Carving his way to Chelsea

It's been all hand's to the deck over the last few months. Chris has been busy constructing the stand, carving more sculptures and running around like an Easter Bunny on a double strength expresso.  I on the other hand have been beavering away getting publicity for Chris for his debut exhibition at Chelsea, seeing that even the local Somerset papers don't appear to want to run his story, I thought I'd publish the press release myself on my blog and see if anyone picks it up!

Press release

In just a months time, renowned sculptor Chris Webb will be unveiling his stunning new collection of works at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Chris will be exhibiting for the first time at Chelsea and is over the moon to be showcasing his sculptures at the greatest flower show on earth!

Chris has been a sculptor for over thirty years and selects his stone personally from the quarry at Portland Bill, near Weymouth. He works tirelessly carving into the stubborn stone then hand polishes all the chisel marks until they lose their hardness and become soft to touch. He does not theorise about his work, instead he believes in creating beautiful sculptures that people want to touch and make them smile. 

From recent commissions for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee to many private commissions from around the world, his work is certainly catching the attention of many collectors. He has recently turned his skills to casting bronzes from his stone carvings and this new collection of bronzes will also be on show at Chelsea. Chris says ‘It’s a real honour and privilege to be invited to exhibit at Chelsea. I’m really delighted to be positioned right by the entrance of the Great Pavilion and excited by what hopes to be a fantastic few days - let’s just hope it doesn’t rain!’ His Sculpture Garden, which has been designed by aspiring garden designer Liz Brewer, also features a beautiful new Retreat Garden Shelter by Jacksons Fencing.

Getting down to business

We had a brilliant meeting about Chelsea with the two lovely Liz's who run Oak End Nursery and Potager in Chalfont St Giles. We got outside in the very, very fresh air and paced out our stand, using buckets and posts to mark where the key features on the stand would be. It was great to pick their brains about exhibiting at Flower Shows as they both have experience designing medal winning show gardens at both Hampton Court and Chelsea. So we knew we're going to be in very safe hands. They have the coolest office and although the potager area is looking at bit sleepy at this time of year, it is such a fantastic space to grow veg and flowers. It's amazing to see what they have created and they've only been open for two years! I just wish they were based in Wiltshire and not Buckinghamshire.

Money, Money, Money...

Tough past few weeks. It's been all hands on deck trying to source a sponsor for our stand at Chelsea. We've had some fantastic response, but it looks like we needed to have sorted out sponsorship last year as most businesses have already allocated their marketing budgets. So although it's a bit of a knock, the RHS have been fantastic and unearthed a lovely new stand allocation which is still in an amazing spot on Pavilion Way only a little bit smaller. This means I only need to tweak our design a little bit and create a smaller, yet, perfectly formed Sculpture Garden for Chris. We've decided to park our 'Sense to Touch' concept and offer businesses that we've been in discussions with the opportunity to sponsor us instead at RHS Chelsea 2015! 

The planting concept is now more along the idea of an opulent, stunning foliage roof top / city garden where a collector proudly shows off all his wonderful sculptures that he owns.

We do however have a very generous contribution from my garden design course The Blackford Centre for Garden Design and another lovely business is soon to let us know if they will contribute too... so all very exciting!  

All is good.