Living water sprang from CDT at Coleshill School
A Northumberland artist who paints pictures with scalpel and wood veneers has made and installed a new cover for our 12th century font. In finely carved Caen stone, the font is a major attraction.
“Living Water”, in marquetry with hand carved leaves and stones, is the work of Victoria Walpole, of Wylam.
Her cover takes the form of a shallow bowl with fenestrations which reveal the inside of the font.
The cover includes fish swimming by a waterfall in the baptismal stream, hand-carved leaves at the side of the stream or floating with the current, and pebbles. It has green credentials: the ivory used in the waterfall came from recycled piano keys. Lots of wood offcuts were used, too.
Victoria also designed and made the aumbry (above right), a piece commissioned in memory of a member of the congregation. Clikck on the images for a more detailed view.
Her career as an award winning artist in wood, using a scalpel rather than paper and brush, started with CDT at Coleshill School before an arts foundation course at college, then university on the way to a first class honours degree in industrial design.
Click on the images to see more detail.