UPDATED 12/19/23
Celtic Stone Carving in Limestone for Beginners
Our next session will be offered May 4-5, 2024.
Blackstone River Theatre will offer a two-day workshop in Celtic Relief Stone carving in Limestone for beginners with instructor Laura Travis, outside, behind the Blackstone River Theatre. The workshop will be held on Saturday, May 4 AND Sunday, May 5, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day (with a half-hour lunch break.) Teenagers (age 16 and up), college students and adults are all welcome and no experience is required. (Note: Laura WILL also be able to accommodate students who have taken this class in the past and want to build on their skills!) A maximum of 9 students will be allowed; a minimum of six is needed to run the workshop.
The course fee is $130 payable to Blackstone River Theatre plus a separate $15 materials fee payable to instructor Laura Travis (includes several pieces of stone, sandpapers, and access to finishing tools.) Prepayment is necessary. IF you want to purchase your own chisel so you can keep carving at home, we will need to know 3 weeks prior to class to pre-order them. The additional cost would be $22 so let us know and add that to the $15 materials fee already being paid. For more information, visit the instructor’s site, lauratraviscarving.com
Relief carving is a satisfying and useful skill which has numerous applications for gardens, landscaping, and creative expression. The saga of The Celt and The Stone is as old as time. If you have seen a photo of the High Crosses in Ireland and Scotland, or British well-shrine covers, you’ve seen Celtic relief carving in stone. In this 12-hour introductory-level course, students will use manageable scraps of limestone and carve them with an initial, a knot, or an animal motif – bring your own idea or utilize teacher references – and in the process learn something of one of the signature arts of the Celts. Included will be plenty of stone lore, tips for scrounging up materials and tools for practically nothing, and information about techniques including polishing and finishing.
Laura Travis has been carving for 30 years, bringing her knowledge and love of Irish and Celtic traditions firmly into her work in stone. As an artist, Laura walks between the worlds of fine and folk art, utilizing traditional iconography in some very contemporary contexts. Travis has shown her work in Providence, Maryland, Toronto, Worcester and New Bedford. She holds an MFA in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art.
So we can be assured of meeting the minimum needed to hold this class (AND so we can order tools and materials), BRT NEEDS PRE-PAYMENT!