Green Man study

Original sketch idea.

Final drawing.

Final drawing transferred to the stone.

Carving...

Progress...

finished!

detail...

detail...

detail...

Raised letters, process photos...

The original drawing.

The wet surface of the prepared stone ~ after filing and resurfacing to round and soften the edges. 

Transferring the letters

Carving...

Washing and resurfacing once more to prepare the stone for sealing and gilding.

Applying the gold leaf (sometimes things do have to look worse before they look better!)

This finished letters ~ in natural light.

Lettering detail with gold leaf.

Finished stone, Ida McClelland Heller, September 2011 ~ install party, Clintonville, PA

Ida's boys, Gerald and Paul (left to right ~ my uncle and Father)

Digging a hole for a foundation to be poured, we will go 3' deep - to be sure the foundation is below the frost line.

Mixing the cement to be poured for the foundation.

Checking the level of the stone.

Her stone in place.

The other side of the stone shows a poem written by my Father.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close up of the sparrow.

The front of the stone.

Detail of the hand carved letters.

     The following photo essay shows in brief, the process involved in bringing ideas from a small concept sketch, to full size lettering ready to be carved into a stone.  As I begin to carve the letters I will post more photos.  This stone is a piece of Vermont green slate.   The "back" of the stone, or the the side with the poem, is "honed", which means the surface has been worked and smoothed.  The "front" of the stone has a "riven" or "natural cleft" surface (it will be shown in a later entry) and is a rougher surface.  The natural cleft is the actual face of the slate which has been broken or "cleaved" away from the larger stone slab, or from the mountain itself.

The original sketch.

Re-drawing the final full size letters.

The finished lettering for the poem.

Measuring for the lines to be drawn onto the stone.

Ruling the lines.

Transferring the finished letters to the stone.

Stanza I, transferred onto the stone.

Stanza II

Stanza III

Ready to go!

Preparing to hoist the stone up for easier carving.

Carolyn at work.

Jesse transferring his letters

Kathryn and Michael carving it up.

Project for a special woman.

What a great weekend class, thanks to all who came (sorry no pictures from Saturday Tim). 

Snowed In

     Wood stove is cooking away, the wind is whipping at the sides of the studio.  Preparing for next weekend's stone carving workshop - I will be guiding the class through and introduction to carving letters into slate - apparently Vermont slate was formed 450 million years ago!  Who can imaging anything that is "between" 400 and 750 million years old!