Thanks for stopping by. The WFB is my 'whatever I happen to be in to at the moment' corner of the web. I have two other Blogger sites which are far more interesting.  

The Lost Canyon Project is the chronicle of my work photographing and cataloging the life's work of my late friend, artist Pete Hampton (1940-2018) 

 

The Lost Era Transcripts is the fruit of the Lost Canyon Project. It is a re-creation in book form of Pete's unfinished master work, The Lost Era. This is a good candidate for the finest work I have ever done. 

 

 

Soft Colors

 

Well, I jumped from a stone too hard to work to a stone that's just a little softer than I'd like. Just no pleasin' some folks. This little beauty weighed in at 40 pounds. I've had alabaster like this before. Some parts of the stone are chalky, and some of the layers are firm, and solid. 

 

 

I just got a new, and very aggressive horse rasp from the Stone Carving supply gals, but I don't even need it for this piece. I got the take down done with a piece of 80 grit sanding belt, and the curved blades on the new rifflers I just got.

I had a plan in mind when I began work on the big white stone. I spent a lot of imagination time visualizing what I wanted to do. I made a whole bunch of sketches, took measurements, and essentially did my homework before starting the project. Of course I had to work within the confines of the rock, but I imposed my shape on the material.

 

This one isn't like that.   The chunk is oddly shaped. Both ends have narrow ridgelines. One side is mostly concave. If I cut this down to a workable block I'd waste most of the cool stuff in the stone, and a lot of really pretty material would go into the scrap pile. So rather than invent a shape, and impose it on the stone I have to modify the shape that I'm given.

 I think working like this is called this "free-carving", or something like that.  It just means I'm makin' it up as I go along.

 

 

So here's where we are. The most mysterious Skinamalink hopped up on the table to get in on the photo session. He is the most helpfulest of cats.

 

The profile suggests a human skull, while the front view sort of looks like a sheep skull. Overall, I'm working toward two interlocking figures. I'll dig some of these curves into concave, and others into domes. The object is to create as much surface are as possible, the better to show off the colors in the stone. I'm not sure yet about doing any cuts all the way through the stone. If the emerging figure calls for them, I'll drill. A little too soon to tell just yet.

 

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