2nd finished piece this week

Once I got the alabaster piece "Exurban" finished, it seemed possible to complete a half-finished metal piece that had been languishing in my metal studio for several months. It meant spending some of the nicest days this year inside, but with the show coming up tomorrow, I thought I'd try it. These Black Mountain pieces have been getting progressively larger, and this one is 32" long, mounted on an oak base.

First half of the sawed piece

Well, it's not an entire half because about 1/4 of this side broke off soon after sawing the big piece in half. But it's done and mounted on a piece of green marble. I've titled it "Exurban". I still have the other half to finish, but I find myself being drawn into the realm of metal again. Hmm. . .

Yep, it's the same piece . . .

In working on this half of the stone I sawed in half, it became clear that this half needed to be vertical. I resisted this at first because it meant finishing the bottom to be consistent with the rest of the piece. Finally, I knew that I had to do it, and I really like the result. I'm now excited about the piece again and will probably finish it within a week or so and then go on to resolve the other half of the original sculpture as a second piece. That one, I'm guessing, will retain a horizontal attitude. Oh, one more thing - I did go ahead and remove the dark red section of stone that had been at the top. I did this by cutting a notch in the stone where the red part had been, and I think it added some real dynamism to the piece, especially in the new vertical position.

Change of plans. . .

As this piece neared the finish - I actually had started to sand it - I finally faced the fact that I didn't like some aspects of it, notably the "unfinished" center. I realized early on that I would not be able to bring the inaccessible inside portions to a smooth state and had planned to leave them rough, finished only by a toothed chisel. Unfortunately, this focused too much attention on that unfinished part, so I decided to take the extreme step of sawing the piece in half to create two separate pieces that could be finished on both sides, but still leaving the bottoms rough. Interestingly, I ended up with three pieces when the end broke off one of the sides when I started working on it. At this point, the whole project is unresolved, but I have started working on one of the halves (the one whose end broke off) and a shot of it is shown above along with some photos of the "surgery".
Now my dilemma is this: without the other side with its extensive areas of dark red stone, the lone area of that color looks isolated and out of place. So, do I modify the top profile by carving it off or leave it?

Getting close to finishing stage

The photos above show some recent stages of the stone as it gets closer to the sanding phase. I did the large piercing by chiseling through from the bottom and I believe I'll leave the inside "wall" surfaces roughly chiseled. In a few days sanding can begin, and I'll have to start thinking of how to mount this unusual piece.

Decision time

In the photos above you can see that I've partially hollowed out the inside of this piece. My intention was to go clear through to create a very large piercing. After getting about half way through, it became difficult to get the proper angle on the chisel to effectively continue. Now, I have to decide whether to smooth off the bottom of the hollowed out part, or carve through from the other side. Stay tuned. . .

Moving on to the next stone

Last week I got the stone finished that I started in mid-June, and it's a good thing too, because I have to deliver it to Chicago in 2 weeks. A friend bought it
for his wife as a birthday present! I named it "Headstone for the Paleozoic" because the Colorado alabasters were formed during the Paleozoic Era, roughly 300 million years ago. Just for context, this was after the breakup of Pangea and what is now Africa was located in the area of the north pole. In addition, the end of that era saw the Permian/Triassic event, the largest mass extinction of life the Earth has ever experienced. Hence, the name.
Since then, I've started a new stone - one that builds on the main theme of "Headstone", but will be somewhat simpler due to the nature of the boulder. Both stones are shown in the photos above, which can be seen larger by clicking on them.