I've spent most of this week working on the granite sculpture entitled "The Gift". This is a scale plasticine clay model (covered in granite dust) of what I will be carving in granite.
Granite is so hard that it burns up diamond blades like crazy - which is real expensive. I've been using a technique of sawing parallel cuts to move stone efficiently, maximizing the amount of stone that can be removed per wear on diamond blades. By doing this, I was able to get close to the finished form in a relatively short time.
Then, I use the diamond blade to shave off layers of stone to slowly form the sculpture. After 2 weeks of work, you can already see the shape of the design beginning to emerge.
Thursday, work commenced on the new bathroom and kitchenette that we're adding to the back side of the clay studio. This is Mike Mitcham, who works for JBB, inc. of Hardinsburg.
By the end of a long day, he had the plumbing roughed in and finished digging the hole for the septic tank. He's scraping a sandstone ledge - that'll be as far as we can dig (without dynamite).
The next morning, they put in the lateral line. B.J. is using a wood jack to hold the line in place while Mike places the large gravel.
The inspector came out, and everything passed. While Mike's lunch warmed up on his truck dashboard heater, he asked, "Want to see a trick?"
"Do you think I can pick up that quarter with the backhoe?"
We'll have to catch this on video, and post it on youtube. (All photos copyright Meg White).
2 comments:
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I am interested in granite sculpting techniques. My material, Lewisian Gneiss has the same minerals as granite but the minerals are segregated into flowing forms. This can be seen on the prehistoric Callanish stone circle stones in Scotland.
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