I’m forty-five tomorrow. Blimey. I softened the pain and bought myself a birthday present. I’ve been looking for a nice set of carving chisels for a while. When I saw these come up on Gary’s superb OldSchoolTools website, I snapped them up.
A beautiful 8-piece Marples set with London Pattern octagonal boxwood handles.
Category: Carving
Up for sale now, in the ‘Carving Tools‘ section. Lovely little Marples set, and the chisels look unused to me. *NOW SOLD*
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English misericords
This week I delved into the strange and wondrous world of English misericords.
A colleague at work handed me the excellent book by Marshall Laird on the subject. To quote from the book’s inner page:
“Hidden beneath the tip-up seats of the choir stalls of many English churches and cathedrals are some of the most vivid images that have come down to us from the Middle Ages. Their originality of design, breadth of subject-matter and artistry render these misericords England’s finest surviving mediaeval wood carvings. These sculptures were normally out of sight, so the craftsmen felt free to carve everyday scenes and animals from their own lives as well as the monsters and mermaids that swarmed in their imagination, rather than the religious subjects one might expect.
Here are some more examples I found on the web. Fascinating stuff.
A day of contrasts. A visit to Soho, central London today. A long, boozy lunch, the sort of lunch that would have been commonplace in the 80’s, with an enjoyable talk with a friend about the state of publishing, ideas for new ventures and a catch up about shared colleagues. Them taking advantage of the location, and with the need to slightly sober up, I walked down to St.James church in Piccadilly, to see the Grinling Gibbons carvings I’d read about in David Esterly’s book.
Words can’t really express how amazing this work is, so I won’t even try. Some better pics than my poor phone pictures, can be seen on Flickr here.
Categories
Carving chisels
I’ve just listed a few carving chisels for sale. Decent makers.