New Rock Art - Stone Me

So the rock is already square, and I want to finish this piece in the spring, so I need to come up with an idea that I can carve relatively quickly.

I decided to use the shape that was already there. I also wanted to try carving a hand again. It's challenging to do it right.

Here's some images that inspired me:

Hand in a box

I usually don't do much pre-design or planning, but his time I made a model out of clay just to get an idea of size and proportion:

Kind of got the Adams Family vibe going...Thing

By having a lid on the box I don't have to carve the entire hand. Just enough to peek in.

I started carving today. The first thing I have to do is block out the cube and leave an overhang on 2 sides where the fingers will go.

We'll see where this all goes.

I doubt i can do what they did a thousand years ago using a similar type of stone:

Stuff from 2  - 3 thousand years ago is more my speed:

I think the top will be permanently half closed -- all one piece. 

One thing I learned when schlepping stone sculptures to and from galleries, the less stuff hanging off / out from the main component, the better.  If it can break, it will. At the worse time.

So legs together, arms to the side, ears covered by hair, etc. 

Almost Mike -- the finger busted off last weekend when I took it to show the guys at our studio. We give each other a ton of good natured shit, but it helps to get another opinion about what to carve before we start -- cause there is no going back (or gluing back on). Once a piece is carved off, it is gone forever. Art by subtraction.

So I had to wrap some clay on it to splint it temporarily.

Good eye.

A band aid is a fine idea by the way. It makes it a modern artifact.

I filed the lid to make it a little smoother and splashed some water on the surface to see what the stone will look like polished.

Some of the little dark circles and other marks could be fossils of plants.

I think we are looking at a cross section of ancient ocean floor(s). I'll have to research that.

So unlike my usual process I decided to actual measure some stuff out, so the box would look like a box. 

I'm going to carve some "metal rings" on two sides of the box so those sides have some interesting details to look at.

You can see where I plan to carve the thunb and fingers.

Making progress. The lid is taking shape. That groove will be the front of the lid. The material still attached I'm leaving for the fingers.

I think it's safer to carve the rings first and the fingers last. I've got the basic shape of the rings laid out. Eventually, they will be rounded and a lot thinner.

Thanks Raz. The tell will be how well I can do the fingers. If I'm lucky the stone will cooperate and not fracture. *

I've done a hand before -- and even though you look at your hand almost every minute, you'd be surprised how much you see for the first time when you try to replicate it. For instance, a person's thumb is not angled the same as, or 90 degrees away from, the fingers -- it's at a middle angle. And knuckles and finger top joint bends -- who remembers to even include them?  It makes carving something that doesn't look odd, challenging. 

I like Mike's idea of adding a band-aid. Might try that. (Though "adding" is a misnomer.)

If you ever are bored, google the guys who carved the National Cathedral. It's amazing what they can do. Gargoyles and all sorts of stuff.

* If it does and any MAGA heads want to chuckle at my misfortune cause I cartoon them, I'm cool with that. They deserve an occasional laugh, too.

If I used pneumatic tools and an air compressor I could really make progress. But primarily due to the loud noise and dust factor, I am currently stuck with hand tools and an occasional household power tool like an angle grinder or drill. Today I might try a small Dremel on the rings, but don't know if it has enough bite to take off this limestone.

I mainly use hammer, various chisels, and files. And lots of sandpaper. Lots of sandpaper -- at the final stages my elbow gets more of a workout than a 13 year old boy who just found his Dad's Pornhub password.

A started set like this costs about 100 bucks:

1 ring mostly done. I'll come back and refine the lines later -- I'd say this one is 85 % done. This was an afternoon's work.

Since this stone is monochromatic, the visual cues rely on shadows, so deeper cuts and multilevel details will make the finished piece more interesting.

Since everyone seems to be getting the finger or giving the finger around here, I might as well share my finger work, too:

I've got them blocked out.

Two ring handles are mostly done. They will be more pronounced when I shave off more stone from the sides of the box.

Carving out the empty space between the lid and the box will be the last major step since I don't want to take the chance of breaking off the top of the box while I work on the other stuff.

PS - Thanks for all the encouragement. I usually try to reply individually when time allows. If I miss ya it's only because I'm running behind that day.

last few days:

Thumbs are the hardest. This is a decent start. Everything gets smaller as the design gets refined.

Fingers and thumb are about 85 >90% done.  I'll get some more detail with a file. 

Today, I started to cut the groove under the lid so the cube has some empty space. So it looks like an open box.

Still lots to do. But the basics are all there.

Currently, only two sides have handle rings, and I don't have enough stone depth to carve a third one in the empty side, so I might carve a keyhole in that one.

Thanks,

Now I have to think of something for the front of the box under the hands, too. Maybe a jewel or a glass hologram.

Also thinking of carving some empty space under the box to give it legs.

But I get nervous at this stage that I will knock something off if I muck with it too much. So then I stop carving, polish it up, "finish" it and let it sit for a while... and two months later I wonder why I didn't do what I wanted to.

Ok...al the carving and filing is done. All that's left is sanding and polishing which only takes a day or so.

I'm thinking about highly-polishing the box itself (up to 2,000-3,000 grit) and keeping the fingers less-finished (600 grit) to create some texture/color contrast.

The stone below is wet -- I'm hoping applying a sealer, followed by waxing, will help retain the deeper colors.

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As you can see I added a keyhole to the front surface.

I'll sand the rings the most. Before I wax it, I'm thinking about painting the rings with some metallic paint. I usually don't enhance the stone sculptures in any way, but I may need the contrast in this instance -- plus, it was a common practice in ancient times. The all-white Greek and Roman statues we are used to seeing in museums were probably painted realistically --  celebrity recreations like those found in a modern Ripley's Wax Museum.

If I get radical, I might even paint the empty space in the box with black paint.

I needed to add something visual to the thumb side, as I didn't have enough depth to carve a third ring.

I fried my Dremel tool last week and have had no time to rebuild it. So it took me about 4 hours yesterday to carve the little circle by hand.

I had to start small and slowly widen it and then slooooowly widen it some more -- it had to be a perfect circle (hole).

As I'm going to inlay a glass hologram disc in it.

Ok - off to sand. If anyone needs me tor rob a bank, let me know because I probably won't have legible fingerprints left by the end of the day.

Thanks Judit. Hope you are doin ok. 

I need to finish this one up soon, as I have a show at an art gallery that has recently opened to the public coming up in May. For another piece and I have to clean it up, as it's been outside all winter.

Mike I was going to put a little round mirror in the hole -- the viewer would look in and see a person --- him/herself -- and then maybe go off on a whole artsy introspection, "Am I myself, trapped in a box?" 

But I didn't want some guy/gal to quit his/her job, leave the spouse and kids and move to Montana to escape their boxed-in life. Art that Makes You Think can be dangerous.

So I had this hologram laying around that a friend made 30 years ago for a watchface. I will certainly credit him, as he a more talented sculptor than I.  He specializes in the mini sculpture, mainly for jewelry. 

Now it's "someone else" trapped in the box. To bring out the sadist in the viewer. Much safer.

Mark. Thanks. It got a little better today with some sanding and detail work. But I have to be careful not to sand out the detail I just spent time adding. Since you are a DNB fan, you know us Baltimore boys like to get things just right.

Done! From ___ to ____

Took a little under 2 months. With a lot of weather delays. Here's some other views:

My wife described it as "cartoon-ish," which is a compliment, as animated implies "giving breath to"  (i.e., bringing to life).

If I can bring an inanimate thing like a chunk of rock to life, that's successful art in my opinion. Plus it gives it a "happy/spooky" ambiance. 

The side with hologram:

The painted rings turned out better than expected -- the paint acted more as a stain (which gave it a translucent look), maybe because the rock is so porous.

The limestone polished up nicely. I only went to 1500 grit. Some sealer. Plus two coats of wax.

Yes, the subject matter is a little weird. I hope I don't have to wait to Halloween to get a chance to display it. If you run across any cool galleries (on the East coast), lemme know.

Also, it needs a name. If one comes to mind.... (Unfortunately, couldn't find any suitable Grateful Dead names. "Box of Pain" doesn't really work.)

"...And I could pay you back with one good hand"

Nah. Too obscure.

"Is Quarantine Over?"

Too pandemic.

"Crypt-ical Envelopment"?

mmmmmm, a possibility.

too weird?

Ok - the latest contender (as judged by my wife) is "Jack-In-the-Box" or should it be "Jack's-In-the Box?"

I'm still going for a music reference, if possible.

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Thanks all. Much appreciated. With all the galleries being closed for the last year, you guys are the only captive audience I have.

JP - I've always done various artistic things for fun AND money (light shows at concerts, holography, fused glass windows) and stone sculpture is my latest endeavor...so it's a little more than a hobby, I do exhibit and sell stuff in art galleries, at craft festivals, and to private collectors, and have taken one commissioned work so far (a marble sculpture of a couple embracing) for a wedding present. I'm still rather new at it, so it's always a learning process. But I also do other biz stuff, too.

Crazy Fingers... how could I not have thought of that????? One of my favorite South Florida bans, too. Brilliant suggestion.