Sunday, November 10, 2013

Finished

It's been some time since the last post about this stone because the finishing stage, due to the complexity of the design, seemed endless. At the end, I almost could not face working on it. However, since it's now mounted and oiled, I really do like it again. The overall height, with the base, is 16-1/2". My plan for the immediate future is to concentrate on a commission I've received for an aluminum wall piece.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Getting ready to finish

I decided to take this piece outside to wash off the dust to get a better idea of how the finished look would be. This stone has some really interesting veining that was not that apparent in its dust-covered state. I've got a couple of areas that need final resolution and then the sanding phase can begin - probably mid week or end of week.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Day 17 . . .

More refinement of existing interior forms today and some resolution of the forms around the periphery. This orange alabaster is definitely less compliant than the other alabasters I've carved - Colorado and Italian. It seems harder and more brittle, making the subtle details a bit more difficult.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Finally, some progress

Work on this stone has been spotty lately due to a heart rhythm disturbance I've been experiencing. It is now pretty constant and saps my energy and will to work. Will see a heart electrical specialist tomorrow. Anyway, I've been able to put in 2-1/2 hrs. on it over the last two days and the stone is starting to show some cohesiveness of design as some of the major forms get refined. This particular piece of alabaster contains lots of areas of dark, dirt-like impurities, and in some cases I have no choice but to carve them out. As a result, the design of this piece is at least in some measure determined by what I can't work with instead of what I can. I remain optimistic, however, that the final character of the piece will be good despite this ongoing problem. It's obvious that the generally circular theme is dominant, but I have yet to resolve the projections around the periphery to my liking.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

A belated post –

Some time has elapsed since my last post and the stone looks quite a bit different now. I realized that this piece of alabaster had significantly more and larger areas of the "dirt" that I had to deal with in the first two orange pieces. It became obvious that a fairly significant area of the stone was going to need to be removed to get rid of it - the stuff has no structural strength, and would not be a suitable surface long term. It's really as bad as a sand pocket.

So, instead of just getting rid of the material and leaving its cavity exposed, or trying to fill the cavity with tinted epoxy or similar filler, I decided to carve out the biggest area of it and make it a feature of the design. This doesn't always work out too well, but in this case I really like the result. I ended up having to carve completely through to the other side and then finished the edges in a manner consistent with the overall theme. Side A is nearly fully resolved, but side B is going to be more of the same, so the piece's sense of unity is far from a done deal.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

A start . . .

After the above photo was taken, I worked a bit on the other side and, to get the sides roughly parallel, I had to take off a significant portion of the stone. So, this one will end up being a bit thinner than the previous two orange alabaster pieces. That's okay. I'm kind of anxious to see how I like the thinner look and how the reduced mass might suggest a change in the type of base I use.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

1st work on a new piece


After finishing "Compass" (and selling it!), Lori and I took a vacation to Montana to visit our dear friend Karen. We had a fine time and returned relaxed to Illinois on the 14th. Yesterday, I planned to start a new piece, working with a 60lb. slab of orange alabaster that arrived before we left. However, the heat / humidity combination was just too much and I didn't get out to my south-exposed studio until around 10:00 a.m.  -  too late. Montana was hot too, but the humidity was much lower. I managed to get a much earlier start today and got quite a bit accomplished. First, I cut the slab into three pieces and then started to work the largest one - the only one that could contain a circular piece, since this will be the sixth sculpture in my Mandala series, which I started last year. The original stone and the result of the first day's work are shown in the photos above. Remember to click on them to see a large version.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Compass - the 2nd finished orange alabaster piece

As it turns out, my plan for the second side of this stone worked beautifully. I was able to keep most of the un-pigmented translucent surface, and it creates a really interesting effect. It is called "Compass" and sold almost immediately.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Ready for final finishing


Here are the last two photos before I wet-sand this piece and then mount it on a concrete base (which I have yet to saw and drill). I expect to finish it sometime tomorrow, and will post some shots of the completed piece.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Side B shows its face


A few days ago, I thought that this side of the piece was going to be a real problem, so imagine my delight at having it coming along so smoothly. The radial theme I envisioned is working out well, although the finishing stage is going to really take some time with all those edges. However, it's all in the service of taking the best advantage of the layer of glass-like material over the
underlying orange stone. I am now thinking it's a layer of silica, but it seems to carve and finish very well. It could also be just a layer of alabaster without any impurities. I've never seen this before and am anxious to get it finished.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Day Seven . . .

Yesterday I figured out what to do about the dilemma presented by this side of the stone (see previous post). Today, I really went to town on it, and I have to say that I'm pleased with the result so far. The radial theme is emerging nicely and once I reassert the circular motif, it should integrate with the other side quite well - something that seemed pretty elusive as recently as a few days ago.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

An important step forward

There's a good reason why there haven't been any photos of the other side of this piece shown here on this blog - it was, until today, just the natural rock as it was when it was quarried. The reason? When I first took a good look at this stone, my spirits sank a bit when I looked at one side of it. It has an undulating surface with about 1/4" of a clear, near glass-like stone over the orange alabaster that makes up the rest of the stone.
So, this was my dilemma: I wanted to keep as much of the clear layer as possible, knowing how beautiful it looks when finished (the other half of this stone had a small patch of clear), but how to do that without having it dictate the form of that side? I didn't want to compromise the character of the piece too much - I need to create coherent objects that have unity side to side.
Only today did it occur to me how to achieve those twin goals; I'll create a radial motif on that side, displaying different levels that will maintain the undulating character in a mechanical way consistent with both the other side of the stone and also with my overall aesthetic. This scheme has the added benefit that it will produce lots of places where the surface is, either gradually or abruptly, in transit from transparent to translucent orange stone. I got rained out today, but this is where this piece gets exciting!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

In vague territory . . .

I'm working on day 4 of this piece and the title of this post is pretty accurate. This part of the process, when I'm weighing what I want to do with/to the stone and the stone is making it known what it will allow, is the most vague and mentally challenging part of the whole process. Today I had to decide what if anything will remain of the top point (see photo). The rest of it may eventually go, but it felt too drastic - once it's gone, it's gone - to just lop the whole thing off. I'm pretty sure that this will be the final mounting position. The other side, if my plan works out, will be the big surprise - check back soon!

Thursday, May 30, 2013

A new stone . . .

This is the other half of that slab of orange alabaster that I ordered early in the year. It will be the fifth piece in the Mandala series. No specific plans yet; I'll just wait and see what the stone presents - which is my favorite way of working anyway.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

"Vision of Ra" - completed

My newest stone is now finished and mounted. It's from the Utah Alabaster boulder I received during the winter, and its promised translucency has finally shown itself. During the process, I struggled with the idea of leaving some parts unfinished.
 Here are some comments and suggestions I received from friends about that: "YES! Leave the rough spots. There is something about seeing the raw that makes the finished seem even more polished. It adds the depth of TIME to the piece"; "The roughness speaks volumes to me. We seek completion — a "unified field theory of me" kind of existence. Yet in this realm, there are always parts that don't blend, that unfinished, primal self that sticks to our "polished" selves"; "I’m voting for leaving the rough edges on the piece. I like the contrast of hard/smooth & rough. Don't we all have some rough edges? Ha!"
 So, thanks to all of you - it was unanimous, so "Vision of Ra" has some rough edges - just like ME. The in situ pics show the translucency, but the studio photo on the right is the more color accurate.



Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Getting close to the finishing stage

  


This stone is nearly fully articulated and, but for one nagging issue, is about ready for sanding. That issue is this: over the years, a frequent comment by folks viewing a piece in its unfinished state is, "You're going to leave those rough areas aren't you?". I usually reply, "No, I'm not. That doesn't fit my concept of a finished piece". Well, I heard it again, this time from my friend Mary, and I'm thinking that I might actually do it this time. I'm torn, and struggling with the question, "What might I accomplish by leaving some of the rough areas?". Any thoughts?

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Some progress on the other side

I thought it'd be a good idea to finish the design of the other side before deciding what to do about the remaining stone around the periphery. Again, in this photo, the piece is standing on the edge that will serve as the mounting point. The wedge shape removed at the top matches up with part of a bigger one on the other side and that area will be fairly thin when finished to maximize translucency.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Day 8 - some refinement starting

Even though there are parts of this piece that are not yet in final shape, I've started to refine some of the forms  -  can't help myself! I'm finding that this Utah alabaster is a bit more difficult to work than the stone from Colorado I've been using for about a decade. It sometimes loses chunks in unexpected ways and the rasps tend to clog with material. Nonetheless, I'm still quite excited to see how the translucency of the stone will appear in bright light when it has its final surface. About 2 weeks?

Monday, April 8, 2013

Approaching a final form


The piece, as it appears in the above photo, is getting close to its final shape. Right now, I'm debating whether or not to keep the pointed projections on the side and top. I'm leaning toward getting rid of them. However, the one on the bottom is definitely staying and will serve as the mounting point. It has taken around ten hours of work to get to this stage.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Old mud



I'm 3 days into the first orange alabaster piece and have discovered something interesting. Most stones I work with have embedded impurities of one sort or another, but this is the first time I've encountered anything like this. I'm guessing this alabaster was formed about 300 million years ago, so the pocket of mud, most visible in the horizontal photo, is some really old material. It doesn't seem to hold together too well, so the clay content seems to be low. I sure would like to know what went on way back then to produce this effect. Anyway, I'll have to dig that spot out and incorporate it into my design somehow. Very unexpected!
Addendum: I didn't really take the time to think the comments above completely through. If I had,
I would have remembered that alabaster is a metamorphic stone (subject to intense heat and pressure
during its formation) and "mud" would never survive that intact. It seems likely that the material I dug out of the edge is simply some mineral content of undetermined provenance.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Spring, AND a new piece begin . . .

It was so nice on Sunday that I decided to move my carving operation outside. I started the first orange alabaster piece there and so, my indoor studio can remain clean for the autumn. After getting everything prepared outside, I spent about an hour taking the corners off the piece since it will be another in the round, Mandala series. The small piece in the foreground is collecting light in the way that I hope the sculpture will when finished.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Ready for the next stone

 
After a couple of stones, my indoor carving studio achieves a truly amazing level of clutter - near total chaos. So, a couple of days ago I gave it a thorough cleaning to get ready for the next project. The orange air line above the bench leads to a large compressor in the garage and allows me to use my pneumatic
hammer for the roughing-out process. The airline under the bench leads from a small compressor out to my metal shop where it connects to a air/hydraulic riveter I use for metal sculpture.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

"Navigator" - Finished, March 6th, 2013


 
Well, this one's a wrap! I thought that by using power tools I might be able to speed up my process a bit, and that might have been so if I had not gone a bit overboard with them. It actually did speed up the initial phases, but made for a slow sanding cycle, resulting in a break-even result on a stone of this size. It is actually a bit smaller than the two previous Mandala pieces, so a smaller base (green marble) seemed appropriate. I've decided to call this one "Navigator"

Sunday, February 17, 2013

and more detailing . . .


I've entered the second most tedious part of this process; all the main forms are defined, but they need lots of refinement. Of course, the most tedious part is the sanding! I should be ready for that process in a week or so, maybe less if I can make it happen. On Thursday, I'm due to receive a shipment of a stone I've not worked with before - translucent orange alabaster from Utah. I'll try to post a photo of a chunk when I have it in my clutches. Above is a pic of the status of both sides of the current stone as of yesterday. Remember to click the photo to enlarge it.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

And now . . . side "B"

I decided that it was time to give the other side some love, even though it seems to work just fine for me to get one side of these Mandala pieces nearly finished before addressing the other. As you can see, several stepped forms are coming out of the stone - a recurring theme it seems. I'd guess that this stone is approaching three quarters done, which means I'll have to start to thinking about what kind of base it will need. This piece is quite a bit less massive than the previous two, and will therefore need something other than a big chunk of concrete as a base.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

New mounting aspect?

I'm considering changing the mounting to the position as shown in the photo. It seems a bit less static and solves the problem of the L-shaped form sticking down too far in the former mounting scheme. I'd have had to make it less deep and I like it the way it is. Side A is about 80% complete now and I've started to bevel the edges of forms that are finished (a good moment!)

Thursday, February 7, 2013

More work on side A

As the photo shows, I spent today reducing the level of the central part of the stone. An idea I have about the possibilities of doing this is to create some real transluscency by reducing the other side
in the same area, or perhaps just part of it. Also, I did some work on the profile of the piece and plan to do more to soften the jagged appearance and reassert its circular nature. One of those projections may have to go in order to achieve that.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Continuing . . .

More refinement and detail are evident on side A of this piece as of today. Right now, both sides
are very similar, but that's due to change dramatically over the next few sessions. That will be accomplished mostly through changing the depth of various parts of each surface.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

New alabaster piece, 1/25/2013

This is the third piece in the Mandala series and currently has a quite planar character. I plan to diminish that by taking down the surface of the elements around the periphery so that the larger circle form (concentric with the central hole) will dominate its overall appearance. Also, some of the currently awkward shapes on the top will be carved down to be smaller. It is only 2" thick and was cut from a larger stone with my 14" rock saw.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

This one's finished

Early this month, I finished and mounted my latest stone. Its final title is Mandala: Equation of Fire. The mounting is, once again, a fairly rough piece of concrete providing color, value and textural contrast with the refined appearance of the alabaster. For those who ask, "How long did it take you?", I spent about 45 hours on this. Check back soon for a look at a new piece I began just yesterday.