Gill Siemak

I first started stone sculpture in 2014 at an evening class at Farnham Pottery in Wrecclesham which I still very much enjoy attending. I adore the smooth curved lines which I cannot resist moving my hand over and also feeling the coldness and solidness of the stone.

I have a love and fascination of animals and my first carving was a slumped Polar Bear which i did from drawings. I then moved onto making a wax marquette of an elephant which made the 3D visualisation when carving the stone a lot easier – I relish designing and creating the marquettes as much as I love doing the carving.

Since then I have carved a Rhino out of Purbeck stone (which is the hardest stone I have used), then an abstract Mother and Child sculpture in Alabaster, a Panther in Soapstone came next, and then I have just finished a Fat lady in Slippers made from Serpentine stone. I now find the softer stones easier and kinder on the wrists.

Alongside the sculpting I would like to learn how to do casting and molding as I cannot yet bring myself to sell any of the sculptures as they take so long to do!