Richard M Davies

 I mostly work in Lime or Walnut for sculptural work and Oak for traditional carving, such as linen fold panels. Both the lime and the walnut are close grained which is very good for carving detail. The use of Oak is often dictated by a particular commission, a replica carving for a castle or church for example.

Carving linen fold panels in Oak, by hand, using old wooden moulding planes for the initial folds and carving gouges for the cloth ends, is very rewarding, but time consuming. Generally I finish Oak with either a Linseed oil or a bee’s wax.

Sculptures are hand carved in Lime working from many photographs and drawings, or a clay Marquette and then scaling up to the desired size. I generally finish sculptures with an Acrylic varnish. This dries very fast and has minimum discolouration. It also needs no further maintenance and as it is not sticky, attracts little dust.

I take some inspiration from the Art deco period. I like the natural free movement and elegant postures, also the simplicity of lines from the Arts and craft period. I am working towards simple natural forms based on nature.  “Less is more”.