Anything Worth Doing... is Worth Re-Doing

It's been a while since I posted updates on the Virgin Mary commission...

and for good reason.

 This is the picture that I posted on the last day of April.  Shortly after this picture was taken, I found that this preform wasn't going to work.  I was one VERY unhappy fellow at this point.

 The red circle is around what's left of a quarry drill hole that was deeper than I thought.  It had pushed her back forward and left no room for the praying hands in front of her chest.

 I knew that I had a couple loads of stone coming, so I decided to start over rather than bring the project to a halt.  There is a future for this Virgin Mary, but she will have her hands clasped in a lower position.  So...this is on hold until I finish the commissioned work. 

The new stones arrived on May 5. I hit the ground running and have been blocking out this preform to get back to "Square One" (and a little further...).  This stone has PLENTY of room for the figure and I foresee no problems (knock on wood...).  All the basic shapes have been blocked in.

 This "Virgin Mary - Mark Two" is bigger and heavier than the 1st piece.  I'm not comfortable with standing her up.  So, I have to roll her around to get to various sides.

 The base and sub-base are basically blocked in, with only a day's work (or two) to zip that all up.

 The Virgin is standing on a half-round globe.  I made a template from wafer board to help get the form right.

 Lines on the center of the stone and the center of the template gets the form into its correct position.

 I did this on all 4 sides to get the bottom of the globe perfectly round. 

Getting the overall shape of the figure finished will be my next focus - leaving the detailing of the hands and face for last.  I still plan to be finished by the 3rd week of June... but it'll be tight.

 ...and finishing this post with something completely different...
This is a detail of a quartz geode that we found a few miles from the stone quarry near Bloomington.

...and closer to home, this is a close-up into a calcite geode that Meg found in my pea-gravel.