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How it’s Made HM-0001 22 April 2026

How a Letter Is Cut in Stone

A V-cut inscription, from drafting board to finished face

Stone letter-cutting · Cardozo Kindersley Workshop ·Cambridge ·East Anglia

A finished slate memorial stone, dark and freshly cut, reading 'BELOVED Ellen Winifred HICKS 1910-1951 And her daughter Betty Ellen HICKS 1936-2024'. Two hands - one on either side - rest on the stone's edge while it is steadied on its wooden support.

The inscription is the form English stone letter-cutting has held for two thousand years, from the Trajan Letter at the foot of Trajan’s Column to the chiselled lettering Eric Gill, David Kindersley, and (now) the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop have carried into the present. The technique sits inside that long line. The geometry has not changed.

This sequence documents the cutting of a single inscription at the workshop in Cambridge on 22 April 2026. The maker is the workshop itself - the cut is hand work, but the workshop’s collective practice carries it. Lida Kindersley directs; Roxanne Kindersley, Vincent Kindersley, Hallam Kindersley and the letterer Emily share the bench. The piece in progress is a slate memorial stone for a private commission.

The sequence shows the major stages. It does not show every chisel stroke (a single letter takes roughly an hour and several hundred small cuts), and it does not show the years of training that put the muscle memory into the cut. The companion essay Letter Cut in Stone (ES-0054) describes the tradition the process belongs to; the journal entry A Morning at Cardozo Kindersley (JN-0011) records the visit itself.

  1. 01 of 9
    A hand pointing at the working sketch of a memorial stone for Simon Richard Wethered, pinned to the workshop's drafting board; a long client letter pinned alongside, a framed photograph of two figures in a garden visible to the left.
    IM-0171

    The brief

    The client letter and the working sketch, pinned to the workshop’s drafting board. The cut begins on paper, weeks before any chisel touches stone.

  2. 02 of 9
    Roxanne Kindersley standing in a white shirt over a black turtleneck, hand raised mid-gesture as she explains. Behind her, a workshop window etched with the dates '1884-1990' is just visible.
    IM-0156

    The drawing

    Each letter drawn full-size on paper. The proportions, the spacing, the optical adjustments that make the line read as a line - all decided here, not on the stone.

  3. 03 of 9
    A young workshop member with shoulder-length hair in a white shirt, hand resting against face, mid-conversation with a blonde-haired older woman whose back is to the camera. A printer's tray cabinet stands behind, its drawers labelled.
    IM-0154

    The transfer

    The drawing transferred to the stone face by hand. Pencil on slate. The setting-out is the moment the design becomes specific to this stone.

  4. 04 of 9
    The workshop's window corner: a framed numerals sample reading '1234567890' hangs centre, a skateboard-deck mounted with cut letters reading 'NEFERTITI' beneath, a round wall clock, an ABCDEF alphabet tile and a potted plant filling the corner.
    IM-0153

    The bench

    The stone steadied on its wooden support. The chisels laid out in their working order. The light from the workshop window falls along the cutting face.

  5. 05 of 9
    A bronze portrait head on a stone plinth in the workshop, lit from the side; in the soft-focus background a mirror reflects two figures. A small ceramic vessel and a stone offcut sit beside the plinth.
    IM-0151

    The first cut

    Two angled chisel strokes meet at a central V below the stone surface - the V-cut, the geometry the whole tradition descends from.

  6. 06 of 9
    A wall display of letter-cut samples mounted on white-painted brick: a slate sign reading 'man-u-fakt'yar, v.t. to make, and now usu. by machinery: intelligently in quantity', alphabet panels in roman and Greek, and a wooden carved heraldic crown.
    IM-0150

    The cutting in progress

    A letter takes roughly an hour and several hundred small cuts. The hammer and chisel set the rhythm; the cut deepens stroke by stroke.

  7. 07 of 9
    Two large alphabet panels mounted side by side on the workshop's white wall - the letterforms cut out of black material in the workshop's house style, A through Z plus an ampersand and ligatures.
    IM-0148

    The refining

    Finer chisels at the edges of the cut, cleaning the stroke. The line is sharpened, the corners squared, the stroke brought to its final crispness.

  8. 08 of 9
    The workshop's carved wooden 'RECTE NUMERARE KEYBOARDS' sign mounted above stacked pallets and bowls on a shelf. A pendant lamp drops in from above; the workshop's alphabet samples are just visible to the right.
    IM-0146

    The finished letter

    A single completed character, the V-cut clean and even along its length. The light catches the cut differently from any direction.

  9. 09 of 9
    A finished slate memorial stone, dark and freshly cut, reading 'BELOVED Ellen Winifred HICKS 1910-1951 And her daughter Betty Ellen HICKS 1936-2024'. Two hands - one on either side - rest on the stone's edge while it is steadied on its wooden support.
    IM-0169

    The completed inscription

    All letters cut, the spacing held, the line reading as one. A slate memorial stone reading BELOVED Ellen Winifred HICKS 1910-1951.

What this sequence does not show: the years of muscle memory the cut depends on; the dialogue between Lida and Roxanne about a particular letter’s spacing; the apprentice (Emily, who walked in off the street and was given a pencil) doing the slow work of learning to sharpen; the small jokes; the radio in the corner. The technique can be photographed. The workshop cannot be photographed in nine frames.

Published with the consent of the workshop. The companion long-form record of the visit is A Morning at Cardozo Kindersley (JN-0011); the craft monograph is Letter Cut in Stone (ES-0054). The Cardozo Kindersley Workshop continues to take commissions; their working site is linked above.

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