| |
Eleventh Annual |
|
| |
Limestone Sculpture Symposium 2007 |
|
| |
The annual symposium is held in the heart of
Indiana limestone country. Participants set up in a large field at the
Bybee Stone Company located in Elletsville, 5 miles from Bloomington. For
a week, June 3-9, 2007, carvers of all levels learned about the rich
limestone carving tradition from professionals who have an extensive
background in creating limestone sculpture. For more information on the
Symposium or to enroll in the next session, see the
information links below. |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| I started out with
a 36"x38"x11" (weight: 1,200 lbs.) block of limestone. Rather
than having one very heavy sculpture, I decided to split it up into four
smaller pieces. This is one of those pieces, which I drilled and
then split with wedges. The splits were planned in a pattern that would work with a
figure design I had already worked out. |
My plan was to split the
stone up into smaller pieces, then reassemble them in slightly disoriented
ways so the fragments would appear to be of different sizes or from
different poses, or even from different figures. This is the back view
which will be left as is. |
All the carving will be on the front view.
My natural tendency is to make things look like they flow together, so it
took a conscious effort to make the fragments look separate.
|
 |
 |
| The Symposium is
sponsored by the Bybee Stone Company. Each year we are treated to a tour
of the mill. Their business is architectural restoration of buildings
built with limestone. Here are custom-made spiral columns that had to be
completely carved by hand. |
One of the Bybee stone cutters
is carving a section of molding with an egg and dart motif.
|
 |
 |
Another stone
cutter is working on a large architectural element.
|
Ned Cunningham, the head of
the carving department and a Symposium instructor, explains the carving
process. |
 |
 |
| Here is a
stone cutter's tool box.
|
While each carver has a wide variety
of chisels at his disposal, each has a few favorites that he uses for doing most of the work. |
 |
 |
 |
| Another Bybee
carver describes how he created this figure. |
Pat McKelvey,
a participant from Cincinnati, begins carving a trefoil knot design. |
Sharon Fullingim,
from Socorro NM, roughs out a carving of a winged lion. |
 |
 |
Sharon Licata,
from Columbia SC, is carving two leaping dolphins.
|
Kathleen Houston-Stokes, from
Columbus OH, used a bone fragment as a starting point for a large abstract
design. |
 |
 |
| After defining the
large shapes, I used the tooth chisel to refine the forms. By the end of
the afternoon I had the basic shape established. |
David Miller, from
Eugene OR, and instructor George Bauer discuss David's stylized carving
of two horses.
|
 |
 |
 |
Scott Vore hand-sands, with wet/dry
sandpaper, a section of his carving.
|
Calvin Babich stacks
stones in what may eventually become a fountain.
|
Although it is only roughed out, I
have already decided to discard the top two pieces of the figure carving
and display the torso as it appears here. Or maybe place the remaining
parts scattered nearby as an installation piece. |
 |
 |
|
When I returned home to my studio, I completed carving the fragmented
figure. My 'final decision' was to retain the chest, but discard the head
(I couldn't get it to work anyway). I think I would have liked it just as
well without the top chest section, but I felt that the flat section on
the side of the arm repeated the flat section on the side of the leg,
giving more unity to the whole figure. The splitting was an experiment, I
decided that this technique works better with granite than it does with
the softer limestone. |
 |
 |
|
I also completed the ribbon carving. I had resolved the forms, but was
unsure of how to finish it. I finally decided on contrasting textures,
both heavy and delicate, made with different size tooth chisels. |
| |
|
