Maia Gaffney-Hyde

My Lettering Arts Trust Apprenticeship started on the 10th January 2023, with master carver Charlotte Howarth in West Acre, Norfolk. My apprenticeship will last 2 years, the first 9 months on a part-time basis. I am the 10th LCAT apprentice. 

Lettering Arts Trust Apprentice 2023-24




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Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5

03.   Carving


Fig. 1 - 5 show the letters in there final stage before carving. I’ve drawn them standing at the easel. This process was very useful as we went through all the details that are particular to each letter form.

As this is the first time I’ve carved in a couple of years I am roughing out the whole design, working from bottom to top and then we’ll go over and work on finessing the cuts and the detail. To start with Charlotte shows me how to ‘chop’ out the letter and then neaten up by ‘chasing’. As mentioned in blog. 02., chopping involves cutting the stone at an angle, while chasing is generally done perpendicular to the cut surface.

The main thing that I need to learn is how to hold the chisel to get to the different parts of a letter. At first the chisel/dummy coordination feels quite awkward. As I’m right handed I hold the dummy in my right hand and chisel in the left.


Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Fig. 8
Fig. 6 - 8 As a novice cutter one of the things that become apparent when I start cutting are is that the first few letters I cut are too deep. Generally this isn’t a problem in the end, as letters cut deep will weather better, but this can make them more fiddly to cut, as there is more risk of chopping out delicate edges. As I continue my letters become shallower as I get a bit more control. However, I’ll need to make them all the same depth before I finish.

The main reason that I cut the letters too deep is that I’m trying to keep the middle line of the v-cut centred and straight. This is important to the legibility of the letter as it wears over time.

Fig. a Fig. b Fig. c Fig. d Fig. e Fig. f Fig. g
Fig. a - g show the progress of one letter. Fig. c - d particularly show how the stone is ‘chopped’ out, while Fig. g shows the ‘chased’ surface of the cut.


Fig. 9 Fig. 10 Fig. 11
Fig. 9 - 11 After I’ve finished cutting the whole alphabet we go through each letter and make notes of what needs to be adjusted. We check that the widths of the letters are even and make the serifs more pronounced.

Once I have made all those changes we go over is one final time to make any last adjustments. I then take the stone off the easel and sand down the surface to remove any pencil marks. I also make a rubbing from the stone as a way to record the finished piece.

Fig. 12 Fig. 13 Fig. 14 Fig. 15
Once I had carved my alphabet the next step was to make the piece of work able to be displayed. For this we attached mirror plates to the back of the stone. Because the stone is 600mm tall we used two plates. Fig. 12 We placed them around the carved letters to allow us the full width of the stone to carve in. I worked on a flat surface for this, which helped me to cut the straight edges that were needed to fit the plate into the gap. Fig. 13 Making sure the placement of the plates was level, specifically the point where the two screws or nails will hang was most important. The plate, including the screws, needed to sit just below the surface of the stone, so that it sits flat on the wall, Fig. 14 shows how we tested this. Once the shape of the plate was cut to the right depth, we drilled in holes for the screws and glued everything to the stone.  Fig. 15 + 6 show the piece hung on the wall.

04.  Gilding ︎︎︎
My Lettering Arts Trust Apprenticeship started on the 10th January 2023, with master carver Charlotte Howarth in West Norfolk. My apprenticeship will last two years, the first year on a part-time basis. I am the 10th LCAT apprentice.






© Maia Gaffney-Hyde MMXXIII
© Maia Gaffney-Hyde MMXXIV