A new start after 60: there was no time to waste – so I gave up my job and started stone carving

In 2019, after retiring from her career as a social worker, Ane Freed-Kernis decided to build a home workshop and devote all of her free time to stone carving.

This fascination has its roots in Freed-Kernis’ childhood.Growing up on her father’s farm in Denmark, she used to wander through the fields with her gaze fixed on the ground, looking for stones to add to her collection.

The first piece she brought to life was a giant salamander – so large that she had to enlist her son to help her move it from the car into the garden of her Manchester house, where it still remains.

Later, she signed up to other local stone-carving courses during her time off from work, slowly building a collection of sculpted animals and abstract figures, as well as her own hammers and chisels.

Her works have a delicate feel, following smoothed surfaces and flowing lines to create pleasingly rotund objects such as stooping elephants or sitting cows.

In May, Freed-Kernis will be exhibiting in the Chorlton Arts Festival and is now finishing five pieces for display, including a whale-themed water feature that produces a fountain from its blowhole.