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 a Head Master and is also a very keen photographer who last January set himself 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 unrecognisable. 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.  

 

 

 

 

Polishing Portland

The last lot of stone for the project has arrived from Portland in Dorset. The blocks will form part of ‘Zebra Rock’ and the bases for the ‘Leaf seat’ and ‘Seed Stack’. The Portland is such a contrast to the Irish Blue Limestone in so many ways. The stone range is distinguished by its creamy colour and the fossilised shells it contains, combining a number of qualities ideal for building. It’s easy to work, allowing intricate design profiles to be created, and is particularly suitable for detailed facades. These qualities have made it one of Britain’s most popular and widely used building stones – From Maidstones very own County Hall to St Paul’s Cathedral, they have all been built using Portland stone!

While everything was still on the pallet I couldn’t resist starting on sanding back one of the blocks and drilling the fixing holes. As it's starting to get a little crowded in the workshop there will need to be a little bit of housekeeping take place later so I can start working out the order of how and when all this stone will be carved. 

Strange Fruit

 

This is how I have decided to finish and treat the surface of two of the stone seed forms. The Kilkenny Limestone can be very effective when attempting to suggest an ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ or inner and outer skin quality to a sculpture. British sculptor  Peter Randell Page uses this stone type a lot for that particular reason, especially when working with natural and organic forms. It is achieved here by simply contrasting a rough ‘punch marked’ surface with a polished interior. The beauty I find with this material is the change in colour, from the subtle greys and blues to the sparkling fossilised black centre. All the Irish Blue Limestone in this project has been provide by McKeon Stone, Ireland. 

http://www.mckeonstone.ie/view_products.asp?id=17&sectid=7



 

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 disassemble...which should be fun!

 

Herculean Stones for the Seed Stack!

Anatomy of a leaf

I have been quietly carving and playing around with the depth of the leaf veins today, sanding and filing as I go. I haven’t wanted to go too deep or create undercuts in places as the surface of the stone will collect debris and water when it sits close to the ground. However, I don’t want the carving to remain flat, so I’ve been trying to simplify the junctions of the leaf veins and the midrib of the leaf. The surface also needs to be comfortable to sit on and I am keen on making the stone very tactile to the touch.

Lighter than a leaf!

It has been exceptionally windy again today and with the studio doors wide open there was no shortage of leaves blowing into the workshop. Pretty ironic considering I was starting work on the Cob Leaf stone which will form part of the larger leaf cut out stone sculpture. 
I have to be extremely careful when lifting the stone so as not to damage the carved profile edges! At one point I will also have to flip the stone completely to drill a fixing hole on the underside!!! The stone will sit on a smaller block and will be 450mm off the ground. I want the leaf pattern on the top surface to be weathered to allow for the free running of water of its surface. So far I'm really pleased with the profiles around the side of the stone and may finish them with a rough grade paper finish. The profiles will help me sharpen and give form to the leaf pattern when I start carving the ribs and veins onto the top of this very dense and hard Irish Blue Limestone. Here's hoping the wind will not be as fierce tomorrow as I want to be doing a lot of grinding which will throw up and create a lot of dust!!

Touch down in Kent

 This 4 ton block is not going anywhere!

Well after the stone getting as far as Dublin, then not getting the ferry, being stuck in a yard with a haulier refusing to deliver, delivery dates changing and new hauliers found, the stone finally made its way across the water. This delay has a ilogistical impact which ripples across to the studio and results in more expense, re-booking Teleporter and crane drivers who's availability does not always fit the day or time you need. But at 4 pm on a wet and drizzley day with light fading to darkness, a 40 ft lorry squeezes its way up the lane to be unloaded by 4 blokes, a 7 ton crane and a local farmers forklift on standby, the stone touched down on Kentish soil. Nothing is ever straight forward when moving stone but at least it's all here, and in one piece.

Taking Delivery

I've had this postcard pinned to my notice board in the studio for such a long time now. I brought it back from my first trip to the marble quarries in Carrara, Italy in 1996. The experience was a real eye opener for me. I had never seen anything like it before. From the characters of the people who worked there, to the vast scale of the operation of quarrying marble. I remember there was only one  road up into the mountains and one road down. It was as frightening as it was thrilling, passing huge truks with a 7 ton load on hair pin bends. You definitely need a head for heights. I could never do their job. At the foot of the mountain there was a small outdoor museum which was an area roped off with a few notice boards telling the history of the place and old photos of when Musolini plundered the hills for some of the largest single blocks of marble for his buildings in Milan. However it was this postcard that caught my eye and made me smile when I was looking for my own souvenir to take away with me. It always triggers my memory when I'm about to take receipt of large blocks of stone myself. I have had to roll a few off the sides of trucks in the past but in the case of the Kilkenny from Ireland I'll be opting for a more straight forward and less damaging approach. The stone leaves the yard in Ireland today and should start its journey over to England and arrive in Kent by Tuesday. More pictures to follow.

Fresh from the saw

After a little bit of waiting and patience, the right stone was found for the Cobtree Leaf cut - out. The quarry have managed to get me a beautiful stone slab measuring 2 m x 1.7 m x 250 mm. I wanted one face to be sawn and the reverse face to have a natural rough quarry finish. This texture and finish will add an extra quality to the sculpture as it will be positioned along a path that can be accessed from both sides. The leaf cut out still requires some attention and hand finishing after having being lifted straight from the saw. The leaf stem will be cut in and this will complete the design and change the sense of it just being a very irregular hole in the stone. The leaf CAD drawing worked and was compatible with the stone tooling machine and the layout and positioning still gives the sense that the stone is very strong and robust.
The initial idea that the leaf pattern could be cut from the slab and used within the design had to be changed. A separate stone had to be used to create the leaf and although I feel bad about wasting stone from the cut - out large slab, at least I can have the small leaf stem which would have been susceptible to breaking when removed from the centre of the stone.
I should be taking receipt of everything next week and the real carving can commencing.

     

Sourcing the Stone

An update from the quarry confirm that some of the dimension stone / cut to size pieces have been sourced and are ready as well as the large 2.4 m slab for the entrance sculpture. As more stone is being extracted daily from the quarry for specific projects I'm informed that they are still waiting on two suitable 250mm slabs for the leaf cut outs. I have provided the quarry with CAD files which will assist the stonemasons when it comes to 'milling' out the leaf design. This design was originally going to be 'wire cut' from the stone but because the slab and placement of the leaf pattern is so big, the machine is no longer suitable to accurately do the job! Instead, a more labour intensive method of milling the pattern from the stone has to be done!
This process is the same for the three spheres which form the 'Seed Stack' sculpture. As you can see below they are half complete.

7 Ton of sculpture for Cobtree!

1000 tons versus 3 Caterpillars!!

This wall of stone had not moved in 250 million years and had been diamond sawn into one large chunk of 11metres high , 2.7 m deep and 13metres long ( 386 cubic metres ) . The power of three caterpillar excavators was need to topple this monolith. Quarry manager Peter Dowling orchestrated the movement of the three machines until gravity takes over . This quarry has been owned and operated by Mc Keon Stone Ltd since 1960 , and is the source of Europe's Best Blue Limestone.

The largest slab that I will use in one of the sculptures will be 2. 4 m in height and may well have been excavated in the same manner.

Natural Stone Selection

The sculptures that I have designed have been created with a consideration to the uniformity of the Kilkenny Limestone and its potential to be split into large thin slabs of consistent thickness,

This is a very uniform limestone with few surface imperfections. These properties make it ideal for carving and limestone of this class can hold very fine detail when used in sculpture, headstones, plaques, or ornamental features. The stone will also develop a deep lustrous polish, ideal for the concepts set out in the sculpture trail artwork.

The Carboniferous Period left much of the island of Ireland covered by limestones. Over 2,000 years of use as a building material has established their durability. Irish Blue Limestone has been used for centuries as the material of choice for the construction of prestige buildings. It can be worked to provide colours that range from deep blue black to subtle blue grey and surface textures ranging from silky smooth to positively aggressive. In the hands of a skilled architect, designer or mason the combination of colours and textures can bring the most mundane structure to life or produce stunning variations with the interplay between light and texture.

The extract above has been taken from the lovely people of McKeon Stone who will be the providers of all 7 tonne of Kilkenny for this project.

http://www.mckeonstone.ie/page.asp?cid=6

The Stone and the Quarryman

 

To tell the story of Irish Blue Limestone you need to go back about 370 million years. Obviously at that time Ireland was not the green countryside which everyone is now familiar with in the guide books, but rather part of the floor of a shallow inlet of the sea. This inlet lay on the southern edge of a large landmass which included the present day North America, Europe and Asia and was about 5 degrees North of the equator.

During this long geological history the Dinantian sediments changed from soft unconsolidated muds into the limestone beds that underlie much of the central part of Ireland.

All over Ireland ancient monuments can be found from early pre-christian tombs to Christian celtic stone crosses.

 

 

Trails with Tails

The sculpture is made up of three curved and twisting pathways carved from a single slab of Irish Blue Limestone. The curved and elegant sculpture symbolises three pathways. The stones interlocking paths are pierced, allowing for views through the sculpture. Each pathway is carved to create an illusion of perspective.

The widest curved pathway on the sculpture will have the bands and text markings of a topographical map of the park, referencing the undulating landscape. This may even include some of the organic ‘bunker’ shapes from the neighbouring golf course. The second curved pathway will represent water and will relate to the small pond situated in the park and the view down to the River Medway. The surface of the stone will be carved and polished to mimic the flow and the reflection of the water. The third pathway will represent the arboretum and the variety of species of trees in the park. It will have a series of leaf shapes and seeds carved onto its surface.   

Corylus Avellana

The sculpture position is chosen to signify to the visitor that they are within the Arboretum area of the park.
The concept for this sculpture comes from using the Cobtree leaf.
The distinctive shape of the leaf is CNC machine cut from a slab of Irish Blue Limestone by
and Latin name of the tree and leaf will be carved onto the surface of the slab.
The stone with its hollow leaf outline will create an ever-changing window of colour as the trees change with the seasons.
The stone cut from the slab with its distinctive leaf shape pattern is securely fixed to the ground. It rests on the ground like a metaphor for a leaf that has fallen from a tree.
The cut out leaf shape will be the correct height to be used as a sculptural seat.

Seed Stack

 The concept for this sculpture comes from the variety of seeds and plants produced and found within Cobtree Park.
This is a fun and playful sculpture, which also references the wildlife one might encounter within the woodland setting as they forage and harvest for food.
The seeds also represent growth and new life cycles, which supports the history of the park from its original beginnings and owners through to its current users, the people of Maidstone.

Zebra Rock

‘Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake, a well-travelled and colourful character was an eccentric man and it is believed that he had a fascination for the Zebra’ http://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=1031

          ‘Zebra Rock’ will have a tall, strong single rippling wave as its form.

Its distinctive black and white striped colouring will stand like a marker, visible from the bottom of the hill. It’s positioning will be in line with and echo the monolithic granite gateposts at the bottom of the hill. The sculpture is constructed using a combination of polished ‘Kilkenny Limestone’, which is black in colour and polished white ‘Portland limestone’. The top and bottom sections of the sculpture suggest an architectural feature. This may be interpreted as castle turrets or they may be seen as structural links used for the construction of the work. The treatment of the front surface of the stone will be carved to reference water. The stone will have a highly polished ripple effect, mimicking the movement and reflective qualities of water and the River Medway. On the plinth base stone there will be a series of carved names of animals that made up the collection at Maidstone Zoo.

Public Display

The design proposals for the sculpture trail went on public display at Cobtree Park. This will be Phase 3 of the regeneration programme which will also include a new visitor centre. One of the four sculptures will be located next to the building and will signify the start of the trail.

I was on hand to answer questions from the public about the concepts for the sculptures. It was great getting feedback on the proposed artworks, which had all been positively received. I was also pleased that I had the chance to hear first hand accounts from local residents about their connection to the park and their memories of Maidstone zoo.

Designs and concepts of the four new sculptures on the right with an artist impression of the new visitor centre on the left.

The Site History

The history of Cobtree Manor Park was a real surprise to me. I am not originally from Maidstone but I have lived and worked in the town for 11 years now and I was intrigued to find out that it once had a zoo in this exact park. It was Maidstone Zoo from 1934 until 1959 and was owned by Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake. In the 16th Century, Cobtree was owned by Sir Thomas Wyatt of Allington Castle before being passed onto the Tyrwhitt-Drake family. Sir Garrard was a passionate collector of wild animals and showed them in a travelling menagerie until finally using the animals to set up a zoo at his home in Cobtree. He had a fascination for the zebra and a story circulated that he once even painted a donkey with black and white stripes so he could admire it from his window! Among the other animals he kept were elephants, chimpanzees, emus, a lion and exotic birds. The zoo was even bombed during the second world war. Sir Garrard eventually died in 1964 childless and bequethed his estate which includes Cobtree to the people of Maidstone. Both Sir Garrard and his wife set up the Cobtree Charity Trust in order to ensure that the estate is forever "used for the benefit of the inhabitants of Maidstone and the surrounding neighbourhood". In 1985 Cobtree Manor Park was opened on the site of the old zoo. One of the buildings still left from when the zoo existed is the Elephant House which once housed two elephants called Gert and Daisy.

Elephant house at Maidstone Zoo

Trails with Tales

My name is Jason Mulligan and I am a stone sculptor. This blog will follow the production of a series of four site specific stone sculptures designed by myself for the permanent display within 'Cobtree Manor Park' in Maidstone Kent. The public art commission was an open submission competition devised by Maidstone Borough Council who have been working in partnership with the Cobtree Estate Committee. Their vision and concept is to create a sculpture trail around the newly regenerated park with an emphasis on encouraging visitors to explore the extent of the park while also celebrating its past history as a private zoo.
The project is anticipated to be completed over a period of five months and I will be making regular updates on the blog, detailing the various stages from fabrication and production to the final installation.
Please feel free to like, comment and share.

Map of  Cobtree Manor Park. The yellow line indicates the new parkland walk and the green line indicates the woodland walk. The proposed sculptures will be located along the parkland pathway.