Letter Cutting In Stone

The Art of Letter Carving in Stone portrays the beauty of this age-old craft alongside practical instruction. Written by an eminent practitioner and teacher, it guides the novice through the basics of letter carving, drawn lettering and making simple designs, and for the more experienced it explains a new proportioning system for classical Roman capitals and demonstrates a useful approach to designing letterform variations.Topics include: the development of twentieth-century letter carving; detailed instruction for V-incising the key strokes of letters; tools, materials, stone and making a letter carving easel; drawing a range of alphabets for use in letter carving; making inscriptions, gilding and painting letters, and simple fixings for inscriptions; designing headstones and plaques, house names, alphabets and poetry texts. This beautiful book illustrates a wide range of exciting and creative pieces, and celebrates the inspiring work of contemporary letter carvers. Superbly illustrated with 380 colour photographs and diagrams.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance and bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.

"Letter-carving expert Andrew Hibberd shares his techniques for carving letters on wood and Portland stone. It will appeal to beginner and intermediate wood carvers with an interest in lettering. It features step-by-step projects. In this inspiring book, letter-carving expert Andrew Hibberd shares his techniques for carving letters on wood and Portland stone. You don't need to undertake a lengthy apprenticeship to get started with this enjoyable and rewarding craft. Based mainly on period styles of carving, these unique projects use examples of Andrew's work, starting with the simplest and progressing in difficulty. New styles and skills are introduced along the way. It includes: cutting board, house sign, garden bench, picture frame, and, church plaque."--Wheelers website.

This book has chapters on methodology, on the writing of the first decrees and laws of the years ca. 515 to 450 B.C., on unique examples of writing of ca. 450 to 400, on the inscribers of the Lapis Primus and Lapis Secundus (IG I3 259-280), and on those of the Attic Stelai (IG I3 421-430). These are followed by studies of 11 individual cutters arranged in chronological order. This study brings order to the study of hands of the fifth century by setting out a methodology and by discussing the attempts of others to identify hands. Another aim is to bring out the individuality of the writing of these early inscribers. It shows that from the beginning the writing on Athenian inscriptions on stone was very idiosyncratic, for all intents and purposes individual writing. It identifies the inscribing of the sacred inventories of Athena beginning about 450 B.C. as the genesis of the professional letter cutter in Athens and traces the trajectory of the profession. While the dating of many inscriptions will remain a matter for scholarly discussion, the present study narrows the dates of many texts. It also pinpoints the origin of the mistaken idea that three-bar sigma did not occur on public documents after the year 446 in order to make those who are not expert more aware that this is not a reliable means of dating.