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.