Workshop

In the Workshop today – chock & wedge

  It isn’t always just about carving the stone.  Time this morning has been spent in getting this block, weighing over a tonne, to a sensible height for working, and so that I can move it around the workshop as easily as possible. Just like chisels and hammers, wood battens and wedges are important tools.  […]

Tools in the sunshine

  I caught a glimpse of my tools in the sunshine.  They’re all me.  I watched them, so full of joy and happiness.  They wait for hands while I figure out what to do next. In a rush I reach out and grasp tight – thankful, so very thankful, I’m not isolated from them.   […]

Hailstorms, Sunshine and Birds

  Hailstones batter the workshop roof, the wind gusting them in swirls.  Moments later the sun shines.  It is the cycle of this morning. Between each stormy bout the birds appear and resume their activity, some brave the hail battering anyway to forage and feed. And sing. And court and pair. And flit and wag. […]

In the Workshop today – Lapwing sculpture

  I can hear Lapwings calling as I carve.  A couple of weeks ago I saw a sole bird and rejoiced its return to my little area of the North York Moors – Lapwings nest in the fields above my workshop.  The wind was high, and the Lapwing was buffeted in the sky, and I […]

In the Workshop today – all about Sandstone

  Birdlets carved in Sandstone – a row of birds going about their business, being busy, conversing, doing bird things.  I do love carving this stone, it somehow helps me get the expression in my sculpture that is me, that is about my experience of wildlife. My view is that there is nothing at all […]

In the Workshop today – bird features

  Carving started from a little line sketch, a brief scribble made some time ago.  It is a thought, a ‘hardly there’ shape quickly jotted down so as not to forget the idea. Then, seeing it again, while looking for something else, it created excitement, and renewed thoughts and possibilities for it as a sculpture. […]

In the Workshop today – Fancy Birds

  Perhaps it is the powerful twisty gusts of wind that has ruffled the tail feathers of these two.   It has certainly brought me into the workshop to finish them, I’m sanding their surfaces smooth and the dust keeps blowing up in my eyes and I’m buffeted off-balance. Fancy Birds – for their resplendent showy-offy […]

Yellow Bird

  During the Big Garden Birdwatch 2020 I was reminded of Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth.  I couldn’t remember it all, but do recall The birds around me hopped and played, Their thoughts I cannot measure:- But the least motion which they made It seemed a thrill of pleasure. And so it […]

In the Workshop today – Little Bird

  Around the workshop a restless Wren is busy darting about, and when the door is open comes in to check for lacewings and spiders to feed on.   Although they’re highly territorial birds, during winter months, and especially when it is bitterly cold, they roost together, several dozen huddled together for warmth.  It’s lovely to […]

Happy Christmas

    My very best wishes for a Happy Christmas     from me here at my festive feeling workshop. Jennifer xx