James Crisp Sculptor

Contemporary Wood Sculpture and Handmade Guitars

Since 2011

Commissions and Sales Worldwide,

Contact

Email. james@jamescrispsculptor.com

Email. james@halflightguitars.com

Phone. +44 (0) 7599 873 199

Unit F, Building 7, West Raynham Business Park, NR21 7PL

Norfolk, England,

Before I developed my unique woodcarving style in 2011, I worked mainly in high-end, bespoke cabinetmaking, restoration and construction. Since 2013 I have turned full time to artistic wood carving and my sculptural, but primarily performance and sound driven electric guitars.

I studied Art up to the age of eighteen in Cambridge, England, and this had always been my real focus and intention for the future. My tutor suggested Kings College London, where he had connections. He and others in the department loved my paintings but disliked my mysticism and attitude. I left and worked in construction. I never abandoned art. Over the years I did deliberately abandon quite a few more good and stable opportunities in favour of work in a new field, mostly because I knew my desire to produce world class guitars and precision sculptural forms, directly, as an individual, rather than as a company or designer, would require a diverse set of skills, and I have diverse interests.

But always as a hands on maker.

This is what my work is about, although the precision, form and detail I achieve has often led people to ask if it is done with computer guided machine carving- it is not, and for my works there is no computer aided design either. I work with powered tools often, and in my ‘geometric interference’ style, my tools are guided by geometry, like drawing with a ruler or compasses, but traditional handwork techniques are critical.

When I started doing abstract, geometrically inspired relief carvings to hang on walls, the style was relatively uncommon, and my specific style was unique- it still is. I gained a lot of interest through etsy and pinterest around 2013 and sold well internationally before much exposure at home. Now the style in a general sense is popular on the mass market- simplified and/or machine made for low cost. Using abstract carved relief surfaces on furniture and walls has also since then, arguably become the defining high end interiors style of our period (I have artworks on display on three recently constructed mega yachts that also contain a lot of interior decoration in this style).

In 2011, programming a machine to do bespoke carving work was impossibly expensive, outside mass production, and I didn’t want to go that route personally anyway. Having computers create designs for art objects largely independently was science fiction. Programs for computer carving machines weren’t sold online on sites advertised as ‘markets for small independent makers’. That's not the case now in 2026. I don’t want to appear dismissive of other working methods- I love computers and so much of the opportunities and artforms that they have enabled for us, but I think this new technological situation is calling for us to remember the strengths and value we have because we are corporeal and embodied, and that the same can apply to our art. Handwork isn't about roughness or mistakes though- my guitars, for example, use very few machine processes, and mostly in the early stages- handwork can be more precise in practice, whether its guided, like a wood plane creating a flat surface (which is essentially similar to a handheld power carver following a set curve, in my opinion), or freehand with one of my 19th century hand forged carving gouges.

I believe the focus created by designing and making an object as an individual is inherently valuable, and becomes a part of the object.

Handwork skills are critical for all my sculptures, even in those pieces where the form is created largely by geometrically guided handheld powered carving tools. I sharpen the tungsten carbide cutting tips of my electrically driven carving blades with the same attention as I do my japanese white paper steel laminated chisels.

Every picture you see on this site is an image of a real object, there is no use of technology to create images of apparently real items that have never existed- as possibilities for future commission, to make only if there’s demand. I do sketch and draw though, extensively if needed, to develop an idea personally or to help communicate ideas for a commission, sometimes even with computers. They just don't provide the creative design when I do use them.

I work from North Norfolk in eastern England, a few miles from the sea and the Norfolk Coast National Landscape and Scolt Head, in converted buildings on a former military airbase that’s five minutes from my home just outside a medieval english village. The old airbase site has some brutalist architectural jems, plus real biodiversity, in the areas that are decades untouched by ‘management’. My timber comes from English forests and fields, some right on my doorstep.

James Crisp 2026

I work to commission (sometimes very open to the needs and wishes of the client and the creation of new forms, and sometimes more in my recognisable style), and have speculative pieces for sale (anything not listed as ‘sold’ or ‘to commission’ in the notes for each image on this site).

Sizes so far have been from handheld to 4 x 2 metres (approx. 4 x 2 yards, a piece that stretched up a wall and across a ceiling). The largest set of panels to date has been 12, each 1 x 1.2 metres.

Works and commissions are available for delivery worldwide. In fact, most of my work has been delivered internationally, to this point, to all continents exept Antarctica. See the notes for the images on this site for examples, or this link below, for an example of my work for world leading art consultants, Artelier, and Rosewood Hotels.

https://www.artelier.com/post/artelier-curation-rosewood-miyakojima-japan

https://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/miyakojima/overview/gallery#rooms

All images and text on this site are copyright James Patrick Crisp

Above- Works in progress for the Rosewood Miyakojima Hotel project, shown completed below. The semi-figurative bust was a new direction for me at the time. I was asked to do one on commission. More are coming. It was made during a time when I was watching a close friend slowly die of a painful spinal condition, though it took a while for me to realise the influence. Rest in Peace Ali.

Contact

Email. james@jamescrispsculptor.com

Email. james@halflightguitars.com

Phone. +44 (0) 7599 873 199

Workshop address

Unit F, Building 7, West Raynham Business Park, Norfolk, England, NR21 7PL

All images and text on this site are copyright James Patrick Crisp