TUTORIAL WORK

Public and private commissions together with personal research and development take up most of my year, but I always reserve a proportion of that time for teaching. Throughout my working life I’ve learned so much from so many that I feel the need likewise to pass on whatever skills I have.

Courses are hosted by educational institutions, the Countryside Agency and ad hoc groups associated with small towns and villages. Agendas vary according to the needs of the group. I see my job as helping others to achieve their own particular goals, rather than setting my own rigid timetable and professional targets. Full commitment and concentration are my only rules. Everyone works to their own designs.

ABBEYSTEAD

Under the aegis of the Countyside Agency I worked in six different rural areas of North Lancashire over a period of three years. Participants were mainly farmers and their wives; the aim: to make permanent stone footpath markers each with a relief-carved image particular to that spot.

Cockerel, by Gwen Atkinson, marking a way through a farmyard.
Hound, by Gerry Baines, marks a dog-walkers’ track.

CROSTON

A few enthusiasts in this small village drummed up enough support to commission me to run several week-end classes, at the end of which they formed themselves into a team: The Croston Carvers. That was 4 years ago, and they’re still going strong making large-scale carvings for local builders and organizations. I designed them an alphabet “Croston” to give a very individual character to all their work. They can be contacted via Mark Farrer’s email: markf.ybuk@btopenworld.com

Transit of Venus: a carved stone, commissioned by a nearby village, to commemorate their own Jeremiah Horrocks, who was the first astronomer to observe the transit of Venus.

HIGHAM HALL COLLEGE, CUMBRIA, has a reputation for running a wide range of vocational courses. I offered one concentrating purely on lettering and found that each of my students arrived with quite different expectations, experience and ability. Some were able to design their own original letterforms, some copied existing models and some carved direct from computer-generated fonts. Each to his own! I have no universal axe to grind. My task is to encourage and lead each student in their own pursuit of personal excellence.

Sundial by David Pearson, to his own design, part-gilded.

WRAY

My nearest village - and my favourite! I was asked to run a series of
workshops teaching the craft, in order to carve stone waymarkers for a
footpath skirting the village. The rough rocks were found locally:
fine-grained buff sandstone. Artist, Sue Flowers, helped the village
schoolchildren to generate the images which were then freely translatedinto
relief carvings. Workshops and installation achieved in collaboration with
Lancashire Rural Futures, 2006.

Wader by Gill Reid