Baptismal Font
5th August 2011
Worked in ‘Mocha Creme’ Portuguese Limestone and installed at the Wield & Downland open air museum near Chichester.
Leave a commentLudlow Stone Carving Festival 2011
23rd May 2011
Here is the working model, only a couple of inches high.
My piece won the carving competition at St Laurence church, Ludlow, Shropshire this year. The piece took 20 hours to carve and was sold along with the other competition pieces to raise funds for the churches upkeep.
This amazing piece, by Saul Sheldon, won the carvers vote in the competition.
And here are a few more carvings from the competition, there were 23 fantastic carvers in total some independent & others from various Cathedral workshops.
The standard was very high and they raised £4300 for the church.
Leave a commentStone lion sculpture at ‘The Goring’
5th May 2011
Bronze portrait bust commission
12th April 2011
Horace Walpole portrait . An18th Century Coade Stone Plaque
1st April 2011
I restored this plaque using the Micro Abrasive system, then chemically. The break was pinned with stone resin and the fracture filled with Paraloid resin mixed with Coade Stone powder.
Leave a commentDesign process for letter cutting project
1st February 2011
The final design which will be slightly adjusted and perfected when I transfer onto my stone.
Leave a commentRe-carved missing stone finials
28th January 2011
Much of this will then be gilded when the mansion is re-opened.
Leave a commentStrawberry Hill Stone shields Diary
2nd December 2010
Day 1
1st December 2010
Loosely roughing out forms
Day 2
2nd December 2010
Developing detail, focusing on the mane and face. Paws are very tricky.
Liking the deranged expression.
Day 3
Focusing on axe detail and flow of the mane
Day 4
The Strawberry Flower crown and musculature
Day 5
Cleaning up, undercutting and concentrating on catching light and shadow when lit from above
And here are the other two!
And here they are after I have installed them above the main entrance at Strawberry Hill in Twickenham.
Frozen Lake
Spiders
20th October 2010
I hope to carve a series of Insects and Arachnids. I’m sure they are getting bigger by the year, so you can really see the amazing patterns on their abdomens.
Leave a commentPhoto diary showing the design process involved in making ‘River God’.
Finished and off to mould making workshop!
Leave a commentHeraldic shield, scale working model
25th September 2010
This is the first of three clay scale working models.
I will work from them when carving the stone shields to be installed at Strawberry Hill above the main entrance.
Medieval Alabaster panels
23rd September 2010
I have removed and cleaned these delicate Medieval Alabaster panels, they are the consistency of soap.
No water can be applied when cleaning as Alabaster breaks down into Gypsum. when in contact with water.
They were moved from their original positions in the 19th century, the walls of Strawberry Hill were x-rayed to find their original 18th century niches.
I will re-install them in their proper place at a later date, when they will be distempered.
Leave a commentPlease leave general comments & questions
6th September 2010
Leave a comment
Kilpeck inspired ‘Beak Head’
3rd September 2010
A small project, carved in French Limestone, inspired by the amazing carvings at Kilpeck church in Herefordshire where deranged and fantastic Pagan influenced carvings are mixed in with Christian ones.
http://www.crsbi.ac.uk/search/location/kilpeck*/site/ed-he-kilpe.html
Leave a comment‘Virgilia bewailing the absence of Coriolanus’
30th August 2010
I am in the process of conserving this high bas-relief Pre-Raphaelite marble by Thomas Woolner. Thomas was one of the five founders of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
I am applying Arte Mundit (latex poultice), V&A mix (de-ionised water, synperonic detergent and White Spirit), and Complexon paste.
18th Century Armorial Cartoons
25th August 2010
These are original 18th century archival Cartoons which I am interpreting in order to work the three heraldic shields featured in them from clay. I will then carve them in Lime stone and install them above the main entrance at Strawberry Hill, you can see where they will be fixed in the cartoon top right.
http://www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk/
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Leave a commentPapier Mache Ceiling Repairs
23rd August 2010
These pictures show the mould making and production of papier mache repairs to the great gallery ceiling at Strawberry Hill Mansions.
We spent a long time experimenting with historic ingredients before achieving a mix which was strong light and flexible enough, lovely stuff like Allum, Shellac, Whiting and Rabbit Skin glue.
The papier machet is then painted and gilded
Leave a comment
Chatsworth House
An enriched cornice modelled in clay, which will be cast in plaster and installed at Chatsworth House.
Leave a commentSt George’s Chapel Grotesque
‘A banker in a strong wind’.
This is a clay sketch, my second Grotesque design, for St George’s Chapel Windsor.The first (the mouse with grafted human ear) is to be installed this year.If approved, he will join my first design and be carved in limestone and he will be installed next year.
This is me and my friend Will, You can see where i got the inspiration!
- Here he is further along the design process, he now has a combover, pin stripe suit and bowler hat, and is grasping a bank note in his hand.