Black & White Curves

There always comes a stage when working with stone that you start to become paranoid about breaking edges and corners. I am at that stage now!! The process of carving the Zebra Rock requires a lot of delicate lifting, moving separate blocks, stacking, lining edges up, measuring, drawing on the stone and lifting off again. You can remove most of the waste when the single stone blocks are back on the bench and then adjust the lines when it has been offered back up onto the block below. The process gets repeated until I am happy with the lines and curves. The Portland is very soft to work while the Irish Blue Limestone is extremely hard, so there is a certain treatment each stone requires. When you place one on top of each other and attempt to carve them together you have to alter your carving technique and the weight of your touch. Otherwise, you find yourself carving, applying force and weight to one stone and then you hit the soft stuff and there is a tendency to remove too much stone as you are applying the same pressure! Things are definitely progressing with the sculptures construction and the two opposite stone types are proving to be a very effective visual combination to reference Sir Gerrard’s fascination with the zebra!

Working with the Multiple

There is always that time when working on a sculpture project that suddenly you look around and you can suddenly see things coming together. For a moment you can enjoy all your hard work and then you look the other way and you see more un-carved dimension blocks everywhere and you realise there is still a lot more to do. I have really wanted to wash the 'seed stack' stones to see them at their best, but they wouldn't stay dust free for long! It won't be until they are installed on site that I can truly appreciate the colour, texture and forms within the stone. I decided to order a Portland Limestone plinth base for this work as the bottom sphere was originally going to sit on the ground. This new plinth is 350 mm high and will elevate the bottom stone to enable you to see the shape and curve of the sphere, this will also make the sculpture very stable. It would be great to create more multiples of these 'seed and conker' forms. I can see now how effective they could be, scattered individually around the base of a large tree or upon a leafy woodland floor...For the time being I will have to make do with the concrete floor in the workshop.

Pinch and a Punch!!

Well, Christmas and the New Year was certainly a rough one! When I mean rough, I'm referring to the bad weather we had. At the studio the yard was hit with fierce winds that brought down trees onto the roof of the workshop, damaging the roof and allowing the rain to pour in! The chainsaw has been in full swing and the log pile has steadily got bigger! After all the drama its great to be back carving and what a nice gentle way to start the year than a rhythmical and meditative texturing job! I don’t know how many times I have had to hit the mallet and chisel onto the hard limestone. You loose yourself to the repetitive motion and sound and it allows you to slip into a state of mind that takes away the physical pain. Carving certainly feels like an endurance activity, especially in this weather! The two segments will get turned over tomorrow and hollowed out… that is if no more trees come down over night!

365 Portrait Project

I had the pleasure of inviting my local ‘Primary School Headmaster’ from Barming out to my workshop to have a look at what I’ve been up to since starting the Cobtree Project. Robin Halls is also a very keen photographer who last January set him self a task of taking a portrait every day for a year. He has called this body of work ‘The 365 Portrait Project’. I can recall speaking with Robin probably 11 months ago about his work and how challenging his project sounded due to his busy commitments as a Head Teacher. Of course, I was more than happy to invite him out to the workshop when he expressed an interest in photographing portraits of artist’s to add variety to the theme of individual portraits. On previous occasions before when I have had portraits taken I am normally unrecognizable. My face is obscuered with a dust mask, ear defenders and a hat, just the way I like it!! However, as it was early in the morning and I had yet to get togged up with mask and grinder, Robin was able to catch me dust free and content. You can check out more of Robin’s photos and follow his last few weeks of portraits by clicking the link below. You might even be surprised and see someone you know!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91676789@N07/11484350354/in/set-72157638291575344

Segment: 'Each of the parts into which something may be divided'

The final two segments that will complete the ‘Seed Stack’ sculpture are starting to take shape. A good morning was spent grinding and blocking out the arch’s in the two stones. I’ve decided to put the two blocks together to work the overall ‘dome’ shape and then they will be separated, turned over and hollowed out. It sounds like a lot of work but I have lifted the blocks up onto one of the wider benches to save the strain on my back and therefore making me work faster, well that’s the logic! It’s hard to think it’s nearly Christmas with the sort of weather there has been today. Beautiful sunshine motivated my progress but it seemed it was not long before the tungsten lamps had to be turned on because of poor visibility.  

 

 

 

 

Winter's setting in.

The mist and fog has been lying thick in the valley below and on the hills the last few mornings. The temperature has been mild, but the dampness and moisture in the air has been playing havoc with the compressor!! If it's not cutting out, it's icing up because of the weather! This was becoming a little frustrating and was preventing me from quickly getting on with removing the stone from a very hard block of Kilkenny. As annoying as this had become, I was soon drawn to the view across the field to the right of the workshop. There are two small rescued horses in the field. The one in the picture is called Bramble. For a moment I forgot about carving and stood focused on the horse, admiring the imposing mist and fog and how atmospheric the landscape looked.

Balancing Act

Before I carried on carving the remaining two spheres, I really needed to drill and stack the balls on top of each other to ensure the segments and angles resembled my idea! In order to make the sculpture safe I drilled into the bottom stone and inserted a pin into the studio floor. The second sphere was offered up using the 'Lewis pin' which made life so much easier. The Lewis pin is a split steel pin on a lifting eye that gets inserted into the drill hole. When the stone is lifted the weight of the stone forces the pin to lock inside the drill hole enabling it to be safely lifted, giving me a nice straight lift. This method enabled me to hoist the stone above the bottom stone and connect the two together with another stainless steel pin. As this was only temporary, the pins remained loose and there was no resin glue used. The third stone however was a little tricky! I could not use the Lewis pin in the top of the stone to lift it as this would have left a visible hole in the top! Instead I used the straps and gentley lifted the stone trying to ensure it was cradled and balanced at all times. The problem you always have when lifting  a stone with no edges is the possibility of it slipping out of the straps. Encountering any lifting problems now is always good, as it's best to be prepared and have all the problem solving done before installation. Now that it's all together I can begin to draw onto the remaining two spheres and then dissemble...which should be fun!

To follow the production of the Cobtree Sculptures visit the site - http://thecobtreesculpture.blogspot.co.uk/