DENALI - Phase 3

DENALI - PHASE 3

January 22, 2000

The weather has broken, and along with a clouded eclipse of the moon, I have made the first cuts into this wonderful stone.

Bela Simo, a fabulous local sculptor (try the link to his site on my links page), took me under his wing and lent me a few of the tools necessary for carving the softer marbles. (As an aside, if you happen to be in the Whitehorse area in the next six weeks, please try to stop in to the Yukon Arts Centre Gallery. He is featured in a solo showing of his work from the past eleven years.) He then went with me to Sidrock to help me set up and show me where everything needed was to be found. Thanks Bela!

Using an air hammer with both a flat and single-pointed chisel, and my angle grinder with a masonry wheel, I commenced removing the excess marble to expose the planes of the sculpture. The sculpture is to be a relief, so the planes are angled downward and into the stone. Later on I will bring out the relief a little more clearly by undercutting the planes, but only after the detail work is complete.

The work progressed from the top plane (furthest back in space) to the bottom or foreground. In order to remove the rock from each plane, I first scored the area to be removed a centimeter above the line marking the adjacent plane with the flat chisel. Then I cut into the rock with the pointed chisel, downwards and toward the scored line. This removed rock quickly and left many rough lines and uneven areas. These were removed with the straight chisel and then the grinder. Using the chisels as much as possible kept the dust to a minimum. Then the final step was to use the straight chisel to dress the upper edge of the adjacent plane. The process repeated itself moving across the rock and then down.

I must admit, I found the air hammer a bit awkward to begin with and painful to hold. However, I soon learned to let go a little bit with the hand guiding the chisel and let it tap the rock with its own action. Like using a regular hammer and chisel, the angle of attack is important. Too acute an angle and the chisel walks across the surface. Too direct an angle and the chisel buries itself in the marble. Also, like using a regular hammer and chisel, it is very important to direct the blows into the stone and not out toward the edges. This prevents the unexpected breaking off of large pieces of ones sculpture ... :)

In the picture below, I have set the stone up on the table where I am working at Sidrock. In the background you can see the huge rock saw used to cut massive boulders of jade, rhodenite, marble and granite. The saw is about 12 ft (4m) in diameter!

Till next time,

Shane

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