Stonemasonry in 30 objects.
Week 21/30 – Capitals: This week’s object is one of the most iconic and well-known features of finished architecture – the capital. Today, their decorative features have superseded their load bearing function in many cases, acting as decorative finished to steel and brick load bearing structure.
At the AF Jones workshops in Ipsden, we still regularly make capitals and columns of all the known varieties – Doric, Tuscan, Corinthian and Composite. In many cases the capitals can be cut to a high level of detail with our routers and lathes but to achieve the highest quality of detail the hand and skill of a stonemason is indispensable.
The images here show our CNC router cutting a set of three capitals whilst the remaining images show a hand-worked capital and finished decorative columns on the Belvedere in Harpsden. The capitals for the Belvedere were part of the award-winning submission for Craftsmanship at the 2020 Natural Stone Awards with much of the stone worked by hand. The Corinthian and Tuscan capitals were carved in Woodkirk stone, a tight dense English sandstone known for its ability to retain fine carved edges.
We are particularly proud of this project given the high level of classical detail and hand carving required on every aspect of this architectural project and the range of carving techniques and methods deployed.
This is week 21/30 posts in this series. The full series can be found on our LinkedIn profile – or use #stonemasonry30
