post-exhibition exhaustion...

Finally getting around to up-dating after the exhibition. Well, it was a bit of a last minute rush (under-statement of the year) but got finished at 2pm on the day in question, got the last two pieces loaded and transported to Nenagh. Every spare cushion, blanket, etc in the place was used to wrap the precious pieces, so many hours of polishing could be wasted with one bump of the road (and many's the bump to be found between here and Nenagh, most of them in our own lane). With great help from the Arts Officer, we put the pieces in place - she has a really good eye, and despite the size of the place none of the pieces were dwarfed - rushed home, spruced up, a few gulps of rescue remedy and off again. Thankfully, there was a great turn-out and the response was really good. Massive sigh of relief to be at this side of it all, now all we have to do is wait for some red dots...

exhibition invitation

Invitations are out for exhibition, look good, so hopefully plenty will turn up on the night... It's in the County Council offices in Nenagh (on the Limerick road) at 8pm on Thursday 12th November... all are welcome!

Did part of the installation on Tuesday, so just need to put the finishing touches to the other pieces, get them loaded and transported safely to Nenagh. Still lots of midnight oil to be burned between now and then.

creative copper workshop idea

The germ of an idea for a new workshop... John, a friend of ours called to temper tools with his home-made forge (completely made from scrapped pieces, the man's a genius - can make just about anything from just about anything) and the conversation turned to copper- and tin-smithing. Turns out John has done a lot of this and would be willing to give a workshop in same. He has made lots of things; bowls, fish, birds, leaves, etc and reckons any of these could be made on a two-day workshop. He also does a traditional method of copper soldering and would cover this too in the workshop. We'll put the word out and see what interest there is, reckon there should be plenty of interest as it's a really lovely material. John's going to come for one of the evening classes and show everyone the art of tempering tools. It's great to know how it's done as there were buckets of chisels knocking around here that appeared to be useless and have now been given a new lease of life.
Meanwhile, work continues on the stuff for the exhibition... The candle is being burned at both ends as the installation has to be started this week... It'll get done, it'll get done.... Back to the grindstone, literally....

the piece was unveiled by Jack Maher, the oldest serving member of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Thurles.

photo showing philip balancing the piece of sculpture on his head, with the aid of seamus' little finger

The Nationwide programme was aired on Monday evening and the whole community was tuned in to see Holycross on screen. The entire village looked great, we're looking at it all with new eyes since. Our slot was quite short, but we think the place looked pretty good and it really was fantastic advertising. We've had a good few enquiries and a few definite bookings on the strength of it so it's all good. Our girls made an appearance in the bit on the school so there was great excitement here, half of the family on tv in one go! Once that was over we could concentrate on getting the combat poverty piece of sculpture finished and in place. The candle was burned at both ends doing this, but it finally got finished and with the help of extended family and a few neighbours it was transported, with the greatest of care, to it's final resting place in Liberty Square, Thurles. This happened in the (very) small hours of Friday morning. The piece was unveiled this afternoon, a beautiful autumn day, and looked great with the polished granite glistening in the sunlight. There was a good turnout, plenty of photos taken, so we'll have to get some of our more computer literate friends to upload a photo. Just time for a quick sigh of relief to have that done, and then it's full steam ahead on the exhibition pieces...

We'll eventually get the hang of this blogging thing... Well, our Nationwide slot is in the can. Last Tuesday was a lovely sunny day which really improves the appearance of everything, so hopefully the place will look ok on tv. We had four very enthusiastic stone carvers here on the day, hammering away and Philip was interviewed by Michael Ryan. The crew was here for about an hour and a half and this will be condensed into a few minutes of airtime, which will be great advertising for us. We're already getting in the popcorn in anticipation, so tune in Monday evening, 12th Oct at 7pm.
Our evening classes started last Monday evening and we had a great crowd, so much so we've decided to split the group in two and run another class on Tuesdays. It always amazes us that no matter how many people we have in a stone carving workshop, no two people have the same idea for a piece. We're tossing around the idea of having an exhibition here at the end of the evening classes, maybe a Sunday afternoon in early December, an "end-of-term" show.
Philip is putting the finishing touches to his Combat Poverty piece. This is a granite piece which is going to be placed in Liberty Square, Thurles and unveiled on Saturday 17th October, world Poverty Awareness Day. The piece was commissioned by Thurles Active Community Development. Hopefully I'll be able to get a picture of it onto the blog.
That's all for now, get in contact with us if you have anything to add.

No time for blogging tonight, need all the beauty sleep we can get before tomorrow's Nationwide filming.... Watch this space.....

Hello and welcome to the first blog from stonemad. We're a bit new to blogging so bear with us... At the moment we're busy preparing for a visit from RTE's Nationwide crew who are doing a feature on Holycross Village to be aired on October 12th. They're coming to us next week to film a piece on the stone and wood carving workshops. So we're ensuring the Green Room is plush and well stocked for the stars of the show... We're also currently organising our evening classes which will begin on 5 October, so it's all systems go here. That's it for now. Will keep you posted re our venture into the world of broadcasting.
Philip and Liz

welcome

welcome to our new blog section, invites to allow authors to publish blogs will be sent out shortly.

Meanwhile feel free to comment,

thank you

Philip and Liz