This week 25th – 28th April the MCA will be demonstrating wood carving at St Mary Abchurch in the heart of the City of London as part of the Wren300 celebrations.
Oscar Whapham from W. Thomas Restorations will be carving a replacement fretwork panel as part of the ongoing restoration of this historic Church.
On Thursday 4th May there will be an evening of lectures by wood carving professionals on the subject of conserving historic woodwork. Past President Tony Webb will be speaking about his experiences and career. 18:00 – 21:00.
Member Lisi Ashbridge’s carving will be part of the Lettering Arts Trust exhibitor of contemporary works inspired by the classical Nereids.
https://www.letteringartstrust.org.uk/events/the-nereids-moseley-road-baths-birmingham
20th FEBRUARY TO 10TH MARCH at Moseley Road Baths, 497 Moseley Rd, Balsall Heath, Birmingham B12 9BX.
As part of the exhibition programme the Lettering Arts Trust has organised a family workshop during half-term (on Friday 24 February) in which lettering artist Chrissie Nichols will encourage participants to interpret and create their own Nereids, with a focus on lettering.
Our member Gillian Forbes will be having a solo exhibition of her carved stonework at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh 2nd – 25 Feb 2023.
https://scottish-gallery.co.uk/whats-on/treasured/
Past president Tony Webb has been the custodian of a little carvers notebook dating from 2019 penned by a past master of top London carving firm Seal & Co. He is pleased to announce that the V&A have agreed to hold it in their collection for a safe future and for all to see.
The book is the work of A Linzell. He was the foreman stone carver with many big contracts in London.
In this little book he records in excellent pen drawings the myriad of projects he was involved in during the period 1919 – 1930 much of which can still be seen. He also records how many hours the job took & the stone type used.
Our AGM was held on the 1st August in York where amongst business we ushered in stone carver Simon Smith as our new President and Nick Roberson as Honorary secretary. Our new Vice President is Conrad Lindley-Thompson. Our warmest thanks go to Tony Webb for his work over the last two years as our President and all the hard work and dedication Hugh Wedderburn has put into his post as Honorary Secretary over these past five years.
Master Carvers’ Association President Tony Webb and Past President Paul Ferguson selected Daniel Ponde, graduate of BA (Hons) Historic Carving: Woodcarving & Gilding, to win the MCA Carving Prize 2022.
Congratulations Daniel.
Great-nephew of William Harold Harvey ( 1878 -1933 ) has kindly allowed MCA to post this tribute to his Master and Mentor, an inspirational account of a carver trained and practicing at the time when MCA was established. Sadly, only referred to by their initials we are unable to identify the people referenced other than the possibility of our founder President ( 1897 -1920 ) H.W. BARNES being Mr. B.
William Harold Harvey A Tribute (pdf)
If a reader can provide insight the family, and this Association, would be interested to learn more.
We have awarded our prizes to City & Guilds Art School Graduates 2020 and 2021.
Daniel Burbidge, City and Guilds of London Art School, Graduate Winner of The Master Carvers’ Award for Carving ( Stone and Wood ) 2020;
…. , for what is obviously an accomplished piece of work. MCA Committee ( Adjudicated from online images of graduates’ work. )
Daniel Russell, City and Guilds of London Art School, Graduate Winner of The Master Carvers’ Award for Carving ( Stone and Wood ) 2021;
Details of 2021 graduate and MCA award winner Daniel Russell’s winning project: Restoration Project of a 13th c. Stiff Leaf Capital from Westminster Abbey.
Dan used wax to repair the damage to the plaster cast of the capital held by the Art School and carved this project in his final year on the BA (Hons) Historic Carving: Architectural Stone in Portland Stone.
…. , we liked his Gothic bracket, which was beautifully drawn and crisply executed. Matthew Pack and Francois Loudwig ( MCA Adjudicators )
We congratulate Tim on his retirement and wish him well, ‘Bon voyage!’
Honorary Member Timothy Lees;
Timothy Lees spent his teenage years on the granite outcrops of Seychelles, where he learnt the skills of boat building and developed an interest in geology. This interest in stone and precise, complex construction methods, naturally led him to turn his focus to sculpture. Early large abstract stone carvings (Forest of Dean Sculpture Park) and solo shows (Arnolfini, Bristol) were followed by commissions to replace and repair historic marble and stone statues. A period of intense work at The National Trust Statuary Workshop, and study of Roman sculpture (Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship, Rome) consolidated his practice.
He is an Associate Member of the Royal British Sculptors, and is an elected member of the Mastercarvers Association. In 2010 he won the Stone Federation of Great Britain Craftsmanship Award, for work at Hanover Lodge, Regents Park, London. He also won the award in 2002 and 2004 for work at Stowe Landscape Gardens, and at Castletown Cox, Eire, with Cliveden Conservation. He has worked as a freelance sculptor for more than 30 years, and has taught stone carving at The City and Guilds of London Art School.
Retirement from full time stone carving sees new challenges, as Tim has turned full circle, spending his time restoring an old sailboat in Greece, where he intends to sail for a couple
of seasons, before heading off further afield.
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The reinstating of The Kings Chamber Chandeliers, Kensington Palace; a project that enabled Ray Dudman ( W. Thomas Restorations Ltd. ) to share his knowledge, experience and expertise with many early career carvers. Congratulations Ray!
Evening Standard 4 March 2020
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The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust and The Prince’s Foundation have launched a new Building Arts Programme aimed at students and practitioners of architecture, applied arts and decorative crafts. At the heart of the course is the idea that our built environment is a collaboration between a vast array of different discipline areas which are all fundamentally linked and interrelated. This holistic view of the world around us looks to demonstrate the significant role that design, building arts, decorative and traditional crafts can play in creating places and spaces of both value and meaning.
Current practice, both educationally and vocationally, is to separate and teach these principles independently. However, this programme will look to provide a space for rediscovering shared learning and practice, enabling students to explore the multifaceted nature of the built environment and their role within it. On completion of the programme graduates will be in a position to approach their practice in a manner which is both better informed and multidisciplinary, working with others to create a built environment which is more than just the sum of its parts.
Students on the course are expected to come from a wide range of backgrounds including architecture, building crafts such as woodwork and stonemasonry, traditional crafts and decorative arts including glasswork, carving, metalwork and sculpture.
For more details and to apply please visit: https://www.qest.org.uk/2019/08/new-building-arts-programme/
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Miriam Johnson, City and Guilds of London Art School, Graduate Winner of The Master Carvers’ Award for Carving ( Stone and Wood ) 2019;
This carving is of my own design based on a small carving of my grandfather’s. His carving was in a soft limestone a rectangular piece about 300x200x100mm carved, as he always proudly said, with a single sharpened screwdriver. My grandfather was not a stone carver, as far as I know he only ever carved this one piece, he carved it for my grandmother during the Second World War whilst fighting in the French Resistance. It depicts a centaur fighting a serpent surrounded by foliage. In my version I have carved it in slate – a stone I have always wanted to explore further and I made mine circular with a diameter of 600mm. I chose a circle as it fitted so well with the composition of the serpent and brought even more movement to the piece. I made my centaur female and carved it in my own style, as I wanted this piece to be truly my own. This was my first time carving in slate (apart from lettering) and, once I got used to the way it behaved I really enjoyed all the different textures and surfaces I could achieve in it.
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The Master Carvers’ Association are pleased to announce that William Barsley has been awarded the 2018 Prize for Carving for his Garland of Hops in sweet chestnut wood, 480 x 550 x 80 mm, exhibited in his graduation show at The City And Guilds of London Art School.
Selected by President Nick Roberson and Vice President Francois Loudwig the judges were impressed by the quality of design and carving.
Congratulations!
‘This original design by William Barsley draws on his passion for hops, having grown up in the Kent countryside surrounded by hop fields and Oast houses. The piece is carved in sweet chestnut and measures 480 x 550 x 80. His aim was to study and celebrate hops as a carved ornament, striving for a sense of realism and movement in the piece’.
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Past President and 25 years as serving Honorary Secretary, Paul Ferguson has been recognised in The Queen’s New Year’s Honours List as, “Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to Carving, Gilding and Conservation.”
Radio Clip, Paul interviewed on BBC Three Counties Radio
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Letter to the Times 6 January 2016
