Not all my work is done in a cosy studio, sometimes I have to work on site and this can be quite demanding at times, as with this commission to design and carve an inscription in St Peter’s church in St Albans. Ordinarily this sort of project would be carved on my easel and then installed, but in this case it was a last minute addition to new sandstone flooring. You might find the next image amusing. Dan and I had to fold ourselves up and carve horizontally which was back breaking.

One day we had organ practice (in the foreground quite frankly) but this was actually really great. The best part apart from driving away at the end of the job! The sandstone is Hazeldean from Northumberland, which is fairly coarse, and likes to eat chisels. The result was very rewarding in the end. It was important to carve the lettering really deep in order to get good shadows as this increases legibility.

Here are a few memorials I have been working on recently too, the first few are slate:

Slate is a very good material for fine detailed work, whereby you can almost treat the imagery as an etching or illustration whereas sandstone is more suited to bold carving:

The two stones above were made as blanks to show the sort of thing that can be done in sandstone, a reference to eighteenth century stones where the masonry elements are so strong and exuberant. These are available for use if anyone feels inspired. The left hand one has a raised circular element ready for a relief carving.

Finally I’ll show you my most travelled memorial, which was sent to the Falkland Isles recently. This is Portuguese limestone: