A Cumbrian man’s travelling sphere project is connecting people through art.
Andy Levy, 39, of Kendal, has been creating ‘energy spheres’ – and sending some off travelling into the Lake District – for the past 10 years.
Energy spheres, an idea Andy’s friend came up with, are symbolic keepsakes that all have different purposes, ranging from being a memorial or in the case of the travelling spheres, connecting people to each other and to nature.
A professional wood sculptor and a third generation craftsman, Andy said he has worked with wood and been in or around workshops throughout his life.
But his wood sculpting journey started during his early 20s, when he picked up chainsaw carving as a hobby alongside his job as a tree surgeon.
It was only after Andy had an accident that his sculpting turned into something more.
He said: “In 2011, I ended up falling off a roof in town and I broke my wrist and back. I was doing heavy tree work at the time and couldn’t do any of it, so in my time off I made a website for my hobby.
“By the time I was fit to work again, the carving was paying the bills, so I always say I fell into chainsaw carving.”
In the years that followed Andy made everything from six foot tall wizards, to thrones and unicorns and smaller objects like owls, rabbits and sheep.
But it was his favourite client, Jenny Snape, a therapist and author, that came up with the idea to create the first energy sphere.
Andy said: “I met Jenny when she commissioned me to do the wizard for her garden. From there we creatively bounced off each other, and I think I’ve created around 13 or 14 quite large sculptures for her now.
“The first energy sphere came about after I had another customer ask for a big smiley face, but they didn’t follow through, so I was left with this big orb.
“I ended up offering it to Jenny and asking her if she’d be interested in a large wooden sphere, she thought for a second, and she came back and said yes, I would, but I want you to create a vortex through it.
“I thought that was really creative, and loved the idea, so I carved a vortex through it and she still has it in her garden today.”
The following year, a conversation between Andy and Jenny evolved the energy sphere idea further, after Andy’s brother and Jenny’s partner died in the same year.
He said: “We were discussing the sculptures we’d already done one day and we got onto some personal emotional stuff around lacking direction, and not knowing where to go or what to do.
“And she came up with this huge brainwave and she said you know do what you need to do? You need to make a smaller energy sphere, a hand sized one, and name it the direction you want to go in.
“Because we saw these vortex’s inside the energy spheres as little gateways, so I made the sphere and named it community, because at the time that’s what I was looking for.”
After making himself an energy sphere, Andy started making them for his friends and family as gifts, and project was born.
He personalised each sphere and its spiral vortex and selected different woods, patterns and decorations like gemstones that would represent the owner of the energy sphere and their life stage.
He said: “I started out making them for friends and family, because it’s a project based on connection.
“The earlier ones were just gifts, but it opened the door up to really beautiful process of customising a specific sphere to a person.
“So the project evolved into specific types of energy spheres that would represent a little snippet of what was going on in your life at that time.
“So people would come to me with a request and it could be a life sphere, or an anniversary sphere or a memorial sphere, which is really powerful, for a lost loved one.”
Andy was also able to embed things like hair into his memorial spheres.
He said: “I made a memorial sphere for one lady in memory of her dad, she’d actually saved some of her father’s hair, so we embedded that in too.
“I gave it to her and she said to me wow, you’ve brought my dad back. I was pretty overwhelmed to hear her say that, but I said to her I really appreciated the sentiment, but that I’d just given her a tool to connect with what’s already inside her.
“But to realise I’d done that for someone was really special.”
Andy also decided to create two special travelling energy spheres to open the project up and connect other people with each other and nature.
He’s sent out two so far by taking them to the top of local fells and leaving them to be found.
He said: “It’s just the one out there at the moment, but I did make two and one of them has disappeared!
“It was made of a really beautiful piece of wood, so I was quite attached to it, but I did expect something like that might happen since it was left at the top of a hill.
“It was a few years between that one going missing and realising it wasn’t going to show up, before I made another one.
“So I’ve got one doing the rounds at the moment, I haven’t actually heard from it in a couple of weeks, so the last person to find the sphere was on Thornthwaite Crag and it went back High Street from there.
“I do get a little nervous and think oh come on show back up! But it usually pops back up.”
Both of the travelling energy spheres are patterned with text giving the finder instructions on how to help it on its journey.
The idea is for finders to take the ball home, give Andy a call for their next instructions, and take it back out and up a fell for a new person to find.
He said: “It gives people a little lift and they call me and we have a really nice conversation about the project. They usually have a few questions, and we talk about if they would like to take it to a new location next.
“I think it brings a bit of magic to the people who find it and that’s something Jenny passed onto me with all the projects we’ve done, she brought the magic and wonder back to me while I was working with her, and now that’s passing on.”
Andy is looking to reopen his commissions for energy spheres once he finished moving home and is planning to finish some other wood sculpting projects in the future.
