A strange Norman stone carving in St Nicholas' church, Combe St Nicholas, Somerset

While visiting this church for a wedding, I noticed the strange carved stone capital on a pillar near the north entrance. Apparently, it is the only remnant of the Norman church that once stood on the site (although a round font dating to Saxon times is thought to be the oldest object in the church, surviving from the Saxon church building that was here before that).

It is an odd carved design and some people think that it represents the devil. I wonder why the medieval builders who rebuilt the church in the 13th century decided to keep this bit of stonework in particular? The pillar that it tops does not seem to hold up any arches, so it probably isn't structural. 

The way that the weird-looking head seems to sprout the paired 'snail track' lines out of its mouth reminds me a lot of 'green man' carvings, some of which have foliage coming from their mouths in a similar fashion. I wonder if this could be an example of such a design? According to 'The Company of the Green Man' website, this carving would seem to have been identified as such by Clive Hicks in his book 'The Green Man: A Field Guide'. 

The carving on the capital to its left looks to me like it could represent a crown.

If you are visiting the church, the oak screen in front of the altar is also worth a look. A plaque tells how it was first carved around 1480, then was taken down and moved in the 19th century before being repaired and returned to it's original position in 1921, when a memorial to the men of the parish who died in the First World War was also added to it.

Live carving demonstrations in London bars to promote 'Naked Grouse' Whisky: Part Two

Six turned and carved oak whisky bottles were in my studio, ready to be carved in bars in London with the logo of each establishment.

However, it turned out that only five bars were involved in the final project. I was sent their logos by Kirstie at Material (the marketing company that had commissioned me). After digitally resizing them, I transferred the images using carbon paper onto the plinths.

The bars were all located around the Mayfair and Marylebone districts of London and were quite a mix;  from a fun party bar, through a Lebanese restaurant to a very exclusive place with no sign and a doorman.

I set off on the first weekend very excited to see the first one but also a little nervous about carving live in front of (possibly drunk) people with a two hour time limit. The first establishment was called 'Match!' and was holding a beach party that night. 

I was working with Donna, who was there to help talk to people (although when it comes to talking about woodcarving, I suspect she may have been required to help rescue them!) The staff made us welcome and we had some great chats with some of the customers.

At the end, the carved sculpture was left with the bar for them to use in promoting Naked Grouse whisky.

The next weekend, there were three venues to be visited. I was working with Nadine and Mark came to take photographs on the Friday evening. First was Apres.

It was quite early and the bar was pretty quiet. Mark did get some great photos though and both he and Nadine were good fun to work with. 

Normally, I'd use a range of traditional lettercutting tools for lettercutting; fishtail gouges, woodcarver's chisels etc. I did feel, however, that a large selection of tools might have been a bit vulnerable in bars (that I'd never been to before) and while being carried around town from hotel to venue and back after dark. Fewer tools also meant they didn't get spread about and that they were easier to keep an eye on, which made things safer for me and others in the bars too.

Most of the carving at these demonstrations was done with 'V' tools, to produce a good standard of work fairly quickly and leave time to chat to people who might be interested in what was going on. A small bullnosed number 3 gouge also came in useful for producing and cleaning up carved curves in the designs. The V tools had to be kept razor sharp (as they would be anyway!) to cut neatly through the oak. I took a couple of sharpened spares of each tool to save spending time honing them at the venues.

The next place was called Hush. It recently won a Tatler restaurant award and was a very well-presented and classy place. 

It was interesting arriving at each establishment and seeing what kind of spot was provided for me to carve in. In Hush, it was at a low table which, as in the other venues, I covered with a black cloth to protect it. It was a bit lower-down than my usual carving spot, but the carving came out well.

As it turned out, the staff were very pleasant at Hush and made us welcome. The food going past on trays looked incredible too!

The next day Nadine and I went to Levant, a Lebanese restaurant off Wigmore Street in Marylebone. 

If pushed to make a choice, I think that this was my favourite venue of all. The staff were very welcoming and friendly, customers came up to chat and the exotic feel of the place was added to by Arabic dancers performing around me at one point!

The design to be carved was also the most complex and taxing. It was a bit of a head-scratcher to work out at times but I got there in the end.

On the next weekend and the final visit to London, I worked with Gillian (one of the managers of Material) and Will, who took photos of the event. We went to Mr Foggs, tucked away in a non-descript back street in Mayfair with no sign over the door.

Mr Foggs has a door policy enforced by a doorman and certainly felt like it cultivated an 'exclusive' air about the place. The staff inside were friendly though and some customers came up to chat. The 'Victorian' decor was also fun to look at as I carved their logo, while sat next to the piano.

I was very happy with the finished carving too:

All in all, the three trips to London were a great experience and thoroughly enjoyable. It was also very satisfying to hear from Kirstie that the client was 'delighted' with the project. 

If anyone reading this would like me to do more live carving demonstrations for them, please feel free to get in touch with me via the contact form on the right.

Thanks to Andy and to Kirstie and everyone that I worked with at Material. Plus, of course, thanks to the staff at the bars who made us welcome and, together with Nadine, took some of these photos.

Making carved oak whisky bottles for the launch of 'Naked Grouse' whisky in the UK: Part One

In May this year a marketing company based in Glasgow, called Material, contacted me about a carving project.  I was recommended to them by Andy O'Neill, a chainsaw carver who is based in Bristol.

The company that make the well-known 'Famous Grouse' whisky were putting a new premium malt blend on general release in the UK, called 'Naked Grouse'. The marketing would highlight the craftsmanship involved in making the drink, which is where my woodcarving came in.

Image from:http://www.worldwhiskiesdesignawards.com/results/best-bottle.php

I was asked if I could make wooden replicas of the Naked Grouse bottle on plinths, to go on display as part of the promotion. The plinths would then be carved live in bars, with the logo of each establishment.

First of all, I took measurements and a profile from a sample bottle...

...then got on with turning six replica bottles using these measurements. The wood came from an oak tree that grew near Nether Stowey on the Quantock Hills in Somerset. Oak seemed a particularly appropriate timber to use, as the whisky is aged in oak casks. It was interesting to note, whilst turning, that the oak shavings had a particular smell that could also be noticed in the whisky.

It's been a while since I've done any woodturning and it was nice to get back to it, even though an electrical fault in the first lathe managed to short out the electrical circuits in my workshop! However, one new lathe later and the bottles started coming out nicely.

The turned bottles were then carved with the embossed grouse logo and the writing on the neck label. I used a Dremel hand drill for this part, as it could reproduce the fine lines that the designs required.

If you are wondering why the tops and bottoms of the bottles still had wood attached, it meant that I could work on them without handling the surfaces of the bottles too much and making them grubby, which can be a problem when working with oak (perhaps because of the tannins in it?).

Once the bottles had been carved, it was time to make the plinths. These were boxes constructed from offcuts of oak floorboards.

At the same time, I did colour tests to get the right blend of stains to match the colour of the oak bottles to the whisky. You may also be able to see that the level of liquid in the sample bottle has dropped by now-all in the sake of research of course!

It was back to school for the next bit. I stopped studying physics back then, but found that making the circuits for the LED lights was going to require some education online. Resistors, diodes, voltages: phew!

By this time, the bottles had been carved and I'd started to stain them.

I fitted the LED lights into the plinths using some short lengths of aluminium tubing, to give a neater uplight effect that showed off the grouse logo and the carved label nicely: 

After some adjusting of the height of the plinths, six bottle sculptures were nearly complete.

There was just the final, very important, part to be done. I needed to travel to London to carve the names of the bars on location!

And that will be in the next post...

Teaching woodcarving with a knife at my studio in Bristol, together with some thoughts about whittling

Yesterday, Jack came to my studio to learn how to carve with a knife.  We had a great day and he wasn't the only one learning new things. He told me about a very interesting video of a talk by Denis Dutton, part of which concerns prehistoric stone tools that were possibly made solely to show the maker's skill; very interesting to a craftsperson!

Jack sent me an email afterwards saying how much he had enjoyed the day and learning a new skill. It also made me think about whittling as carving. Some carvers can be dismissive of whittling with a knife, thinking that it is an 'inferior' kind of carving. This teaching session was a strong reminder of just how daft that view is in my opinion. 

The knife is one of the most versatile tools for a carver. It was clear from watching Jack's progress that the knife work taught many lessons in working with wood that are transferable to using all other edged carving tools: working with the grain, the importance of the slicing cut, sharp blades being vital etc. These points are fundamental to a carver, they certainly aren't trivial things to learn.

The use of a single carving tool to make a complete sculpture is also a good carving exercise. My friend Jo Seitfudem told me once about his father, a master carver in Bavaria, giving him a single gouge and telling him to carve an entire sculpture with it. Without a range of tools to use, the importance of working with the timber itself to achieve a finished piece is much clearer to a novice carver.

A look at the work produced in regions that regularly use knives as a basic carving tool (Africa, Papua New Guinea) also easily illustrates that carving snobbery about their use is just narrow-mindedness.

Here's a photo of the walnut pendant that Jack carved during the session, We agreed that it looks great and it seemed to capture just what he was aiming for, with the tooled finish and the delicately carved spiral that he achieved:

It's interesting how the process of teaching a skill can so often lead to the teacher learning and seeing their speciality with fresh eyes too!

Building wooden benches for the Meadow at the Shambala festival in Northamptonshire

I've just got back after being invited to make some wooden benches for the Healing Fields at the Shambala festival. They were situated in an ancient water meadow next to Kelmarsh Hall, where the event was being held.

It was a lovely spot to be based. When I arrived on the Sunday before the event began, there were wild field mushrooms growing on the site.

I've worked on the set-up of a few festivals now and it's probably my favourite time of all. It's great seeing the event spring up around you and meeting the other crew. It's also a nice feeling to be part of the whole thing, although there was a real sense at Shambala that a lot of folks made an effort; dressing up and participating whether crew or paying guests. 

After a pile of sawmill offcuts had been dropped off, we began working out what we could do with them. There was no mains electricity, so any work was done with a couple of handsaws, some hammers, a couple of bags of nails and a temperamental chainsaw. Benches seemed a priority, so they were first.

The first bench came out well. A lot of benches at festivals are interesting, but not always very comfortable. I wanted these to be really comfy and welcoming. They also needed to be sturdy enough to withstand a weekend of partying people using them, before being destroyed by cleaning crew at the end.

It was great watching how the benches were used by so many different folks during the weekend.

Len, who was also doing woodworking as part of the Meadow crew, had an idea to put a structure next to the lake that separated the Healing Fields from the rest of the festival. We built a bench based on two African-style wooden seats. This was the only seating that looked in this direction and was tucked away, for people to find.

At one point during the festival, some people on the crew reported that they had seen a marriage-style ceremony being conducted at this bench, which was surrounded by gifts.

Shambala was a lovely festival and I hope to go again next year. Here's a few images from the festival for you to see...

Hooping Hannah