Four seasons at Boiling Wells, St Werburghs, Bristol

These pictures show the seasons at the Boiling Wells nature reserve in inner city Bristol, where I work part-time. It is administered by St Werburgh's City Farm and is a beautiful place, as I hope you'll agree.

A snowy day in January

A frosty February morning

A sunny day in March

Springtime and the plum trees are in blossom

May/June, with the maypole still decked out

Late summer and the site is at its greenest

Autumnal golden leaves

If you would like to go to the St Werburgh's City Farm's website, or return to it, then click on this link

Breamie on the Matthew

My friend Breamie passed away recently and some of his friends gathered on the Matthew to remember him a week ago. He crewed on her many times during his life and I hope that the new figurehead will carry a bit of his spirit with the Matthew wherever she sails in the future.

Timber for 'Matthew" figurehead milled

Last Friday we milled the timber for the new Matthew figurehead at the Ashton Court estate on the edge of Bristol. The tree trunks used are Lawson cypress, which was cut down as part of a landscaping scheme and has been sitting around unused for a few years just down from the mansion which it grew next to. This timber is very durable and not bad to carve, so will be ideal for the Matthew. This kind of tree also comes originally from North America, so also ties in nicely with the Bristol-American connection that the Matthew represents.

My mate Bob brought along his Alaskan mill-a frame which attaches to a huge chainsaw so that timber can be cut up onsite. With the help of Alex Philips, the three of us managed to cut large logs into some good, usable timber in a day. Some of this will now be glued into a block to carve the figurehead from, making it more stable and less prone to warping or splitting over time than a squared-up piece of trunk would be.

 Alex, Bob and I take time out 

                                                                                           to pose for a team photo

Many thanks to Bob and Alex- it couldn't have been done without your help! And here's a nice sunset photo of Ashton Court to finish with...

Liz Krčma

The start of this year was sadly marked by the loss of  Liz, who was a very talented ceramicist and a good friend. Liz had previously shown at an important international ceramics festival in Croatia and  had just completed a residency at a ceramics research institute in Denmark, where she was planning to live. Her determination and creativity were inspiring to be around and she will be missed by a lot of people. I just wanted to remember her here. 

Carving workshop

Today was spent running a woodcarving workshop for the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV). The people attending were all young people who are carers, looking after someone (e.g. a family member) who needs help in their day-to-day life.

We carved signs from oak which will be put in the BTCV's Tree life centre in Kingswood, Bristol. The signs identify the different types of tree which are grown in the tree nursery there. The trees are sold to fund the charity's work.

Everyone produced some really good signs and it was a pleasure to work with them all. 

The finished signs, with the oil finish drying

Lettercutting in oak

I've just finished this lettercutting for a friend's house sign. It's a sort of a 'thank you' for showing my work in an exhibition called 'Inspired', which she curated at Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire.
The letters are to Sue's specifications and she also supplied the oak, which is beautiful but could be a bit splintery for the unwary carver to cut letters into! It should last well outdoors though.

New blog and new project

Welcome to my new blog!

May as well start with a really interesting project... I've been asked to carve a new figurehead for the 'Matthew'. This is the replica of the boat in which John Cabot (or Giovanni Caboto as his parents called him) sailed from Bristol to discover Newfoundland . It's a bit of a Bristol landmark and it's very exciting to have the chance to do the figurehead. The first figurehead fell off when the replica ship hit a lightship in 2007.

 Here's a couple of images taken by Thom, who is one of the Matthew's crew. I went over the side in November to get some measurements in order to start getting the timber to carve. That water certainly looked cold! Beats sitting in an office any day though.

In case you are wondering what the design will be, I've decided to use the same one as the figurehead which the replica was originally fitted with - a talbot.

This is a heraldic dog, pale coloured with floppy ears and its tongue hanging out. Noone knows what the original 'Matthew' had as a figurehead (if it had one at all) but apparently these dogs were kept near the harbour to rescue people who fell in. No human would want to go near the waters, as the harbour was pretty much an open sewer in those days. I'm hoping to use some Lawson cypress which was growing in the Ashton Court estate to make the carving. Further news as it happens...