Time on my Hand

Not having power at the studio for over a week, drove me to make some real progress - to make up for lost time, I guess. So, I set aside the work in progress on Nexus, and began roughing out the next project which is a large hand that is intended as a functional seat.

This is the 1/4 scale plaster model for the new sculpture. The "plus" marks are on the outside points. I'll find those points on the block first, by measuring from reference lines.

The next step is to remove the extra length from the block.

I drilled holes into the block, inserted 'feathers and wedges' and...

....split off the extra piece.

The next step was to grind off the rough surface and determine the outside points. You can see the plus marks that are the outside points for the end, top and back.

There's a big corner that needs to come off behind the fingers (to the right).

Measure twice - cut once. It's better to take off a little at a time, than to take off too much.

I moved around to the front, because there is a lot of stone that needs to come out of the palm.

I've determined where the pinkie will be, and have moved more stone out of the palm.

I'm beginning to find the other fingers.

After about a week and a half of frenzied work, I've changed a 6,000 lb. rectangular block into a 3,000 lb. preform for the Hand Seat.