Session 9 only half day, started carving the LH side of the face

Session 10 continued carving the LH side of the face

 

Session 10 continued carving the LH side of the shoulder

Session 11 started  carving the RH side of the face

Session 12 turned the stone around so I could better get the balance of the head shape and shape the RH shoulder

Session 13 carved the lower RH side

Session 13 looking down the stone you can see the shaping of the lower part of the stone

This is one of Judes exhibition pieces a Hare in Alabaster

I've started drawing a few ideas for the lettering this is one idea, I'm going to practice on a plaster tablet so I can get the letters styled right before carving the stone.  I have got enough stone if I make a mistake, but as I have found mistakes take a long time to correct.

Session 7

 Session 8

After looking at the work I have done, I noticed that carving the stone lying down, I've managed to flatten the head and the beak is embedded in the stone, a lot more than I intended.  Fortunately there is enough stone around the head to rotate the head and see more of the eagles head.

Sixth Session

This is when Jude and I moved the stone inside the workshop, only a couple of hours working on the stone this week

 

I didn't add any pictures lifting the stone on to the blocks. might have had an issue with health and safety,  But we didn't have any issues with the make shift rollers and crow bars to get it off the pallet and the crane to lift it on to the blocks, had the wrong block originally they were the thermo light blocks which started to break up when we put the weight of the stone on them.

 Taking Shape

2nd Week working on the memorial. 

After this weeks work I've come to the conclusion that this blog will go on for a fare few months, here a few picture showing my progress..

I did have an idea to change the memorial to increase the central area so to increase the space for the writing

 

Then on the next session I reverted back to the original design, I didn't think the changes improved the look of the memorial

 

 

Last session of the week starting to take shape

 

My mum died last year after suffering for 15years with Alzheimer’s, now I have a chance of creating a headstone memorial that reflects her spirit. 

The concept of the memorial was that it was to be natural smooth flowing sculpture showing the freedom of the spirit within us. I chose the Eagle to define this free spirit, my mum loved birds of prey and Eagles so this was quite apt for her memorial.  When creating the form I wanted to protect the inscription on the face of the stone to be protected from the elements, so I inset the face and wrapped the wings of the Eagle around the face of the stone.  this meant that I was going to need a lot of stone.

I'm developing the inscription at the moment.  I will post details later.

 

Last year I took a course on stone carving with Jude Tucker, I gained a lot of confidence from the course, and after discussing the concept with Jude she agreed to help support me in creating this memorial.

 

These are my early concept pictures

This is the maquette of the headstone

 

This is one of my practice pieces, the Love Heart, here I'm practicing carving embossed and cut letters on a curved surface.

Delivery of the Portland stone from Albion Quarry Portland

 Me on the stone, just to give an idea of the size of the stone

 Starting the process of reducing the stone to the correct size

 Still at it

 Eventually later I managed to split the stone

The end of the first Day