Martin Lorenz

I have been sculpting ever since I got chatting to a sculptor on a delayed train in the seventies. I got to thinking this might be quite a cool thing to do.

After losing my real job for political reasons, I plunged recklessly into full-time sculpture… just in time for the first of several recessions. Having left the rat-race I found myself in a small mouse-race, eking out a living making replicas and small effigies for the varied museum shops, including The British Museum, Dickens, Nelson and Sherlock Holmes.

I like to create life-size portraits, and to make my figurines pleasing to the eye rather than warts and all. I work in clay which is then fired or cast in bronze professionally, depending on the depth of my client’s pockets. I make my own moulds and bronze resin castings. I have recently started experimenting with Jesmonite. I have even dabbled in small scale ceramic shell real bronze casting. Recently I went on a stone carving course which I found quite exhilarating.

The original of Tabula Rasa is made of Italian limestone. My woodcarvings are done in the company of our local ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ group.