The fun never stops

This has been a long exhausting week...but the fun never stopped. Meg and I are having to work straight thru this weekend to meet our deadlines.

On an upbeat note! - Meg's $53,000.00 commission for the Home of the Innocents memorial is featured on the FRONT PAGE of the May 27th edition of Louisville's Courier-Journal newspaper. It was also picked up by USATODAY may 27th edition! There are 3 pictures in the photo gallery that shows Meg working on the sculptures (and they mention my name in the text of the article, too.) Check it out http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080527/NEWS01/805270439/1008
These are the tools that I've been using all week. On the left is a 1" dallet style air hammer from Trow & Holden. It drives a variety of chisels with a 1/2" round shank that fit into the end of the hammer. The top chisel is a tempered steel piece with a slightly rounded end - it's an old, old chisel that is a hand-me-down from another stone sculptor Don Lanham (deceased). The middle chisel is an Italian made carbide-tipped 3 tooth chisel. The bottom chisel is a flat carbide-tipped machine chisel from Trow & Holden.

I use the tempered steel chisel to form the shapes. You can see the wide marks that it leaves in the middle form and the inside of the leaf. I then take the toothed chisel and make spiraling lines around the shapes. This effect accentuates the curving movements of the intertwining forms. The flat chisel is used to clean up around the edges, such as the slightly diagonal line at the left of this photo.This is what the front side looked like at the end of work on Saturday.This is side B at the end of this weeks work.

"Too much fun" is what Meg is having. In the last 2 weeks, she had a serious rush getting her proposal together and then flying out to Colorado to give the presentation. Now, she has had to 'hit the ground running' to finish her sculpture for the Yew Dell Gardens Outdoor Sculpture Show. She and I are honorary co-chairmen for the show. Here, she has matters well in hand as she loads the stone that will become a base for her 3/4 life-size male dancer.

This is a photo of the invitation for the show. My 7 foot tall, 7,000 lb. mechanical hand is featured on the invitation and poster for the show. We will deliver and install our pieces this Friday.
The blue-grey Granite base for the Green Bay commission arrived this week. Meg is multi-tasking at this point; she snapped this shot while operating the crane at the same time. I will have to stop work on the Washington commission until I have completed the Yew Dell installation and put the final touches on the Green Bay piece.