Love Your Weekend I HAD THE WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY TO APPEAR ON ITV’S LOVE YOUR WEEKEND PROGRAMME HOSTED BY ALAN TITCHMARSH. KEEP READING TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE! HOW THE OPPORTUNITY AROSE As a Stone carver, I’ve had the privilege of working on numerous projects that showcase the beauty and durability of natural stone. However, being featured on “Love Your Weekend” with Alan Titchmarsh may well have just been a personal highlight! The opportunity to share my passion for working with stone on a national platform was both humbling and exciting. It came about through a recommen ..read more

Meet my Team! I have the privilege of working with a fantastic team of people. Keep reading to meet my team and find out why it’s so important to find the right people to work with.  The feeling of Support I’ve been working with stone for 14 years, but it’s only since 2019 that I have really been running my own business. In these last four years I have learnt so much about how to operate a small craft/art business. My number one tip is to find the right people to work with. I spend most of my time happily carving on my own in my studio. However, I still feel like I have a team of pe ..read more

Visit to Japan - Part Two I’m sitting on a Japan Airlines flight travelling at around 500mph back to Heathrow. I left my last blog at the point where we were speeding across Japan at 200mph on a bullet train, heading from Tokyo to Kyoto on my Japan Visit with John Smedley The Bullet Train To Visit Kyoto The bullet train was such a fantastic experience. Comparing it with UK train travel it was so clean and comfortable, and very reasonably priced! I loved Watching the Japanese countryside whizzing past my window. The journey flew by and before I knew it we were in Kyoto.  Our hosts ha ..read more

Japan - Part One As I write this, I am sitting on a bullet train travelling from Tokyo to Kyoto. I’m not sure that’s something I could ever have imagined I would be able to say! Keep reading to find out how this came about The John Smedley Craft Prize 2022 How did a stone carver from Hampshire end up in Japan, exhibiting work in Kyoto?! It’s a question I have asked myself quite a few times on this trip already and we’ve only been here for a day and a half!  Firstly let me tell you about the John Smedley Craft Award. This prize was set up to help promote British Craftsmanship and sup ..read more

The Prince's Master Crafters Read about my experince filming for the Sky Arts programme, The Prince’s Master Crafters! How did you become involved? Back in September last year one of my lovely Instagram followers saw an advert looking for craftsmen for TV programme. They kindly forwarded it on to me in case I was interested.  Subsequently I lost the message and when I remembered who sent it, I was a couple of days past the application deadline! I decided to send an email anyway, and I’m so pleased I did! I spoke to a lady at Spun Gold TV who asked if I would mind if she recorded our ..read more

Being an Artist I didn’t realise that I was avoiding being ‘an artist’. Read more to find out why, and how I got to grips with promoting my work (with some help from my Mum!) That Envious Feeling  Quietly chipping away in my workshop is a very happy place for me to be. Having said that I also love a private view or exhibition opening, chatting with lots of different people and of course selling my work where possible. A number of my piers were starting to win awards and be selected for exhibitions, which I aspired to being part of. I started to wonder why that wasn’t happening to me ..read more

Creating New Work Ever wondered how artists create new work? Let me take you through my thought processes of how I develop ideas and what I’m considering for my next piece of carving Previous Work  Whilst planning my next piece of work I’ve been looking back at previous carvings and considering which elements I want to develop.  This is often how I start to move onto the next piece, I want my work to continue to develop and grow, building on from previous ideas feels like the natural way to do this.  Close up of Sequins showing the surface texture and chisel marks  ..read more

Limited Edition Casts I’ve had limited edition Jesmonite casts made of three of my recent carvings. They’re now available for sale in the shop! Keep reading to find out about the process. Why Cast Your Work Stone carving is an incredibly time-consuming craft. I love the process, party due to this slow place. However, the pace makes it difficult to generate enough income. In the same way that artists sell prints of their works, sculptors sell casts of theirs. I am hugely excited about this new side to my business. I can use the original carving to make multiple casts. The best part is I ca ..read more

Random Acts Of Kindness This year for National Random Acts of Kindness day I carved a house number as a surprise gift for a complete stranger!  Guerrilla Carving Years ago, when living in London with a fellow carver, we used to have entertaining conversations over a bottle of wine about ‘guerrilla’ carving. We always thought it would be fun to carve something in a Banksy type way, grafitti, but beautifully executed! Neither of us ever had the time or bottle to follow through with the idea. It issomething that has been kicking around in the back of my mind ever since! I thought it wou ..read more

How I Became a Stone Carver Stone Carving certainly didn’t feature in my school career advice, or run in the family! Keep reading to find out how I got involved and how serendipitous my career has been! Where It All Began Way back in 2007 I completed a degree in fine art and moved back home to look for some work. I tried out a few different jobs (barristers clerk being one of them!) before I started working for a local company who made and fitted granite work surfaces.  Little did I know this was the beginning of my career working with stone.  I quickly realised I loved the work ..read more