© Heather Jansch / Barcroft Media
Standing majestically in life-like poses, these beautiful stags are the latest creation by driftwood artist Heather Jansch.
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The West Country sculptor has been branching out from her famous driftwood horses and created these beautiful lowland deer.
Painstakingly created, each sculpture can take Heather months to finish and is totally different and unique.
Heather’s art is so sought after a stag can cost up to £25,000 while a life-size horse fetches almost £55,000. There are however cheaper works for those with less money to spare.
© Heather Jansch / Barcroft Media
“Someone gave me a pair of antlers about 10 years ago and I have been wanting to do something with them,” she said.
“I have got 14 acres of woodland around me with red deer and they are such interesting animals I decided to sculpt one in wood.”
All Heather’s sculptures start life as a steel frame. This is first painted with a rust inhibitor and coated with fibreglass to give a roughened surface.
The wood is then tied to the the frame with wires and screws hold it firmly in place.
© Heather Jansch / Barcroft Media
A shortage of driftwood has led Heather to look elsewhere for potential sculpture material.
She was recently given coffee root wood from Bali and is creating a stag from it.
“It is very hard and unbelievably complicated wood,” said Heather, 61.
“But it is very easy to knot together. Once you have put one piece in another grabs on. It’s ideal for making sculptures.”
A deer farm close to Heather’s Devon home supplies her with the antlers and the finished sculpture stands four feet high.
Her horses weigh nearly one ton and usually stand around 17 hands tall (five-and-a-half fee) but it is the life-like qualities that most impresses about her work.
© Heather Jansch / Barcroft Media
Working on several sculptures a year, Heather has become so popular she has a waiting list of three years to work through.
For larger, outdoor sculptures Heather uses Oak, which is more durable than driftwood. She has also started casting her horse pieces in bronze
Originally working in fine art painting Heather made the move into her beautiful driftwood sculpting in the 1970’s in a bid to do something different.
“I was tired of following in other people’s footsteps,” she said.
“I had been working with copper wire and the sculptures were like Da Vinci’s line drawings but lacked the power I wanted.”
She started using driftwood collected from around the UK and created small relief horses before moving into the powerful stallions which wowed so many people.
Heather has now created over 100 horses and is being commissioned by equine enthusiasts all over the world.
Words by Lucy Tatchell
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