Contacting Kulleseid Stone Carving

stonecarvernils@hvi.net

I am an English trained Letter Cutter and Stone Carver. I specialize in fine lettering and relief carving using hand tools and with a minimal use of machines. The work I do encompasses traditional old age memorials as well as individually custom designed memorials, decorative inscriptions and carvings for house or garden, plaques and signage, dedication and corner stones, and public lettering and carving projects. I work mostly in slates, limestones, sandstones and marbles, but I am happy to make designs for granite.

After earning my Bachelor of Arts degree in the History of Art from Hamilton College in New York State, I went to England in 1993, and took a 2 year course, Architectural Stone Masonry and Stone Carving, at Weymouth College, in Weymouth, England. It was on this course that I learned the basic techniques of stone carving for decorative and architectural purposes, from the drawing and setting out processes through the proper use of hand tools. After completing the course at Weymouth, I became an apprentice to a stone letter cutter at the Kindersley Workshop in Cambridge, England. It was as an apprentice that I was tutored in the intricacies and subtleties of the letter forms of the Roman alphabet by drawing them over and over by hand. I did not carve a letter in stone until I sufficiently understood the letter forms first. As my confidence grew in the execution of this craft, I fell in love with hand carved letters in stone, particularly the classic Roman alphabet, the model for all traditional hand letter cutters.

I followed my apprenticeship with 2 years of work experience in lettering and carving, doing freelance work for other stone carvers and letter cutters in Scotland, and England. Of particular note were several jobs I did for an organization called Memorials by Artists. This is an organization dedicated to the matching up of stone carving craftsmen with clients who are seeking custom designed, traditional hand carved memorials carved for their loved ones as opposed to the mass produced granite memorials found in most cemeteries today.

I returned to the United States in 1998 and settled in New Paltz, N.Y. in the lower Hudson River Valley. With a further training in calligraphy, I have undertaken many lettering and relief carving commissions in stone and slate including public lettering projects for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and many private commissions for memorials, and decorative carving and inscriptions for homes and gardens. My goal is to design and carve beautiful stone work for clients who are looking for hand crafted work catered to their individual needs, and to work in direct collaboration with clients and architects whenever possible.

If you have any questions or you just want to visit my workshop, please contact me by phone at 914 . 382 . 9881 or email me at: stonecarvernils@hvi.net. I will be happy to discuss any project you may have in mind. Thank You.