After the wrist injury at the start of the year, I finally got back to work in April… for a whole day, then got Covid, which held me up again ~ much to my annoyance, as this piece for the Isle of Axholme and Hatfield Chase Landscape Project had been hanging over me for some time; thankfully, the deadline was extended. and once recovered I was delighted to get a mallet and chisel in my hands again.
With the months of inactivity, it took an hour or two to get back in the swing of things ~ luckily the sweet chestnut trunk was relatively easy to work with (except when I had to roll it over to work on different areas!) and I was soon up to speed again.
The participants in this project (the local residents and extended community) had created eight tall, wide posts with each carving revealing something of their personal view of the cultural heritage and landscape of the area; my central piece told the story of the area’s wildlife, along with a few lines from “Young Banker,” a folk song which has lines attributed to “a maidservant from the Isle of Axholme,” which seemed apt:
As I walked out one morning fair
To view the green fields and take fresh air
Incidentally, in stonemasonry a banker is the workstone used to cut other stones on and a banker mason is the one who exclusively uses this: hence “Young Banker.”