THE Factory is home to many exciting artists, creative businesses and ambitious events.

Located at Castle Mills, on Aynam Road, the enterprising and imaginative development is seen as Kendal's new cultural quarter, with some of the region's foremost artists under its innovative roof, including creator of finely thrown porcelain Rebecca Callis, chairmaker extraordinaire Paul Girling, leading lady of glass Jo Vincent, David Penn and Pam Williamson's impressive Artspace26A studio, stunning painter Hideyuki Sobue, and sculptor Danny Clahane, who is up there with the UK's best.

On Saturday and Sunday (June 20/21), the Factory flings opens its doors for another open studios weekend - and Danny is looking forward to welcoming visitors into his world of stone.

Danny says the Factory is a huge plus for Lakeland. "The Factory is a real asset – the energy, commitment and drive of artists and their ideas can create excitement and dynamism in a region.

"Hopefully the site will become a draw for more kindred creative spirits and a place where people know they can come to find something unique. Something that makes their lives and their environment a better and more interesting place."

When we meet Danny's chiselling away at a chunk of Ancaster weather bed stone creating Spring, which is bound for the Heaton Cooper Studio garden at Grasmere.

Another piece he's working on is Mother and Child, which will eventually grace the front portico of the yet to be built extension to St Mary's Church at Threlkeld.

"A seminal moment for me as a child was being taken by my father to see the Tutankhamun exhibition at the British museum," explains Danny. "All that beauty and splendour really made an impression on me and to be honest I've never really lost that."

Many forms, from Aztec carving to Romanesque to classical works have down the years shaped his love of sculpture: "Particularly, early stone carvings by Henry Moore and Stone Bridge by Glynn Williams, which I saw at Bernard Jacobson’s Gallery in Cork Street, London which influenced me to do my MA."

Danny was born in London and largely brought up in Hastings on the south east coast.

He landed a BA (Hons) at Canterbury College of Art and and an MA at Wimbledon school of Art. He then spent about five years working as an assistant to the sculptors Stephen Cox and Professor Glynn Williams, then head of the sculpture at the Royal college of Art.

Danny's first job as a professional artist was St Anthony and St Paul for St Paul's Church at Harringay: "The original Victorian building burnt down and the architects, Peter Inskip and Peter Jenkins, commissioned various artists to do work for the interior. The overall impact of the building is a very striking piece of contemporary architecture and it is one of the few modern works listed in England’s 1000 Best Churches by Simon Jenkins."

Danny tends to work from 8am-7pm each day, with several pieces on the go at once.

A mere chisel width away from the big time, the modest marvel of stone has lived and worked in Kendal for 17 years, creating powerful images of movement and human expressions.

A memorable moment for Danny was in 2001 at the Brewery Arts Centre's Warehouse Gallery when his Expressions of Humanity exhibition famously sold out just after it actually opened. Lancashire property developer and collector Gerald Hitman, who rated Danny as one of the best stone carvers of his generation and already owned some of his work, bought nine of the 12 pieces on show; the other three had been sold on preview night.

Other career highlights for Danny so far include the Watermark Development in Gateshead, where he made a whole series of sculptures, benches and signage, and for Ambleside Parish Centre, he beautifully crafted a frieze of 40 carvings in Portland Stone depicting the elements and the seasons, working with local architect Paul Grout.

His biggest single commission was The Tree of Life he made for Lord Lawson School, Birtley, Gateshead. Eight feet high, carved in Portland stone on a De Lank Granite base.

"For a public commission there is usually a brief, for private commissions a dialogue with the client," continues Danny. "For my own speculative work, human relations and nature are the overriding themes."

Ambition wise he says he just wants to keep tapping away: "I like working with architects to create lasting works for the real world. Something like St Mary’s Church, Wreay, near Carlisle – to carve the interior and exterior of a building, with full sculptures, arches and decorative elements, in my own designs, now that would be a project."

Danny was also a fan of the late, great Josefina de Vasconcellos for whom he thinks there should be a lasting memorial somewhere locally.

"I met Josefina on several occasions; she advised me to look after my back. I just think Josefina’s legacy should be more widely celebrated and respected."

Earlier this year, Danny took delivery of a hefty consignment of one of his favourite materials - Portland Stone. Several huge blocks arrived on four palettes: "They had to move the cenotaph in Manchester because of the tram system expansion. And I found out through the Factory grapevine there was stone leftover, surplus to requirements. I hate to see good stone go to waste. I like to recycle stone whenever possible."

So what is his favourite stone to work with? "Marble for its translucence, slate for its fineness and colour and durability, limestone a range of colours and textures. Even the youngest Oolitic limestones such as Portland are 150 million years old. The local slate is about 400 million years old, that certainly puts things in perspective".