Ben Harms
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Woodcarver
Ben Harms was born in west Germany in 1953, he came to England in 1968 and took an apprenticeship with Eke and Gozalez where he began his woodcarving career. He then joined Trollop And Coles. He later joined forces with Ray Gonzalez to form Gonzalez and Harms. From then on the two mastered the arts of traditional woodcarving and gilding. Ben Harms is also a Tutor at West Dean College in West Sussex, UK. [1]
Examples
Ben Harms traditional and ornamental woodcarvings can be seen at The Tower of London Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace and Hampton Court.
One of Ben Harms first major commission once he and Ray Gonzalez formed their partnership was the restoration of three carved full size horses at the tower of London,The Horses are displayed in the armory. Ben Harms early works can also be seen at Cambridge university in The Chapel of Emmanuel College, where extensive gilding work was undertaken.
During the restoration work at Windsor Castle after the fire, Gonzalez and Harms carved the four Queen's Beasts which were totally destroyed in the fire which began in the Queen's private chapel. The fire raged for 15 hours until it had destroyed nine of the principal state rooms, and severely damaged over 100 more—in all the larger part of the upper ward. One-fifth of the floor space of the castle was damaged—an area of 9,000 square metres. The restoration programme was not complete until 1997, 70% of it funded by the decision to open to the public for the first time the state rooms of Buckingham Palace. The total cost of repairing the damage was £37 million. The restoration was undertaken at no additional cost to the British taxpayer. So successful was the restoration and faithfulness to the original plans and decorations that the distinction between old and new is hard to detect. One example of this are the recarving of The Queens Beast which were totally recarved as close to the originals as possible by Gonzalez and Harms.
Apart from interior woodcarving and gilding works Ben Harms has been involved in many other external carving projects such as restoration at Kensington Palace.
Ben has been involved in the restoration and conservation of many others of England's great public buildings such as the Music Rooms at The V&A, The Entrance Hall at The Royal Academy and The Tower Of London.
Apart from specializing in traditional woodcarving and gilding Ben Harms is an accomplished sculpture working in wood,stone or clay and has been involved in major commissions private and commercial. In 2000 Gonzalez and Harms Created 4 massive bronze panels for the newly created Queen Mary II to be place in the entrance lobby. each panel depicted a different scene from around the world including Africa, Europe, South America And north America.
It was the North American panel what shot to fame for unexpectly. During the sculpting of the panel Ben Harms depicted the statue of liberty with a small satellite dish standing at the bottom.
An American journalist working for the san fransico chronical was traveling on the Queen Mary II was admiring this panel and notice that if you look closely beside the satellite dish you can see Homer Simpson who has run a wire from the satellite dish into his TV obviously trying to obtain free cable. you can view the original artical below
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Gonzalez and Harms
Master Cavers Association
Windsor Castle