Cat's Eye Carving

Meditation, A Tetbury Limestone Sculpture.

As you may have read from some of my other posts, not everything goes to plan when carving detailed sculpture.
This is an example of when everything goes right.

Meditation is a bust of a woman, she is wearing a scarf around her hair that drapes around her neck.
This stone carving was inspired by some of my charcoal drawings. Our model was a very elegant woman. She sat perfectly still and when asked how she was able to maintain her pose so well, she replied that she was meditating.

As with all my carvings I roughly mark on the surface of the stone where I want the features to be. The most important lines I mark on are the axis lines, imagine a line down the centre of your face and one from side to side through your eyes. These lines determine the angle at which the face is, whether her head is tilted to the side or the front.

The natural bed of the stone runs vertically through the stone to give strength to the carving, as the finished carving will be delicate through the neck.

I started with my punch, the chunky nail shaped chisel, and the pitching chisel-for removing large amounts of material. ( I will put some images of my chisels on a separate post!). Then my claw chisel for defining some of the features. Of course I had to leave enough material in order to create the scarf. But as with all my carvings knowing how much to leave on comes with experiance.

As the carving developed, I was aware that this carving was going to be something special.
The fabric was beginning to look as though there really were folds and the detail around the nape of her neck was beginning to take shape.

I just needed to soften the features to create a more reflective feeling to the carving, and put the finishing touches to the hair, neck and shoulders.

 This carving is of a more mature woman she looks as though she has a strong character, I believe that this reflects how my carving and myself are developing.