A Welsh carver has been commissioned to produce two new wooden statues to replace 100 year old versions on Caldey Island.

Sharon Littley was contacted by the Island to commission two carved statues, of ‘Our Lady and St. John’, to replace the existing woodworm riddled statues that had been taken down from the St. David’s Parish Church on Caldey.

The original carvings were approximately 100 years old and had to be replaced like for like.

Sharon who used Lime wood for the statues said that quite a bit of time was taken to get as near an exact copy as possible.

“All my work is bespoke and therefore each piece is a challenge,” explained Sharon.

“These statues created a much bigger challenge in that they had to be painted - I dropped art in school when I was 14, so this was indeed a very big challenge!” she laughed.

Sharon took quite some time in preparing the statues after carving and before painting, applying three coats of woodworm repellant before applying three coats of gesso (primer) and then gradually applying many thinner coats of the acrylic paint until she got a vibrant colour.

“I’m very pleased with the finished statues and hope that Greg Richards and Father Gildas, who commissioned them, will be very pleased when they see them,” continued Sharon, who saw her creations shipped over to the Island on Friday morning.

“Unfortunately the weather was too bad for me to be there when they saw the statues for the first time as we had to return immediately on the same boat we went out on as there would be no other boats that day,” added Sharon.

You can view more of her work at www.sharonlittley.com