Hand Carved Sandstone from Wilstone House & Gardens

Wilstone House & Gardens have a huge range of new hand carved sandstone troughs, planters, urns etc.

Wilstone can also offer a bespoke service with their stone range, having completed many projects working in collaboration with architects and home designers.  Wilstone sources it’s stone directly from Rajasthan, and aims to continually develop close ties with manufacturers to ensures companies operate under the Fairtrade ethos.

 

 

 

 

A recent project

Rajasthan has been a rich source of carved sandstone for centuries, used for building the forts, palaces and great cities of India. This tradition lives on through the continued work of companies like Wilstone, who, for the past seven years have been developing close ties with these highly skilled stone masons in creating an extensive range of designs, both traditional and contemporary.

The sandstone used is still quarried in the traditional manner mostly by hand using high performance water jets fired into carefully drilled holes to blast the natural layers of stone apart.

The resulting block can then be checked for faults, colour and texture which is particularly important as this sedimentary rock can vary across its stratas according to when it was laid down.

This natural variation is what gives the stone its own individual character and sets it apart from its concrete or reconstituted stone counterparts.

After rinsing, the sandstone is ready to be worked and the selected blocks are taken to the stone carver’s yard where they are reduced in size using hammers and chisels. Once the excess stone has been removed they are either fixed to large lathes for turning or given to the draftman who imprints the design to be carved into the block from a master set of full size drawings, then the time consuming task begins for the stone carver to transform a two dimensional sketch into a three dimensional carved work of art.

The master carver normally finishes off each piece to guarantee a uniform quality, before the item is carefully crated and packed into containers bound for the European market.

One of the beauties of this simple and ancient process is the ability to make any design as a one-off, or multiple copies in most sizes.

Classical and Contemporary

 

 

 

 

Wilstone House and Gardens

The Fairtrade ethos is now making more of an impact on the nation, with most customers being aware that purchasing items under the Fairtrade banner means that the workers have been paid a fair rate. Scan along any supermarket shelves and you are bound to see chocolates, coffee, tea, and dried fruit – but an eccentric husband and wife team based in Shropshire has taken Fairtrade to an entirely different level.

 

Christo McKinnon’s roots lay firmly in the antique business, until he and his milliner wife Kate decided to buy a rambling Georgian house with dilapidated barns amid the glorious Shropshire Hills. The McKinnon’s had previously spent many months travelling Asia and found a myriad of interesting and unusual items that they felt would enhance homes and gardens within England.

 

Christo researches traditional and functional designs in iron and stone, and commissions the highly skilled and fairly paid masons and ironworkers in India to re-create his designs. Christo also visits the production sites and talks to the workers ensuring that they are getting a decent wage with good working conditions.   

 

With the house bought, many months of ‘Fairtrade’ research and the business plan in place, Wilstone House and Gardens was formed.

 

Christo and Kate travel to India and source items of interest that are then shipped back to England in huge crates. Each crate represents a possible logistical nightmare, with many suppliers having to coordinate production and packing for the shipping date. But, once the container arrives, having been precariously driven around the tight lanes inhabited by the fearless chickens of Wilstone, it is like Christmas.

 

Hundreds of boxes and crates, miles and miles of brightly coloured shredded paper wrapping Cobalt blue ceramics, hand crafted stone troughs, jali panels in all shapes and sizes, fountains made of shiny white sparkly marble, old market cart wheels, symbolic shrines and temples that would have been disregarded on the streets of India, delicately hand carved wooden panels of all shapes and sizes depicting Peacocks, traditional floral designs, horses, Indian Gods and Deities and many carvings stemming from the period of the Raj. Victorian Tiles, taken from their original setting and turned into Coat Hooks. Iron Gazebos shrouded in bubble wrap, a pair of stately looking hand carved Lions, Stone benches shining a pale golden yellow in the afternoon sunlight.  

 

In a small hamlet, amid the hills of Shropshire, there are busy people organising and planning for their next trip abroad, to bring back many, many more fascinating and unusual things to delight and enhance the homes and gardens of England.