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 !
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.
