Cat's Eye Carving

Sculpture of the month

I would like to show you some photos of how I went about carving one of my favourite sculptures.

It is carved from Welsh slate and is 3ft high by 18 inches wide and just 2 inches at the thickest depth. I think that this sculpture would look amazing mounted on a wall-I’m working on how this can be acheived safely!

I started carving this peice when I was still at Harts Barn and it is the 3rd piece in a series of ripples carved in slate, I finished it in March 2010, I have some more ripple designs to carve!

I started marking the intersecting ripples using a compass scribing the lines on the surface of the Slate. I used a small flat tungsten carbide tipped chisel to start creating the form followed by various sizes of tungsten tipped bullnose chisels.

As I chiselled my way throught this very hard slate I began to realise how much work I had set myself-but always kept the end finish in sight!

As I worked the beautiful pattern in the layers of the stone started to become apparent and my excitement grew.

I like to wash the carving as I am going to release the dust that is created, it also gives me a different perspective of my work!

The final processes include using files and rifflers and gradually working the scratches out of the surface-these can only be seen when the surface is dry-so I worked with wet and dry sandpaper washed the surface then dried the stone to see how much more work was involved-the whole process by hand took me about 4mths!

I hope you like it!