in The Cotswolds. I am currently designing a sculpture to be put into their garden later in the year. Which will be followed early next year with another sculpture for their garden.

My current commission is inspired by Raphaels Sanzio Angels, sadly it is for a memorial, however I do feel very privileged to be asked to do this. My client saw my sculptures and was certain of my capabilities. This is a very difficult sculpture as it is not a direct copy, but an interpretation of an idea-which is not my own. It is very exciting, but also quite scary.

I have started discussions regarding the 2013 International Stone Masons Festival. Obviously the 1st thing is to secure the site, as soon as I have details I will post them on the website.

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Large waves!

Well here are the photos of my latest carving.

I am using a beautiful piece of hard Tetbury limestone from Veizeys Quarry. It has some very interesting fossils running through it, I have found a piece of coral, some beautiful shells and loads of Gastropods!

Having The Gloucester Geological Conservation Trust at The Tithe barn centre is  really exciting for me as I am always finding interesting fossils-they also help to give me a greater understanding of the stone that I am carving!

These photos show you how the stone was before I started carving.
The surface was speckled with beautiful small gastropods-small spiral fossils. Once I had chipped off this layer-which was actually quite sad, I uncovered a beautiful consistant limestone. On 2 opposite sides there was a sparkly layer of Calcite-crystallised stone and the cement that holds the ooliths together.

This was tricky to chip off as it is incredibly hard, with the underlying stone was  hard as well.

I had a drawing to work from, but this soon became redundant as I developed the shapes and followed the forms.

The next series of photos shows the stone as I am carving it now. Using my engine crane and blocks I was able to stand the carving up. The previous photos show the carving laying on it’s back. There was only so much I could do with the stone in this position.

Hopefully you can see the shapes beginning to form. At the moment all the carving that I have done has been with the punch and hammer-obviously I do start off with the pitching chisel, but this is only for a short while.

As the roughing out process develops, I can start to introduce other chisels. The claw to start to refine the surfaces, the draft or inch chisel to introduce the lines and clarify the developing forms. This can be seen more in the next series of photos.

Obviously there is still plenty of work to do, so as soon as there are more photos, I will show them in a new post.

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What I carved at Highnam.

What a brilliant weekend. We arrived at 8:30 on Saturday, once we had got settled, carving commenced.

There were 6 of us with differing skill levels, we all had a ft cubed piece of Fishhill limetone from Broadway in the Cotswolds. It was very shelly and quite difficult to carve!

This year there was no theme, one stonemason carved an Avocado in 2 halves, another one did a Monkey, I carved my devil grotesque, there was a lovely Scarab Beetle, so it was very varied.

The Marquee that we were working in was in the heart of the fair and so we were well received by the general public all itching to know everything about our carvings, the stone and how we came to be stonemasons!

We must have talked to about 300 people on Saturday, as well as working to a very tight deadline of 3pm on the following day.

Some of us stayed overnight, and we joined the Medieaval village by their campfire for some wine and good company. Knowing we had to make a good start in the morning we turned in for the night.

Come Sunday morning, we were pretty tired, taking part in an event such as this is exhausting and exhilerating, adrenalin helps to keep us going and work twice as fast to create something which would normally take 3 or 4 days!!

I had made a good start on Saturday, so this enabled me to finish in time.

The judges came round, so while they were deliberating, I went and had some well deserved ice cream!!!

All the carvings were put into a silent auction and the money raised went to Gloucester Cathedral and The Pied Piper appeal.

Finally they had finished and to my surprise I was awarded 1st prize!!! what a great finish to a great weekend!!

Hope you like my carving!

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