For Kiwi John- current stone sculpture project

[cliffrod]

Cliff Ihave watched all your video's , and gee....THEY ARE GOOD !
Peter T.

Thank you, Peter. That means very much to me.

I want to be able to do metal like I do stone- know what needs to be done, see where it's going and then do it. That's what you did when we met at Will's place. And you could do the same with all of the parts that everyone there was making, all at once. That sealed the deal for me that you are what you are. Not kissing ass here. I've just worked around enough real talent & experts to understand what I saw even if I know little about metal.

All I can say is wait until you see the videos I'm working on now for the Marble Capital I did a while back. It's really something. My wife and I still can't believe I did it.

[cliffrod]

Colorado Yule Marble Capital Video 1. The next two about the same project- Video 2 and Video 3- will be a discussion on tools used and a 100+ image start-to-finish slideshow of the entire project.

Now I need to top this job but it's hard to top a good capital....

[Chazza]

I was thinking of that capital yesterday when watching your movies; wonderful to see a tradesman enjoy his work so much and do it so well!

[cliffrod]

If you ask a finisher, carvers & sculptors can't do this kind of work as well as they can. It's not their job- all they can do is art stuff that doesn't have to be straight or square or accurate like good finishing work has to be. But because of my family and Masters, I'm different than most others. If I was in the middle of the regional granite industry that's 100 miles from here, I bet this kind of work would overwhelm my schedule. It may be hard to sell ornate capitals like this, but doing simple dormers and basic finishing work like panels and molding is still in demand. It would be difficult to have enough time in my schedule to be a sculptor. That's part of why I built my studio here instead of there.

[DanB]

Straight and square seems like it would a big challenge.

[cliffrod]

Yup. It's easy to fake a curve. Straight lines, sharp edges, square corners and flat panels are either right or wrong. The stone tells the truth.

[cliffrod]

Recent work for Kiwi John- hope all is well.

Did a small granite bevel marker for a patron in NY. He wanted two flanking sprays of Tulips carved in raised relief, with a small dog tag from a beloved family pet carved in the corner. I did a quick drawing/cartoon to create the composition , then clay maquettes of each spray and carved them direct without pointing. I started with a flat stone, cut the bevel around border and then the interior panel before carving the floral work. Tulips are approx 1 1/4" in profile, stone measures approx 2'-10" left to right.

[cliffrod]

Up next and pending include this small floral carving featuring a bearded iris with hummingbird. This is another original composition, with patron allowing me full artistic liberty with the project. I've spent less than a day on the clay. Aside from final fine tuning, it is basically ready to use. I am happy with the arrangement of elements to support each other and keep the composition open and delicate. This will be installed well below eye level so ample reinforcement is easy to do without making the result look needlessly heavy. This will be another direct carved job in granite.

Stone is already here but I need to spend a couple of days rebuilding chisels before I start carving.







I have also gotten approval for my inspired but original composition for a pending life-size Angel memorial project that's been in discussion for nearly 1 1/2 yrs. The cartoon is to approx scale but not corrected, showing the Angel as 5' 6" tall with overall installation measuring 7'-0" tall. Base is one piece. Die with Angel placing rose upon memorial is one piece. Angel will be in high relief, min 8" in profile standing upon a 6" plinth. She will be placing one long stemmed rose upon the die with her left hand. Our 5' 5"+ tall daughter will serve as posture/body model for some pics to guide model development. I plan to produce a 3'-0" tall model and enlarge it to 5-6 using compasses and triangle. I will also do a 1:1 scale portrait face model to index onto the job. The entire process will be videoed for my archive, with some content posted online. Our 5'-5"+ tall daughter will serve as body/posture model for some pics. If we can have stone in studio for this Angel by fall 2022, I think we'll be very lucky.




Looking forward to both projects and more pending. It's difficult to sell either hand carved floral work or life sized figures. I've not sold anything that would accommodate the compass and triangle process, which is considered and marketed as a "Lost Art" in the USA, in a while. It's not lost yet....

[cliffrod]

Pics of the Iris with Hummingbird stone, taken this morning. It came out pretty good.


Cartoon/line drawing with clay maquette and direct-carved job


Life size Iris with Hummingbird in GA Blue granite, approx 2' in relief. 100% chisel job, no sawing at all.



Detail of Hummingbird and Iris blossom



Looks like there's some time before the next stone arrives, so hoping to get some metal-related work done. VFDs have arrived to get my 3ph equipment going. Now I need to do some wiring so the big jiggly machine can finally begin being jiggly...

[Chazza]

Cliffy you are a wizard!

How on earth, did you not break a piece off the iris leaves?

Can't wait to see the jiggly machine in action; I was thinking of it yesterday,

Cheers Charlie

[cliffrod]

Thanks, Charlie. Sometimes success is what you don't do. This one came out good because I didn't get greedy & try to make things too thin...

I'm anxious to get these machines running. Seems like forever since I brought this Gairu home. I've learned it has some differences compared to a typical Pullmax or other machines. I should have info to add to the reciprocating machine section as I get it going.

[cliffrod]

I’ve spent time this year catching up on videos for my YouTube Carolina Sculpture Studio Channel. This morning I posted a very unique video. It features a radio presentation called “The Blood of Barre” from 1979 about the granite industry where I trained, which includes comments from my grandfather and one of my Master Sculptors. My godmother found this radio show on a cassette tape in a library archive around 1997 and sent us copies. My grandfather spent his entire career in granite sheds and retired as a Master Finisher. He died in 1983 and never told us about being interviewed, so it was a a real thrill to hear his voice again 14+ yrs after he died. After another 25 yrs of sitting around with us, my brother recently converted the file to digital and it was time for me to do a video

It’s a 35 min video with background video of related family and studio things. If you’re into history of craft, imho it’s an interesting overview of where & who I came from-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3pmyZJztyw