Graeme Mitcheson – Stone Sculptor, ARBS

I have just returned from a  weekend down in Windsor with the family, apart from the obligatory outing to Legoland with the kids, we also managed to have a nose around Eton School. The most striking thing for me was the stunning amount of graffiti chiseled into every bench, desk, door and wall you see. Some of this stuff dates back centuries and judging by the size and depth of some of the carving, probably took several hours to do. In the museum was a special bench where naughty boys would sit  to accept their punishment, this was probably the only bit of wood in the whole school without a mark on it ! Occasionally, some of the carving would be of really high quality, obviously, these boys have been on one of my stone carving weekends for a few pointers, there are more details about my courses on my main website at www.chisel-it.co.uk and I will announce some new dates for these soon. Meanwhile over in Legoland there is a sensational collection of things created solely from Lego bricks. These range from cities,buildings and landmarks through to famous people, giant dragons, motorbikes and even a marvellous portrait of the Queen. Who are the people who make these things and how do you get a job like that? They are clearly very talented and judging by some of the humour attached to some of their creation are having lots of fun doing it. My C.V will be heading down to Legoland in due course.

Some examples of work done on a weekend carving course

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.

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

In addition to weekend stone carving courses, I am also happy to offer individual stone carving tuition to those who prefer to learn on a one on one basis. This will be equally as intense and hard work however I will be able to monitor your progress more thoroughly throughout the day and give you a more in depth knowledge of the art of carving stone. This might  include discussing suppliers of suitable carving stone for your needs, tools and some handy tips that might be missed in the hurly burly of the normal stone carving weekends. You may wish to specialise in one aspect of carving that I will be able to guide you on more comprehensively. Individual tuition for one day is £120 for your 1st day and £100 thereafter.

I will be running 2 stone carving weekends in the coming months. The 1st is in April but is fully booked, the 2nd is on the 22nd and 23rd of May, I still have spaces available on this one. The cost is £130 fo the weekend and includes all stone, tools and many cups of tea. The courses are designed to be productive and fun but they are hard work. There are more details on my website at www.chisel-it.co.uk . They are aimed at beginners although many people have returned a number of times to carve more stuff. We try to get everyone to complete a sculpture so they can take it home at the end of the course although some people equip themselves with tools and finish them off themselves. I have been running courses for nearly 15 years and  there have been sculptures of pretty much everything including violins, dolphins, horses, many heads, penguins, pelicans, sundials, naked torsos, water features, abstract pieces, legs, shells and an alien from the movie “Alien”. The oldest person to attend was a lady who travelled all the way from Portsmouth and she was 82, proving that anyone can have a go.

Welcome to my 1st ever blog post. Hopefully you will have visited www.chisel-it.co.uk where you will have seen images of my sculptures and the sort of stuff that I get up to including courses and work in schools etc. I hope that this blog site will allow me to post up to date pics of my work and sculptures evolving from rough blocks through to the finished pieces. I will also post dates of courses and any events that I will be attending.

Right now in the workshop I am coming towards the end of a sculpture due to be sited in Market Warsop in Notts. It is a Kilkenny Limestone piece about 2m tall. As you can see, parts of the stone are polished and I have worked back into these to create texture and the finished surface.  Kilkenny limestone is a beast of a stone, not great for carving but it does take a good polish and picks up the textures that I wanted. It is extremely hard for a limestone and therefore great for a public sculpture. I have used it before on a number pieces, the mussel sculpture on Conwy Quay being my favourite to date. This piece even made it onto the Antiques Road Show when Fiona Bruce talked about the mussel fishing industry while more recently made it into the Britannica Book of Molluscs (or something similar) You can see this on the opening page of www.chisel-it.co.uk The 1st time I used Kilkenny was for the seats in Museum Square in Leicester in 2003. The polish on these has faded but it has kept a good shine where people have been touching and climbing on them which is great.

I will continue to post pics about the sculpture as it comes closer to completion.