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Hill Farm House Sign

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 Hill Farm House is near to where I am living at the moment near Bruton, Somerset. It's a healthy home with a number of barns and out houses. The woman who lives there is the ex wife of my godfather and she contacted me regarding having a new house sign installed which I am more than happy to oblige her.  Vanessa had very little idea to what she wanted but she did know she wanted it larger than the old sign which was in a truly sorry state. She also liked the look at one of my previous works i had done which was quite bold. She really wanted to have somthing that made a statement and showed that it was hand carved. This freedom is great and is where I feel most comfortable perhaps mainly because I can design something that I feel content about my ability to complete, instead of biting off more than I can chew.  The first question i was asking when thinking of the layout was how the wordjng would fit. Looking at the composition of the name 'Hill Farm House' I noticed that ...
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Ruth Wade Memorial

This will be my first completed memorial and it has been a great honour to be given the opportunity to design a plaque to mark the life of Ruth Wade. I am friends with both of her grandchildren so it has been extra special to me.  I spoke with the client to get a feel of the sort of thing that she had in mind. I had a fair amount of free reign as to what the design could be. The client knew that she wanted a tablet to be clear and simple. I set about doing a number of designs which all lettering consisted of Roman letterforms. I landed on a suitable  design which has now gone to the Reverend at Sherborne Abbey, Dorset so I don't have a picture to post up on here.  Robyn keeps telling me 'composition is king'! and ' Ensure your thick and thins are consistent'! I have written these on the front of my sketchpad as an attempt to keep it ringing in my ears.  I had such good fun on this project that I forgot to take any pictures but luckily Robyn took a short video of me ...
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Alford Lodge House Sign

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 Alford Lodge is a beautiful stone cottage in Somerset. The owner gave me complete reign as to what was to be designed and carved. She only wished to see the piece once it was completed which was fine to me. In fact her words were 'surprise me' which was music to my ears!  I set about doing a series of designs and played with various letter forms. The first design I drew actually ended up being the one I favoured the most, which was a first for me! I decided to base the Lettering on the Roman lettering which was based on the Roman inscriptions at trajan column. I did this as I wanted the sign to be clear and legible for passing vehicles. Although I wanted the Lettering to be visible I also wanted it to be a bit special.  I drew some letters and then cut them out as I felt like I was going round in circles with the setting out. The first word Alford was quite tight and the negative space fairly sparse where as the Lodge had a lot of negative space, namely around the L&...
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G.E.T.H.2020 Celebratory Tablet

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 This piece was for a local couple who had recently built a beautiful house and they wanted the husbands initials and the year of completion stated to celebrate the final touches to their new home. They managed to salvage some purbeck stone that they had recovered from the existing house that they knocked down. This was a wonderful idea as it really gives thanks to the existing property that served them so very well for years. The client asked for a medieval lettering but after showing her some examples she decided that versal was what she had in her mind. I did a number of designs but settled on the composition in the pictures below. The initials along the middle, using the extra space by tuning the stone 45° and the date split from the top to the bottom. I felt this was nicely balanced and it kept the space clean. By splitting the date into two it filled the space whilst in a sense giving the viewer something unformal to view. The stone was lovely to carve although very uneven an...
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FIRST POST!

Hello, Making a post to see if this works! I'm very surprised at how easy this was to set up (famous last words). I look forward to posting on here weekly and using this blog as a kind of diary to note down my thoughts and feelings on topics associated with my work. Also to post pictures to create a record of my time as a journeyman.  A big THANK YOU to the Lettering Arts Trust for the help and support that I have received from them! God bless Toby
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