Blog
My Supporters and Collaborators
Sometimes weeks and months can go by without me really noticing. I’m concentrating, making, carving, deliberately quiet, thoughtful. Today on my walk to the workshop the sun was warm, despite a deeply frosty night and it gave me the sense of feeling very open and awake. I collected some little stems from the hedgerow […]
Stone Carving Courses – dates for 2020
I’ve tried my best to fit dates in, but I can’t squeeze any more days into the month, and now confirm that there won’t be any Stone Carving Courses here in 2020. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, and I’ve given it a lot thought, but I’m going to be busy with commissioned […]
Stone Sculpture Talk
The Sinnington People’s Guild invited me to give a talk at their meeting, so yesterday evening I went to the Methodist Schoolroom where they have their Tuesday gatherings. Sinnington is a nearby North Yorkshire village. The village name originates from Medieval times and was known as ‘settlement on the Seven’ after the river which […]
Wernicke
A bird flew into the house, it was a bit panicked and flapping when it saw me. I stayed still and it flew to the bookcase and perched there. I tried to usher it back out, but each time it flew past the wide open window and back round to the top of the […]
Fossily Bird
Fossily Bird sculpture is carved in Swaledale Fossil limestone. The stone contains an abundance of fossils and fossil traces which are really brought out clearly when the stone is polished. As might be expected Swaledale Fossil comes from Swaledale, a North Yorkshire dale on the River Swale. It is a typical limestone valley, the […]
So it doesn’t go to waste
Sometimes there are mishaps in the workshop. Sometimes things don’t go right and mistakes and breakages happen. Usually it is because I’m rushing or getting ahead of myself in the excitement of making. Or perhaps I don’t know a stone well enough or don’t respect it enough. Of course it sometimes happens because of […]
Wildlife Art
On Thursday this week the Society of Wildlife Artists annual exhibition The Natural Eye 2019 opens at the Mall Galleries – paintings, drawings, original prints and sculpture all inspired by the natural world. It is always a thrill to go, and truly inspiring for me. I’ll tell you all about it after I’ve been, […]
In the Workshop today – carving triangles
These little simple shapes – I’m just carving triangles – when repeated, grouped, and wandering, magically make patterns. I adore the way they catch the light and the stone surface comes alive. The triangles span out, as they spread they look like stars. But, actually the idea is that they will indicate scales. I’m […]
They’re called Shining Stones
British marble is rare – the only true marbles are quarried in north-west Scotland. The scarcity of indigenous marble meant that European marbles were imported for quality decorative work. This was an expensive exercise so alternative sources of special stones were sought, and local hard sedimentary limestones were exploited. These native British ‘marbles’ were […]
A little film of me at the workshop
Land of Iron – Filming for North York Moors Earlier in the year I was contacted by Fuzzy Duck Creative, a creative studio in Manchester. They were working with the North York Moors on a new visitor video to be shown at the Moors National Park Centre. The idea was to share with visitors […]