Had a great day last Friday in a carve off competition with two french sculptors, with plenty of music, and cider. The sun came out and the rain mostly stayed away. It was a pre-launch for a huge event next summer - Festival of stone Bristol 2013 which will involve 50 or more sculptors.

The venue was Spike Island, Bristol. Both teams started with a piece of stone 400 x400 x 600 kindly supplied by Phidias Neo-classical Ltd.

I had the privilege of being partnered with Ben Dearnely (above) who produced the carving of the Mark Foster torso now sited in Southgate, Bath.

We shared the block of stone and Ben carved the man, myself the woman, on the theme of  'Amour'.

Time was limited, we had only six hours, and sketched out our design on the way over from Bath, so all in all it was a success.

 Congrats to both teams, many thanks to all the people who gave up their time to make the day a success and for providing some lovely food, and oodles of beer and cider. And thanks to the accordion player who kept us going!

Started carving my first ever breasts in stone today. Over all my years of being a stone mason and carver I have never had the pleasure, and by God, its harder than you would think. I cant draw to save my life, so attending a life drawing class to improve my skill would be fruitless, also I think I am probably too immature to cope, and would either gawk like a pubescent boy, or get an inappropriate uncontrollable fit of giggles. Or knowing my luck it would be the turn of the fat ugly bloke that week to pose. I have a pair of my own, but they are no longer as pert or athlectic as I need for a model. The breasts in question are not only pert and petit, but small, really small, as you can see in the picture.

I will post updates on my progress and the finished girl if everything goes according to plan. For more examples of my work see my website.