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Tenth Annual |
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Limestone Sculpture Symposium 2006 |
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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 4-10, 2006, 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. |
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On the morning of the
second day we took a tour of the Bybee mill. Their primary business is
recreating architectural elements in limestone to replace damaged ones in
an existing building.
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The drafting room.
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| Ned
Cunningham, a symposium instructor and our tour guide, described how stone
dogs (hooks) were attached to lift large pieces of limestone. |
Ned is a master
carver at the mill. He showed us his box of carving tools and explained
their use.
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| The mill
uses several different types of saws to cut large pieces of stone. This is
a bridge saw with a diamond-tipped blade. |
The precision cuts
required for architectural elements are achieved on these scraping
machines. The stone is secured to the table which goes back and forth. A
sharp blade scrapes off a thin layer of stone with each pass. |
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| Amy Brier,
the founder and director of the Symposium, demonstrates carving letters
with hand tools. |
Alexandra Morosco, from Langley WA, begins
roughing out a large block in which she plans to carve a seated figure.
Alex is one of the symposium's instructors and a representative for Trow &
Holden tool company. |
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Barbara Marks, a
resident of Bloomington, tries limestone carving for the first time. She
is already making great progress on her sculpture. |
Bill Holladay is
also a Bloomington resident. After finishing his first project, he
practiced carving Japanese letters by hand in stone. |
Josiah Updegraff, from Des Moines IA, has been to several previous
symposiums. His sculpture quickly began to take shape. |
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Calvin Babich (left), from Toledo OH, skillfully began tackling the job of
carving a harp, with strings. It will eventually become the center piece
of a water feature. |
Carol
Sexton, from Richmond IN, created an interesting organic shape that will
stand on the round bottom and be drilled to create a water fountain. |
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Day 2: By the end of the day I had removed most of the scrap stone and am
starting to realize the basic structure. I try to establish the large
forms and major planes first, otherwise, you can become lost in the
details. |
Day 3: I start defining the smaller details by placing them within the
larger shapes. |
Day 4: By the end of the day I have refined the shapes and established the
details. I no longer need the maquette, but let the stone tell me what to
do next. |
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Don Parsisson, from Akron OH, finished several carvings during the
week-long symposium. |
Frank
Young, one of the symposium founders, carved an arch with the letters
'PEACE'. Here he gets a little help from his grand daughter. |
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Kathleen Houston-Stokes, from Columbus OH, used a found vertebra bone as
the inspiration for her carving.
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John
Cunnington, from Ancaster ON, takes measurements on his carving of a
seated figure. |
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Ned Cunningham, a symposium instructor, demonstrates his mastery of
pneumatic tools and understanding of architectural ornament carving. |
Sharon Fullingim, from Socorro NM, methodically shapes a deep relief
carving that will be hand lettered and used for a memorial monument.
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Russ
Lorenzen, form Spencer IN, was not intimidated by his first stone carving,
a map of the world.
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Stewart Blay, from NYC, is carving an origami peace crane. Interpreting a
paper design into stone will pose some structural problems which will be
interesting to solve.
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Day 5: The week is nearly over and I have cleaned up the edges and put in
the final shape details. I thought it needed more height, so I glued on an
additional piece and let it set overnight.
Now that the shapes are established, I need to add textural details to
give more life to the surface of the stone.
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Back view: I
continually worked the back of the sculpture as well as the front so that
the whole carving would be at the same stage of development.
I'll finish the sculpture in my studio when I get home. |
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Back in my studio, I finished carving in
the details and refining the shapes. I added texture to some areas with
the point chisel and a coarse rasp.
Limestone sometimes has iron ore deposits which give it a red patina to
the surface of the weathered stone. I wanted to add some color to the
sculpture, so I airbrushed acrylic paint on to some areas attempting to
recreate that iron ore look. I also accented a few areas with gold leaf.
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