Graeme Mitcheson – Stone Sculptor, ARBS

I installed this sculpture in Market Warsop, Nottinghamshire today. It was a tricky operation as the site was by the stream in a particularly boggy part of the Carrs (a kind of park come nature trail). Usually, I can just turn up with a hi-ab lorry and drop it in place. Today, I hired a hi-ab to take it from the workshop to the car park for the site, craned it off onto my own pick up, drove it across the field (3 times) and assembled it using the fork lift you can see in the picture. This is always more risky as the fork lift does not have the manoeuvrability or the accuracy of a crane lift. Luckily the driver today was excellent and very patient which always helps.  The sculpture looks great on this site and it was much appreciated by the passers by that I spoke to today. So ends one of the longest running public art projects that I am ever likely to be involved in, I was first asked to make the piece in the autumn of 2008. So, 3 arts officers, a number of different sites and a few grumpy water voles later …..

Lowering the sculpture

All done, the Kilkenny Limestone sculpture in Market Warsop, Notts.

and finally there is a happy ending.

Loughborough's iconic sock sculpture

Its been a busy old week. I am installing a big sculpture in Market Warsop in Nottinghamshire next week so have been finishing that and also laying a concrete foundation for it to sit on. Added to that I have been working on a proposal that I have been shortlisted for, while I have also been carving a welsh slate vertical sundial and dusting off some other pieces to take to the “Sock” in Loughborough this weekend. The “sock” exhibition presumably takes its name from the iconic bronze sculpture in Loughborough Market place made by Shona Kinloch. As ever with new public art, it was met with derision when it first appeared but has gradually been taken under the wing of the townsfolk, so much so that it was the focus of a hilarious “act of worship” which even made the local news, definitely worth checking that out on u-tube. Hopefully see some of you in Loughborough at the weekend.

Triumphs can sometimes be disappointing.

I thought friday’s episode of Mastercrafts was a triumph for sculpture over stone masonry. In a dramatic late twist, the lady (apologies for not remembering names) beat off the competition with a fairly decent fist of a sculptural bird bath come sundial. Despite seemingly struggling for most of the show (top marks programme editors) to complete any work, she managed to show the blokes a thing or two about creativity, as well as health and safety, being the only person in the show to bother with a dust-mask whilst carving sandstone for the best part of 6 weeks.

The chiseling of the flat surface took me back to the 1st time I picked up carving tools at Loughborough Art College in 1993. The art college had 4 or 5 tutors whose primary medium was stone, needless to say, all students were expected to do their share of chiseling during the course and the result was a good sprinkling of competent stone sculptors by the end of it all.  Sadly on my recent returns to the art college, I have notheard any tapping of chisels with mallets let alone any cursing of the tutor for revealing that a hand carved flat surface is 2mm out on one edge. So, I wonder what will become of the heroic red haired dust masked chiseler from Mastercrafts? In the other episodes, the winner was awarded a short paid apprentiship with a talented maker while, rather disappointingly, her prize was to get to leave her carving 100 yards from where she made it! Ah well, at least she won’t have silicosis for her trouble.

I am pleased to say that I will be spending a few days in Rushey Mead School in Leicester in July running a stone carving workshop. It will be the 4th time that I have worked with the school although I missed out last year so I am glad to be going back. I will be teaching the students about stone carving who will then make sculptures that will be sited permanently in the school. The kids will work in pairs, in half hourly bursts. Because they have not chiseled before, it can be tiring so working in short stints increases productivity and helps to keep their focus. I really enjoy running workshops like these, it is great to get out of the workshop and have a good laugh with the kids (and staff who often do more chiseling than their students!).  I love their enthusiasm and the watching the pride they take in creating their first stone sculptures. I run many workshops in schools and they can range from group sessions like this one where a series of artworks are made, through to the creation of a single, larger, permanent artwork for the school. A few years ago I made a piece for Countesthorpe Community College near Leicester with the help of over 50 children. They each carved a face into a sandstone wall, the result was a kind of crowd scene with dozens of faces, each individually carved with a range of expressions. There are more details about my workshops for schools on my website at www.chisel-it.co.uk

Stoney faced.

Despite having fun with a camera phone, a scruffy chicken and a nice piece of Kilkenny Limestone, I have in fact been carving a headstone this week. I realise that most “proper” lettercutters like to put their stones on an easel but I have always carved mine almost flat. Although I have carved many inscriptions (mainly on site) in a vertical position, I generally find it useful to be able to manoeuvre around the stone. Perhaps this is because I am self taught, with the help of a book by Gadsby from Tiranti’s (bought before I realised most of their stone carving stuff was tut). The only downsides as far as I can tell are that you can’t view the work as well as you would with it on an easel and that you are constantly blowing away the dust and chippings and sometimes you get a stiff back from bending over…………maybe I will stand the stone up next time afterall.

Taking a closer cluck!

Welsh slate memorial

I am delighted to announce that I have been asked to create a memorial for the Bevin Boys which will be sited at the National Memorial Arboretum near Burton on Trent. For those of you who are wondering who the Bevin Boys were, here is a brief summary taken from the Bevin Boys Association website -

 ”As Britain was unable to import Coal during World War II, the production of coal from mines in Britain had to be increased. To meet this need it was decided by the Minister of Labour, Ernest Bevin, that a percentage of young men called up to serve in the forces should work in the mines. from 1943 to the end of the war one in ten of the young men called up were sent to work in the mines. This caused a great deal of upset as many of the young men wanted to join the fighting forces and many felt that they were not valued. These conscript miners were given the nick name ‘Bevin Boys’. Many suffered taunts as they wore no uniform and were wrongly assumed to be avoiding serving in the armed forces.”

The Bevin Boys Badge

I will be making the memorial from a large block of rough Kilkenny Limestone. We decided on this because of its similarity to coal and the rough nature of the boulder is far more relevant to the Bevin Boys than a polished monument could ever be. There will be a long inscription carved into the rough surface of the stone which could look amazing. There will also be the Bevin Boys badge, pictured above. I am hoping to travel to Kilkenny in the next couple of weeks with an ex Bevin Boy to find the right block for the project and will put a picture on the blog in due course.

Bit of a busmans holiday for me this weekend. I spent saturday and sunday knocking plaster off a bedroom wall with a hammer and chisel. Same process – rather different outcome – sadly just as tiring.  Before starting that, I enjoyed watching the “Master Craftsmen”  TV programme on friday night with Monty Don, I must confess to not being his greatest fan though after he blanked me at Hampton Court Palace Flower show a few years back. I always like to guess at the start of shows like this who will make a good fist of it. The 1st week (thatching) seemed obvious as the big fella won but the last couple of weeks have been a bit trickier, probably because they have had to be creative as well as skillful and not necessarilly too strong. When I run stone carving weekends, I am often surprised at who makes the best work. I find that, especially on a short 2 day course, the more “reckless” carvers rather than the careful ones triumph. For beginners, it is far better to “get stuck in” than to be timid. Often when I work in schools, it is the usually disruptive or rowdy kids who make the fastest progress. There is a time to be careful but your 1st day of stone carving is’nt it. I am looking

Avoided eye contact - Monty Don

 forward to the Stone Carving episode of “Master Craftsmen” in a couple of weeks time.

Meanwhile, if you fancy a go, I still have spaces available on my May stone carving course and more deatils are available on www.chisel-it.co.uk or on www. artsbowl.com

some of the 3000 letters carved into the sculpture

I was sad to hear that the Astra Zenica Pharmaceutical Plant down the road in Loughborough is going to close resulting in about 1000 job losses. My 1st major sculpture commission was for Astra Zenica and as far as I know is still there. Astra  used to regularly commission artworks from Loughborough art college and the commission I won was run as a competition open to students, graduates and tutors of the college. I had recently graduated and was shortlisted with 2 of my former tutors for an interview. Sadly, they gave the commission to one of my tutors, but to my elation, I received a phone call the following day to say that they wanted to commission my sculpture too and had got some extra money. Needless to say I was extremely chuffed and treated the missus to grand night at the Ferrers Arms! I wonder what will become of “Cures”, the hoptonwood limestone column. It was designed specifically for that space but I suppose it could be moved to another Astra site, I seem to remember fixing it extremely thoroughly though so I hope they dont ask me to shift it!

"Cures". Hoptonwood limestone. 1999Some of the 3000 or so letters carved into the sculpture !

Untitled but I am working on it.....

Early last month I installed this twisting sculpture in Nether Whitacre, North Warwickshire. I spent some time talking through ideas and themes for the work with residents of the village. I decided that there were 4 themes coming through that needed incorporating into the artwork in some way. They were all things that they felt were important in the development of the village over the years. Thus the 4 sided sculpture with the themes gradually twisting together. The 4 themes were the railway, agriculture, the rivers and the flora and fauna of the village. The stone is Woodkirk Sandstone from a quarry near Leeds. This is probably the best sandstone that I have carved, tight grained and good colour.  Unfortunately the service at the quarry can be rather unpredictable in my experience.  This sculpture is 1 of 3 that I created for the North Arden Heritage Trail during 2009. The others were in Fillongley and Ansley. You will find pictures of these on my website at www.chisel-it.co.uk