Where and how do you like to work?
I have a tiny workshop at Thames-Side Studios, London. They have a communal yard which you can rent to do messy work. That’s where I do any necessary angle grinding work before bringing the piece into the workshop to continue by hand and/or air hammer.
What type of materials do you work with and why?
I haven’t worked with granite yet, and I’m in no rush to do so because it’s very unforgiving. Otherwise mainly limestone, slate, marble and recently chalk. I am especially fond of Zimbabwean springstone, which can polish up to a jet black. Working with a raw boulder, you don’t know what you’ve got in the way of markings until you start to ‘rub-up’ the stone. I love that part. Often, I use off-cuts from other carvers or stone suppliers. I can squirrel away pieces of stone for years before finding a use for them.
You are also a textile artist. Working in the two mediums must be quite different.
I was working in textiles long before I picked up a hammer and chisel. My mother was a highly skilled dressmaker, so I grew up with the sound of the sewing machine at home. I did O & A level embroidery at school. Then I did the Theatre Wardrobe course at Wimbledon School of Art before dropping out because the actors got on my nerves! I ended up at Wolverhampton Polytechnic with a print and textile portfolio. It was where I discovered the stone yard, and I fell in love with the medium. By contrast, my style of working in textiles is faster, more spontaneous and more colourful than the slow meditative nature of carving stone.