Twists roughed out

Marble from Portugal is a much nicer material to work than the exotic black marble of Tunisia. I am happy to be working it once more. The twisting forms are coming well but like all the others needs a good deal more finishing. The finishing will not only get rid of unsightly scratches but finalise the forms themselves to give them their crispness.

Twizzling pillar

I have been so enjoying the twist on the rings I have decided to employ the same twist on a simple vertical form. I thought of various alternative shapes. I was tempted to give the form some ‘belly’, but in the end withdrew from such a move towards figuration, opting instead for a form that simply gets a little more slender as it rises. We shall see if it is interesting or not. Sometimes the only way to be sure is to make a sculpture. There is always a gap between the imagined idea and the reality; the question is, how big a gap?The sculpture is standing vertically in the picture in order to drill the hole on top. I now have all my Portuguese marble in the yard. Nigel and Rich who farm next door helped me to unload the two last blocks. They are wonderful neighbours. Thank you both.

Sumptuous to look at

Horrible to work though. Perhaps I am just used to working marble but this Tunisian black is no fun to work with. The dust it gives off is like talc; very slippery and smooth to the touch. I think there is something abrasive in there too however as sandpaper goes blunt very fast. Grumble grumble. The end result however might make it all worthwhile as it is beginning to look lovely. The picture makes it look almost complete but there are thousands of scratches to remove and hours of wet and dry work to do. My lorry load of marble arrived from Portugal today.We unloaded the two five ton blocks up at the farm and the remaining eight blocks with the telehandler. I managed to lift a block weighing 3.68 tons and to get it up into the field. The steering was very light but we made it. Brave machine!

Tunisian black marble

This has been rather a frustrating day. I have started to work this lovely block of marble. A marble I have never used before. As soon as I started to try and cut it however my blade went blunt. In horror I rang my friend Jonathan Loxley who bought a block at the same time and he was mystified by my problem saying that “it works quite well”. I put the block back in the field and went in for lunch, fed up. After lunch I went and visited my supplier of blades who told me that the blade was not ruined (phew) but ‘blinded’ or ‘clogged’ by the stone. He sold me a new blade which he told me would not clog. I made much better progress in the latter half of the day on a new ring. Although the marble here looks quite white, it actually polishes almost black with strong white veining.

Ring form

This is really taking shape and I am enjoying the forms here. They take shape quite fast but the endless delicate spaces in between will take days to get right. Today was cold; never getting much above freezing. A sprinkle of snow this morning had the children shrieking with joy. On going out to work I wrapped up well against the cold but as it was still, I soon warmed up and removed my heavy coat. I glued this ring on its base although there is quite a bit more to do on it. I want to see it standing so that I can get a proper look at it and perhaps think of the next ring. I think there might be several. This ring has lots of colour which does not show here as the surface is still rough. When cleaner the colour will shine through.