I cannot remember the last time I picked up a chisel. Every now and then a period comes along like this when I seem to be doing everything else but chisel stone, which, at the end of the day is what I get paid to do. Having installed the Market Warsop sculpture a couple of weeks ago and then exhibited at the “Sock” in Loughborough, I have travelled to Northumberland a couple of times this week to run workshops and to attend an interview for a project, prior to that I had been doing all of the preparation which precedes that sort of thing. In about an hour I am off to Ireland to get some Kilkenny Limestone for the Bevin Boys Memorial and next week I will be helping my friend Richard Perry to run some stone carving workshops on the Isle of Sheppey! I am looking forward to having a break from all this madness and to getting some overdue carving done later this week, if I can remember what a chisel looks like that is.
Stone carving chisels
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.
It looks picturesque, what is missing from this picture is a freezing wind and a grumpy sculptor.
I cant remember it being so cold for so long at the workshop, more snow again this week. I like to have the doors open to blow the dust out so heating it is almost impossible. Looking forward to the Spring and doing a bit of chiseling outside again. Luckilly I have no courses planned until April. There are still spaces on the May course, more details can be found on
www.chisel-it.co.uk or on
www.artsbowl.comI have been at Hall farm since leaving Staunton Harold Craft Centre in 2002. I found that I was making increasingly larger work and therefore using more and more power tools – not great when the general punblic are wandering through your workshop! The workshop at Hall Farm was built around me as I was carving, it has massive doors for moving boulders (then finished sculptures) in and out and is in a lovely location just iutside of Ashby de la Zouch. Unfortunately it is quite exposed and tends to have its own micro climate, meaning weather like that in the picture is more common than I would like.
