A sculpture with a twist

I have completed the base for the latest carving that I've been working on out of an off cut of Irish blue limestone. The initial notion I had was to use the drill markings and fluted marks already on the stone. This soon changed once I started masoning the faces. Its such a great material to work with and it always surprises me how many colour changes and variations one goes through when rubbing down the stones surface. However, on this occasion I felt that the best approach was to have all the faces smooth and scratch free including the underside of the curve on the bottom corner. The base stone is very dense and surprisingly heavy for such a small block. The carving which sits on top is also relatively heavy and I had several attempts at balancing the two together until I got the angle and lean I was happy with. Normally I would fix a pin to the base stone and set the sculpture on top, but this time I had to fix the pin to the sculpture's rounded base as the Irish blue limestone had originally been pre drilled with a wider drill hole and I could not determine the angle the carving would sit at. This process of fixing two stones together always requires a lot of manual lifting and shifting before committing to drilling and fixing. When you get it right and the two stones don't rock and remain stable without glue and the fixing pin is not visible from underneath, it is a very satisfying feeling. With only a short amount of time after studying the pleasing angles and views of the work the urgency to start work on the next idea soon creeps in and takes over, even though I know I will be glancing and feeling the stone for the next few weeks as it catches my eye as I walk past it.

'Growing Up Together' 2013. Portland Limestone and Irish Blue Limestone. 70 cm x 40 cm x 35 cm.