This is the first of many posts related to the world of letter carving in stone.
While this traditional craft appears to be a nearly lost art, there are still strongholds in many parts of the world.

My name is David Heskin and after 25 years of fine art oil painting, I discovered, and fell in love with the art of stone letter carving during a master’s program at The King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts in London.

During the MA program, I had the extremely fortunate opportunity to study the geometric foundations of Roman letter forms with one of the UK’s top letter carvers, Tom Perkins, along with numerous other master carvers and traditional craftspeople in their respective traditions. Later I pursued training in letter carving with Tom, using only a chisel and mallet on Welsh slate and Portland limestone. Since that time, my life has shifted from painting toward carving, in pursuit of a direct, primal connection to natural materials and timeless aesthetics. While lettering in itself is an endlessly rich genre of its own, I am also fascinated by patterns and geometry and the ancestral role they have long played in the venerable traditional art of stone carving.