Over the years I have been asked top make quite a few sculptures as memorials, a sensitive area of work which I find particularly satisfying. It can be a painful process but can help family and friends with the grieving process and makes a positive reminder of the individuals life.
My first memorial sculpture was for a small girl who passed away in 2009. I was asked by her school to make a small statue for a memorial garden; and was at first not sure about taking the job on. In the end I agreed as long as the girl's family were involved in the design process.
Her six year old sister sent me some sketches, she wanted ' A Flower fairy with Tinkerbell wings, holding a daisy with a snail on her toe'. Initially I was a bit overwhelmed by the request, but how can you ignore an idea like that? I then made a small model for the sister. This was intended as a gift whether or not I was asked to complete the work
The family were happy with this idea so I built the full sized sculpture, she now lives in the memorial garden at the school. It soon became good luck to rub her nose at the start of the day. Nice that a memorial was accepted as a positive thing. The finished sculpture stood about 1.2m tall
The small model lives in the sister's bedroom.
Not long after this had another interesting commission. This gentleman wanted a dome making as a memorial to his wife, he wanted somewhere to play his saxophone and drink his whisky. Again we spent a long time looking at structures before narrowing the plan down to a structure based on radiolarians, the single celled plants found in the oceans. Dimensions are 4.5m wide by 4m to the top of the crown.
Picture 1 is a bit cluttered as this was during the installation process
Picture two shows the crown of the structure. I was so pleased with this that I copied it for use as a table
The next example was commissioned by a gentleman who was just getting over a big health scare and decided to commission his own memorial. He wanted himself in characteristic pose in his garden, cup of tea in one hand and examining his latest find in the other hand. The grandchildren are in charge of the contents of his left hand. The Tea Stein is the correct size. Photograph taken by my customer.
A few years ago I was asked to make a memorial to young dairy farmer who died in a car accident. The work was funded by his friends who had a collection for the memorial and after a boozy evening decided on the subject matter. He was a keen football player as well being a dairy farmer, so they decided on a life sized calf playing football. An interesting request. I completed the design bearing in mind 'environmental' factors' such as drunk students and yes the calf does get ridden regularly. The sculpture is on display at Harper Adams College
I have just completed a sculpture to a young lady who everybody knew as Bee. Her family wanted a Bee sat on a daisy to sit on her headstone, and were involved in the whole design process including supplying me with working drawings.
The bee is made of mild steel with stainless steel wings, and has been discretely engineered to be immune to poking and prying fingers as it is going in a very public space.
Lastly 'the Rain Man' made as a memorial to an old gentleman who used to love walking in the rain with his brolly.
This is a selection of memorial sculptures that I have made over the years, some families prefer to maintain their privacy in these matters hence only a few examples of this area of work
If you are interested in this area of my work feel free to contact me at any time;I hope I am able to be of help