FROM A CHELSEA GOLD MEDAL TO THE OTHER STUFF WE PEDDLE. HERE BE DRAGONS

Our Chelsea Gold medal

My first involvement with the RHS Chelsea Flower show was both enjoyable and rewarding. I was approached to make a Chrysalis for the Talitha Arts Garden (please see my previous blog post here to learn about how it was made) and we were awarded a Gold Medal and best in the ‘all about plants’ category medal too.

The small porcelain butterflies were made by ceramicist Naoko Tagai. My partner Sam was part of the planting team and it was a pleasure being part of this amazingly gifted ensemble, including LANDCRAFT who helped with the construction. You can read all about it here on the RHS website.

Back to normality in Norfolk (is that a thing?)

Since then I have been catching up on commissioned work in the workshop, which is mainly memorial work on the whole, with a smattering of sculptural pieces and other projects. I like to make my own sculptures when I get time, but often the orders coming in keeps us all busy. When I started I worked on my own and now there are up to four of us here and occasionally we have ‘special guests’.

I thought it would be interesting to show a few pictures of the team and our working environment. I know that people, including myself, like to see the place where things are made and some of the equipment. I think it helps people to try and envisage the process a little rather than just seeing all the completed pieces. The pictures below show our Norfolk stone works, and the core carving team, including myself, Dan Sam and Mirella.

Stone works, where we work stones

We are very lucky to be working in this gorgeous rural setting, it’s peaceful (unless we’re on the power tools!) and beautiful, the sunsets are amazing, but it’s cold and draughty in the winter, and we need a good stock of firewood to keep us going. I invested in a forklift this year and it’s made such a difference. When I first started out I was on my own and would often spend the best part of a day moving heavy stones on my own, with levers and rollers.

Gradually I have been able to improve the space and get better equipment. I set up in 2000 with very basic equipment and had to convert the buildings bit by bit, the first jobs being removing the pig muck, patching up the blockwork, tiling, insulating etc etc. It’s been a long slow process, and it is ongoing. The last few images show some recent sculptures I made inspired by ancient Italian steles I saw in Lunigiana, they’re really amazing, and up to 5000 years old. These are my interpretations, made for fun, exploring textures and simple forms and symbols. They now stand on guard outside the workshop, witnessing everything.

Here be dragons

These next images show some heraldry in Portland stone from Dorset, which I installed yesterday in Waldringfield, Suffolk. This is a very intricate carving for its size, and I felt we were pushing the material as far as it would go really. It’s around 40cm wide. Then below that a few random images of recent work.

A few other recent pieces (sculpture, relief and incised)

ALL SHALL BE WELL (fingers crossed)

I have been asked to show work in an exhibition commemorating Julian of Norwich in October, and have made a few pieces to show. They are variations of a design I made a while back. These first three are hand carved in Purbeck Grub, Westmorland slate and Caithness stone from Scotland:

I have now made a digital ‘vector’ version of this design, so that I can offer more affordable versions of this. The versions below are sandblasted into lovely stones. All of these are around 40cm wide. If you would like to own one of these please message me. I will be making more of the sandblasted varieties and if you need one making to a different size to fit your home, I can do this. Thanks for reading this far! Until next time…………………..let’s hope all shall be well. To find out more about my work please follow me here on Instagram, and now we have a new Instagram account which documents our daily life in the workshop too – it’s more of an insight into the background mechanics of a workshop as opposed to a portfolio, it’s here: stoneworks.norfolk – check us out!