HANDMADE IN BRITAIN. BUILT TO LAST.
How It All Started — Garden Art, Public Art, and a Workshop in the Chiltern Hills
It didn't start with a business plan. It started with a hammer, an anvil, and a sculptor who genuinely couldn't understand why beautiful metalwork was only available to people with big budgets and even bigger gardens.
Charles had spent years working on large public sculptures — the kind that go into town squares, corporate courtyards, and grand private estates. Serious work. Skilled work. But always, naggingly, out of reach for most people.
So the question became: what if it didn't have to be? What if a small British team, working out of a proper farm workshop, could make real handcrafted sculpture — wall art, garden pieces, wildlife designs, statement focal points — and get it to people's doors anywhere in the world? Not cheap imports. Not flat-pack ornaments. Real steel. Real skill. Properly made.
That question became Rustic Garden Art. And the answer, it turns out, was yes.
The first pieces were cut and welded at a windswept workshop just outside Berkhamsted. No team. No warehouse. Just Charles, a grinder, and a pile of British steel.
Word spread — slowly at first, then faster than anyone expected. People wanted robins for their garden fences. Hares for their flower beds. Spheres for their patios. Ferns, stags, foxes, dogs, bees. Personalised pieces for memorials. Wall art for the house. Statement sculptures for hotels and commercial spaces. The workshop got busier. The ideas got bigger.
The studio moved to Wolds Farm in Tring, right in the heart of the Chiltern Hills — and Daniel and Ed joined the team. Three people. One workshop. Sparks flying, music on, tea brewing, pheasants wandering past the door. That's still more or less how it works today.
Every single piece is designed, cut, shaped, welded and hand-finished in that workshop. When it's done, the same team packs it up and sends it out — no warehouse middleman, no outsourced fulfilment, no shortcuts. The people who make it are the people who pack it. That matters to us. You can feel the difference when it arrives.
What's happened since is, honestly, a bit mad. Over 75,000 sculptures sent across the world. Customers in every corner of the UK, across Europe, into Australia, Canada, the US. Garden art that started life in a Hertfordshire field is now sitting in Manhattan apartments, Melbourne backyards, Scottish estates, and London rooftop gardens.
The same workshop that packs a £12 robin also builds 19-foot public sculptures. We've worked on commissions for councils, developers, hotels, and private collectors. Charles continues to take on major public art projects worldwide through his wider practice — that ambition feeds directly back into everything Rustic Garden Art makes.
We never set out to be the biggest. We set out to be the best small team making the most honest product we could. That's still the whole point.
British steel. British hands. British work ethic. Made properly, packed carefully, delivered to your door — wherever in the world that door happens to be.
So when your sculpture arrives — however big or small — know that it left this workshop with a bit of mud on it, a lot of care behind it, and three people who are genuinely proud of what they made.
Welcome to Rustic Garden Art. We're glad you found us.
Looking for something on a grander scale? Charles also accepts a very limited number of private and public commissions each year — monumental bronze and large-scale steel sculpture for international clients, estates, councils and developers.
Projects from £25,000 to £500,000+. Enquire directly at www.charleselliott.com
REAL STEEL. REAL CRAFTSMANSHIP.
LIFE AT THE WORKSHOP
Our sculptures are created using solid steel, traditional metalworking techniques and carefully developed finishes designed specifically for outdoor living.
Each design begins as raw material in the workshop before being cut, shaped, welded and hand-finished into sculpture.
Many of our larger pieces — including spheres, fern sculptures and statement focal points — are individually assembled by hand section by section, giving every sculpture its own subtle character and detail.
Unlike lightweight imported garden ornaments, our sculptures are designed to feel permanent, substantial and architecturally grounded within a landscape.
They are built to sit outdoors for decades and evolve naturally with the seasons.
LARGE SCALE SCULPTURE
FROM SMALL GIFTS TO 19 FT SCULPTURES
Although many customers first discover us through smaller wildlife pieces and garden gifts, sculpture at Rustic Garden Art now ranges from balcony-sized designs to large outdoor installations for private estates, hotels and commercial spaces.
The same workshop that creates a small robin sculpture may also be building large statement spheres, architectural arches or public art commissions within the same week.
That variety has always been part of the studio.
We believe great sculpture should be available at every scale — whether it’s a small gift beside a flowerbed or a centrepiece that transforms an entire landscape.
In house made & packed
PACKING & SHIPPING
Once finished, sculptures are carefully checked, packed and prepared for delivery directly from the workshop.
Smaller pieces are dispatched quickly with Royal Mail and Parcelforce, while larger sculptures are securely delivered on pallets throughout the UK.
Most larger sculptures are designed to be straightforward to position, often requiring only a simple two-person lift or roll into place.
The aim has always been to make outdoor sculpture feel accessible and easy to live with — without complicated installation or specialist groundwork.
BRITISH HANDCRAFTED PRODUCTS
Unique Sculptures
MADE WITH CARE & ATTENTION
Every sculpture we create carries the mark of the people who made it. At our workshop in the Hertfordshire countryside, each piece is carefully cut, welded, assembled and finished by hand by our small team — not mass produced in a factory or imported in containers.
From large statement spheres and fern sculptures to smaller wildlife pieces and memorial designs, real time and attention goes into every detail. Welds are cleaned by hand, finishes are individually developed, and each sculpture is checked carefully before leaving the workshop.
We believe that’s what gives handmade sculpture its character.
No two pieces ever feel completely identical — and that’s exactly how we think outdoor art should be.
It’s this combination of craftsmanship, durable steel and honest materials that allows our sculptures to feel solid, lasting and genuinely at home outdoors for years to come.
Custom Orders
Alongside our main collection, we create custom sculptures for private gardens, memorial spaces and commercial landscape projects.
From personalised wildlife pieces to large statement sculptures, our team can help bring your ideas to life with handcrafted outdoor sculpture designed and made at our Hertfordshire workshop.
If you have a project, idea or space in mind, we’d love to hear from you.
