It’s always an honour to be asked to make a memorial for a loved one, and this was no exception. After searching and swimming in the seas around our country for a number of months, I eventually found this beautiful stone in the North Sea, off the coast of East Lothian (24 x 27 x 8 cm, 11 Kg).
Freehand carved, as always, in the Scottish Borders, and placed by the customer at Samye Ling.
This Mani stone commission was carved from a stone I found in my local river (the Leithen Water in the Scottish Borders). I designed the Snow Lion with reference to the Tibetan national emblem. Measuring 46 x 28 x 6 cm and weighing 14 Kg, this was entirely hand carved using my Foredom power carver, and hammer and chisel.
The mantra outline was carved with 1 mm diamond burrs, continually spraying the stone with water during the power carving process.
After the mantra outline was completed, I carved around the syllables with my 6 mm Europ chisel and Tiranti Italian dummy mallet.
The Tibetan Snow Lion was carved using 0.8 mm and 1 mm Eternal Tools diamond ball burrs.
After the stone was washed, the Tibetan Snow Lion was carefully enamelled with gold 1-Shot using a Size 0 Lawrence Micro-Detail brush.
The completed piece.
These monoliths were cut, carved, enamelled and polished from 2.5 cm thick slabs of reclaimed building cladding. From start to finish, this was a project of intense concentration and precise measurements until their final installation in a garden in Devon.
The above image shows the three syllables chiselled out and in the process of adding relief ‘detailing’ with my Foredom.
The above image shows the Hung syllable after carving the ‘detailing’.
The Hung syllable after polishing and adding three coats of signwriters/monument enamel.
After carefully transporting the three stones over a journey of 400 miles, my wife and I spent around 10 hours digging the trench (in appalling ground conditions!) for the installation. Firstly, the plinths were assembled- these were pre-cut slate slabs and monoblocks adhered using CT-1 construction adhesive;
Once in place and all levels were correct, the trench was filled with concrete;
The ground was returned to the original state, wrappings removed and the stones unveiled;
Hand carved in the Scottish Borders from natural Cornish beach stones.
On sale at Kagyu Samye Dzong, London and also available to order direct from Hatch, Burn, Carve.
Tibetan Buddhist house sign (24 x 14 cm). Hand cut, drilled and carved from 1 cm thick slate, and hand painted with gold enamel. Tam syllable design used with kind permission from Tashi Mannox.
Some of the 50 Tibetan Om, Sanskrit Om and Tam stones recently carved and delivered to the shop at Samye Ling. Each one individually hand carved from natural Cornish sea stones.
Tam syllable used with kind permission from Tashi Mannox.
Commissioned stone to be placed in a prayer garden in Somerset.
Central relief carved Tam syllable (used with kind permission from Tashi Mannox) with three symbols and Sanskrit Om. Hand carved and enamelled from hearth stone (45 cm squared).
Each of these are individually hand carved in my workshop in the Scottish Borders from sea stones I had collected in Cornwall.
On sale at the Samye Ling shop and you can also order directly from me (message me or email hatchburncarve@yahoo.co.uk)
Hand carved in the Scottish Borders from Cornish sea stones.
This batch was delivered to Samye Ling Shop recently.
You can also buy direct from Hatch, Burn, Carve- message me here or email hatchburncarve@yahoo.co.uk
More Mani Stones- hand carved from natural Cornish sea stones
One of these was carved using hammer and chisel (apart from the details around the lettering which was done with a diamond tip carving burr).
These were sold at Samye Ling Shop, but have delivered more there and you can buy direct from me. PM me or email hatchburncarve@yahoo.co.uk
HATCH BURN CARVE 