Having lived in beautiful New Zealand my client decided to commission a garden designer to completely redesign her UK garden with a New Zealand theme. The planting featured ferns and plants reminiscent of New Zealand and she wished to have a Sculpture of a Koru – a new unfurling silver fern frond, to be the main feature.

The Koru is deeply symbolic of Maori culture representing new life, growth, strength and peace. Its shape conveys the idea of perpetual movement while the inner coil suggests returning to the point of origin.

A Koru is a very lovely thing to carve, The form is fluid and has a feeling of movement. I considered the measurements and proportions, drew out the design on paper, cut out a template to size and after this was approved, used the design directly on the cut block and began carving.

Trying to incorporate the delicacies of a fern frond into a three-dimensional large block of stone is very interesting. I wanted the Koru to sit solidly on its own base (then on a flat plinth) and survive the elements/not fall over in a high wind. The design of the spiral unfurling was the crucial aspect – to imagine what it would look like if it did unfurl.

I chose Caen Stone for its superb carving quality but also had in mind that the client had a choice; to retain its natural cream colour or, allow it to age and take on verdigris to blend in with the ferns and planting. Making use of a saw, disc cutter, chisels and mallets, files and sandpaper, walking around and around, marking and removing stone, filing it to create lovely long sweeps, stepping back to see it from a distance, repeating the process.

The client requested a Maori inscription on the plinth ‘Haeri Mai’ (‘Welcome’) which involved letter carving techniques.