Blog
Seasonal Stone
Stone flushed with Autumn colour. I’m collecting these hips, there are lots. It is a wild rose, it grew from seed (delivered by a bird, by the wind, on animal fur?) on a path leading to my stone store shed, and which makes me stoop and squeeze sideways every time I go past. It […]
Barn Owl Sculpture
Over the last few months it has been busy with Barn Owls, I’ve seen them in flight quartering the fields and returning with food for youngsters, and more recently the new-fledged owlets making their first tentative explorations of the world beyond the nest box. Though these initial flights appear rather haphazard and ungainly, (suggesting […]
Carved Stones along the River Aire
Earlier in the year I worked with Arup, (an independent firm of designers, engineers, architects, planners, consultants and technical specialists in the built environment), to create a memorial walk along the River Aire in Leeds. They had seen a stone I’d carved previously and thought that something similar, scaled up, would suit the project. […]
York Minster Stone Carving Festival 2018
I decided in the end on my original insect idea – a bee, just landed on a flower. The first day saw plenty progress the shape roughly outlined, ready for day two detailing. I thought things hadn’t gone too badly, but was reminded of the pace required when I looked round to see […]
Listening to the hedgerow
The conversation is mellow, autumnal. Expressing deep soft shades, conveying a season shifting. Saying all with ripe words heavy with fruit and seeds. I’m savouring all I hear.
A showcase of carving skills at York Minster
The York Minster Stone Carving Festival 2018 is next weekend – 18th and 19th August. I’ve been thinking for ages what I might carve during the two days. The theme is ‘All Creatures Great and Small’, and months ago I decided on an insect of some sort, but have changed my mind many times […]
A vole scurries for cover
The burnished copper tones in the Owl and Oak Leaves stone roundel express themselves magically – each time I move the inlay shines, glimmers and glows a myriad of metalic pinks, gleaming reds and rich shimmering browns. It will be lovely to see the emphasis change as the scene weathers and softens, time enhanced […]
A Mole and a Mole Sculpture
A feverishly digging mole, scraping at the damp silt and shifting stones and pebbles in its path. I watched it for many moments, but it heard me and vanished down a hole in the bank. It moved surprisingly quickly. The little beck that runs down past my workshop has completely dried up. I’ve […]
In the Workshop today – damselfly
Work in progress on a Banded Demoiselle carving in sandstone. The sun shone into the workshop in slivers, landing on the stone, as if come to warm up my work. Damselflies love to bask in sunshine and can often be seen sunbathing in the early morning on a stalk, rock pile or bare […]
One day I’ll carve a goose sculpture
Just the other day a customer asked me if I had ever carved a goose sculpture and I had to reply that I hadn’t, though I really have meant to for many years. I’ve said ‘one day I will’ too often. For anyone who knows me I won’t need to explain, but I’m […]