What I carved at Highnam.
26 April, 2010 – 10:17 amWhat 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!
