Sculptor Angelika Seik from Cofe Castle has won a commission to carve a Bath stone sculpture for the children\'s area of a new cemetery in Poundbury, the extension of Dorchester being overseen by the Prince of Wales who, as the Duke of Cornwall, owns the land.

The piece is being cut from a single, five-tonne block of Bath stone from Bath Stone Group\'s Limpley Stoke mine and supplied at cost by local masons and stone suppliers Grassby & Sons. Bath stone was required in order to fit in with furnishings already at the cemetery, which were designed by Dorchester architect Paul Scott.

Angelika can be seen working on the piece during Dorset Art Weeks from 25 May to 9 June, when she opens her studio to the public, although she will not finish it, she suspects, until October.

The finished work will be about 1.2m high x 1.5m wide and 1m thick and will weigh around three tonnes, which is the biggest sculpture Angelika has ever produced.

Several Dorset artists bid for the commission. Four were short-listed and for her final presentation Angelika carved a maquette of what she proposed in Bath stone itself, so the judges from Dorchester Joint Burial Committee could get a better idea of what the finished piece would look like.

Having won the commission, Angelika visited Limpley Stoke to choose the block of stone she wanted, which she says was remarkably easy with the help of the producers. Grassby then collected it and delivered it to her studio. "We like to be involved in local community projects," said director Andrew Grassby.

The sculpture will be called \'Children at a Rock Pool\' and depicts three children playing at a shallow pool. The Committee felt it might remind people of days by the seaside and the simple and timeless pleasures of life.

The sculpture will be mounted on a four-tonne block of Purbeck stone being supplied by H F Bonfield & Son of Blacklands Quarry at Acton on Purbeck.