Wood carving at the 'Really Classical Relay', accompanied by historical instruments such as the viol da gamba and Baroque oboe.

Last weekend, the Bristol Music Club played host to the 'Really Classical Relay' and I was invited to demonstrate wood carving there.

The Bristol Music Club has been running for over a hundred years and specialises in hosting recitals of chamber music at its home in Clifton. 

The Really Classical Relay was a three-day event at which an international group of very talented musicians played classical pieces in a relaxed environment. Children were welcome during the day and visitors could bring food and drink from the cafe into the room while they listened. It was a really nice atmosphere to be in, as you may imagine.

I was set up in the reception next door and spent the afternoon carving a relief portrait of Beethoven into ash timber (F. excelsior). In the evening, the carving was auctioned and the profits went towards the running of the event.

Of course there were times when a quiet piece of music required me to down tools for a bit, rather than crashing over it with some unexpected percussion using mallet and gouge!

It was fun to do a relief portrait. I really enjoy the challenge of carving portraits; they aren't easy and anyone can spot if the likeness of a famous person is wrong. Happily, even without the chance to do any prior research and little reference material to work from, everyone spotted that this was Beethoven...

It was also great to see the beautiful reproductions of historical instruments such as the viol da gamba being played for some pieces.  Another instrument that caught my eye was a Baroque oboe made from boxwood (B. sempervirens), similar to this one:

Image from https://sites.google.com/site/ohmusicstudent/band-instruments/oboe/oboe-history

Thanks to Jon and the team for making me so welcome.

Making a carved wooden brooch with a celtic design, to be worn as a kiltpin

A kiltpin is traditionally worn pinned to one corner of the front of a kilt. It's not supposed to go through both of the layers of material underneath, as this would make the kilt move badly and could possibly damage the material. Instead it is more of a decoration on the kilt's apron (the flat, unpleated part worn to the front).

The origin of wearing a kiltpin is thought to go back to Queen Victoria using a hat pin to secure her kilted skirt on a windy day. I had made a sgian dubh (the knife carried in one's sock -called the 'hose'- with a kilt) and wanted to make a matching kiltpin to go with it. Obviously, it had to be carved too!

 

The kiltpin is 50mm (2") in diameter. The yellowish wood is box (Buxus sempervirens) wood, which I picked up whilst out walking in Gloucestershire. Box is a native tree in Britain and a traditional use for the timber is in wood engraving plates. It was the ideal wood for the kiltpin as it is very tough but carves well and can take a good finish. You can see the piece of found wood with the sanded start of the kiltpin in this picture:

It is inlaid with laburnum from the garden of the house that I grew up in - the same wood used to make the handle and sheath of the sgian dubh. Apparently my father would hang a hammock from this tree for my mother to rest in when she was pregnant with me.

There are also three pieces of solid silver inlay and the central setting is a piece of microgranite that originally came from Ailsa Craig. This interesting stone is also set into the end of the sgian dubh and you can read more about it here.

The boxwood was sanded to shape to begin with. The stone to go in the centre was then ground to shape with diamond burrs and polished.

Once the position of the stone setting was known, marked and hollowed out then the rest of the design could be drawn on with a pencil...

... before being carefully carved using my Opinel lock knife. No tricks for that part of the process, just a lot of practice and a sharp blade! The holes for the silver inlay were drilled and then the stone and silver were fixed in with two-part epoxy.

The pin on the back was fixed on using epoxy and three small brass rivets to give extra security.

Here's the kiltpin with the sgian dubh. If you are interested, I would consider commissions to make similar ones. Now I'm looking forward to seeing the knife and pin being worn with the kilt!

Wooden stamps for Steve Carter of Saint Werburghs Pottery, to use for embossing ceramics

I've just finished some stamps for a friend of mine, who will use them to emboss designs into clay.

 Steve Carter is a very experienced ceramicist based in Bristol, who runs the 'St Werburghs Pottery'. He loves using stamps carved from boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) to make embossed designs as he says that they don't stick to the clay like stamps made from rubber, plastic or plaster do. They are also a lot sturdier! The boxwood used for the new stamps grew in Gloucestershire, about 24 miles (39 km) from my studio. The older pieces used boxwood that grew near Exeter in Devon.

You can see more about the stamps made previously on my website, by following this link:
http://www.carvings-with-stories.co.uk/Ceramic%20stamps.html

Steve reckons that "Plaster of Paris doesn't come close to an Al Park 'Boxwood'".

Here's some that I've made previously for him in the last few years:

The two new ones will be used in producing a line of ceramics for the award-winning St Werburghs City Farm Café in Bristol.

Image from www.swcityfarm.co.uk/about/cafe/

One has the logo of the St Werburghs City Farm (a crowing cockerel) on it, and the other just says 'City Farm Café'. If you're in Bristol, why not go and have a look at them in the Café itself? The food there is great too.

You can see Steve's website by following this link:

 http://www.stwerburghspottery.co.uk

To find more out about the City Farm Cafe, you can go here:

 http://www.swcityfarm.co.uk/about/cafe/