I have done a number of commissions over the years. It is a very different process to carving for an exhibition of carving because I have an idea that I want to develop and explore. It starts when I am approached and asked if I will carve a specific form or a particular piece of wood.
My favourite was a beautiful piece of wood from the branch of a tree that the customers mother had been very fond of. The wood had been found in the attic recently, could I make anything from it. We looked at many pieces of sculpture to help me understand the customers likes and dislikes.
I then made a plastercine maquette of an abstract sculpture based on the shape of the wood and thinking about the relationship between the customer and the mother. I invited the customer to come and view it and discuss the details and some possible options and the limitations and characteristics of the wood. I gave the customer a quote and time to think about the project.
Once all was agreed and a 50% deposit paid I started to carve the form, this was very daunting. It was a unique piece of wood that I could not replace if anything went wrong. When I am doing a commission there is the additional pressure of meeting the customers expectations. I try to manage this carefully by making a maquette and discussing aspects of the sculpture in advance. You cannot be sure of exactly what you will find inside a piece of wood in terms of cracks and imperfections that might alter the course of a carving. I invited the customer in a couple of times to see the carving as it progressed and to discuss details of the finishing process.
Once completed, oiled and waxed the commission was ready for its final viewing, payment and then to go to its new home. So far customers have loved the work I have produced for them, and for me a great sense of relief of completing a commission successfully.
Before I start to carve I often make templates from my maquette and scale them to fit the wood that I am going to carve. For this carving I drew around the base of the maquette and drew the outline from the side. The maquette needed scaling up by x1.8 so I used my printer to make a 180% copy the drawing. Then I cut the outlines out to make the templates.
The templates allow me to transfer the outline shape accurately onto the wood. Then I can quickly carve the outline shape and redraw it on if I carve away the outline.
They look a little weird, but allow me to remove surplus wood quickly and efficiently.
So after a nights sleep I have modified the maquette, I think it is a bit better now. The left hand side seems to lead into the wave and there is a greater sense of balance as the piece starts, builds up and breaks over the top.
So I’ll sleep on it and then start carving if I am still happy.
Carving really helped me during lockdown. Suddenly I went from a busy schedule of carving, jewellery making and family life to all the restrictions of the covid lockdowns. In March 2020 I got back from an extended holiday feeling as though I made it back to the UK by the skin of my teeth. The coronavirus pandemic was causing increasing concern around the world. I got home, bought in a big food shop, bought a turbo trainer for my bike, went to the last pre covid meeting of professional woodcarvers at Michael Painters studio. We chatted about what was to come and how uncertain everything felt.
I tried to buy kiln dried lime from two of my normal suppliers but they were having problems with their supplies, but after a short delay I was able to procure the much needed wood.
By 23 March 2020 the first covid lockdown started! Aprils weather was superb, sunny and warm, just a fabulous spring. Events were all cancelled, shops were closed. There was no Wirral Open Studio Tour or Liverpool Summer Art Market. So I filled my time with my allotment, exercise and wood carving.
During the first lockdown I had carvings to finish and new ones to begin. I was half way through the carving of Female torso which I had been working on at Michael Painter’s studio. I had made a maquette out of plastercine, and so could complete the piece from it.
I was also half way through an Elven face which I had been working on at the professionals group. The aim was to free up my carving style and enjoy carving a humanoid face without being a slave to trying to obtain a perfect human face. My plastercine maquette was useful to help me obtain the correct proportions, depth to the features and anatomically correct details such as eyelids, lips and facial musculature. I am always working to improve gaining facial expression as I want it. The carved piece is as yet incomplete.
The time came and went for Wirral Open Studio Tour and I submitted some pieces for their on line exhibition. During the early weeks of lockdown I had been experimenting with the idea of making some more functional pieces, and had made a number of bowls inspired by natural forms.
The sun continued to shine and I continued to carve a small acorn pendant that a friend had asked me to do and a smaller version of my Eagle’s Head for another friend. Both are sill packed away in storage boxes awaiting the time that I can see my friends again.
As the summer progressed I returned to a piece that I had started over a year earlier – the head of a staffie. I had completed the obligatory plastercine maquette. I started to carve the staff in a piece of hawthorn with a beautiful grain, but such a hard wood. Never again!!
Whilst the weather held I continued with a series of semi human faces which I had been doing just to entertain myself and did a new “Tree Spirit” face.
As the summer drew in I left carving out in the garden to return to my studio.I completed male and female torsos in deep relief carvings to consolidate my proficiency in carving the human body. Doing carvings of the male and female forms together made me concentrate not he differences between anatomies and the differences in proportions, musculature and form. I used photographs of dancers as source material because they are well proportioned and the musculature is clear.
As we moved into the second lockdown I was asked to make three “Spiral on a Stone Plinth” for a friend who really likes the symbolism of the spiral representing our journey through life and our personal growth. The symbolism seemed poignant in these covid times, they were to be gifts for people who had seen much during the pandemic.
It made me think about doing some wood carving in response to the pandemic and this led to a “Tree of Life” carving and a Mobius Strip carving called “Eternal Love”. I was thinking about our need for strength, resilience, and new beginnings.
More recently I have returned to a recurrent theme of the female figure and have carved a female torso in the round, a younger woman than the first one. Again `I started with a plastercine maquette and created a slimmer form and started to play with the form, cutting away and changing the shape of part of the limbs.
Over the last year or two I have been improving my skills with regards to carving faces, and so I challenged myself to carve a portrait of the character Gollum from Lord of the Rings. As always I started with a plastercine maquette and spent a few days correcting depth of the eye sockets, the shape and size of the eyes, the cheeks and the expression created by the shape of the mouth, facial muscles and eyes. Once this was complete I started to carve a block of lime, gradually creating the nose by dropping back the cheeks, forming the eye sockets and then forming the mouth and chin. My work always goes through various stages. Initially I block out the overall form, and then start to form the features and think “how will this ever look like Gollum?”, then I re-carve the cheeks and jaw line and think “this is rubbish!” Further adjustments are made and the nose shape established, “maybe it looks a bit like Gollum.” Then I worked on the bulging eyes expressing fear and excitement and finalised the nose shape, “Um, getting closer.” Next the mouth was roughed in, wide and grinning uncertainly, “can I capture this expression?” Still a way to go!!
I have just been asked to carve another heart bowl, the third lockdown looks as though it will come to an end soon. Perhaps the end is insight and this will close the circle on what has been the strangest year I have ever known. How would I have ever survived it without carving to occupy my hands and to keep my mind busy.
One of my favourite pieces is my Eagles Head which captures a wild moment in the angle of the head and the savagery of the beak. It is a contemporary piece which has been hollowed out from within. This enhances the impact of light and shade, especially through the pierced eyes.
Now I want to use these ideas when carving the head of a lioness. So where to start? I visited Liverpool’s World Museum and spent the morning drawing lioness skulls.
Then I developed my ideas drawing lioness heads, linking the external appearance with the underlying bone structure. I wanted to capture the savagery of a snarl based on lifelike representation which has been stylised.
Before starting to carve I still needed to get the shape firmly in my head, so I made a model of the lioness head in plasticine, gradually forming the head from a block. Fundamentally it is a different process because when modelling you can add and remove pieces of plasticine, but with carving you can only remove material. However it still helps to define the shape clearly in my mind. I gradually formed a head remembering to capture the snarl and keeping the eyes of the predator forwards.
My first attempt looked more like a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, so I remodelled it several times more until it became more cat like, then like a big cat. The shape of the nose and ears developed. During the process I was lucky enough to have a day carving with the sculptor Michael Painter. He helped me advising on how to set the eyes in, shape the brow and position the ears.
After several more remodelling sessions it has started to take on the form I had in my mind. Ways of stylising it into a more contemporary form are growing in my mind. Soon I will be able to start carving the lovely air dried block of cherry tree which is tucked away in a black bin bag in my shed.
