Weasel Sculpture

Weasel carved in Yorkstone

Wildlife is a constant inspiration for my sculpture – infused with the feeling of weasel after watching one bounding and zig-zagging in the field by my workshop, I wanted to carve one.

I chose my favourite Yorkstone to carve the weasel, mainly because it is a stone I know well and all my energy needed to be put into capturing this little creature’s intensity, liveliness and fluid movement.

It is such an excitement to me, watching wildlife, that I’m full with a burning force to outpour the sensation by recreating (in stone) the scene, as it made me feel.

At one point the weasel stopped in its tracks, perhaps it caught sight/scent of me, stood upright and scanned.  It happened so quickly, but in that small moment it was utterly magnificent in its wildness and I felt its sharp eyes.

There’s something of a frenetic scrabble to shape the stone before the intensity and memory fades – stone slows you down – a desperate and joyous challenge follows.

I carved the weasel some years ago, but I just came across this image of it, and was reminded of that afternoon, crouched by a fence trying to keep still, watching the weasel going about its business.  I feel it all again now, vividly.