Graeme Mitcheson – Stone Sculptor, ARBS

Some friends stroke my mussels

Great to see the mussel sculpture is Conwy is still being appreciated. Some friends of mine sent me this photo last week. Last time I saw it, the sculpture was keeping its polish where people have been touching it but is fading in other places. In that respect, some more tall people like Paul (at the back)  going to see it would be useful. Not quite so helpful, is a dog called “Chopper” who catalogues his visits to recognisable landmarks in his online diary  ”The Chopper Chronicles”. Regrettably he signed the mussel sculpture in the bottom corner in the way only dogs can. Not sure how that affects the weathering process of Kilkenny Limestone but I suggest next time you visit Conwy that you don’t touch t the bottom part of the sculpture!

Kilkenny Limestone for the Bevin Boys Memorial

I enjoyed watching the Junior Apprentice last night. It was the episode where Srallen asks the youths to organise and sell paintings in a London Art Gallery. I felt a certain amount of sympathy for the poor kids as they tried their hardest to flog some ropey prints and paintings for hundreds and thousands of pounds. My personal favourite was the artist who had photographed herself in other peoples houses whilst house sitting for them - a bit spooky but definitely stood out from the others. It was a big ask for the teenagers having to spot the paintings that might sell, negotiate with the artist, arrange the pictures in the gallery and then drum up sufficient clients to make a buzzing exhibition – and then sell the pictures. Cant imagine too many of them will end up being a self employed sculptor, if they did, then their tasks would include promotional work, advertising, applying for commissions, accountant, secretary, salesman, designer, IT manager, purchaser,  sculptor, vehicle maintenance manager, sweeper up and tea maker. Get used to it kids – its as good as it gets !

On lighter note, the Kilkenny Limestone arrived for the Bevin Boys memorial which I will start in the next few days. I will put some pics up when I have got my chisels onto it.

Harry Parkes with our chosen block

The vast quarry near Kilkenny

I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Kilkenny in Ireland. With me was Harry Parkes, a terrific character with bags of energy and a million great stories. Harry is a former Bevin Boy miner who has been instrumental in organising and fundraising for the Bevin Boys Memorial which I have been asked to create. Together we set out to find the right piece of stone for the memorial. We had an idea of the sort of thing we wanted, a craggy rock, not polished or sawn,  flat enough for me to carve and tall enough to be impressive. The colour of Kilkenny especially when wet, we knew was reminiscent of coal. A sawn piece of stone is easy – you jot your dimensions down on a piece of paper and give them to a quarry to cut. A rough boulder these days is often a different kettle of fish, especially when it comes to Kilkenny limestone as it is usually sawn fro the rock face. After much searching around this enormous quarry, we eventually settled on a the perfect block. It was scooped up like an enormous biscuit by one of the mammoth machines and set to one side ready for posting to Ashby de la Zouch. (The lady at Paulstown Post Office inisted the lump be placed on the scales). All this searching around the dry quarry left Harry and me gasping for a cuppa which we duly enjoyed in the sunshine while admiring Kilkenny Castle. So, a very productive trip was had and a good start to thge project. Just waiting for the postie now….

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.

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.

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.