Cat's Eye Carving

The Cherubs

This commission is to honour two young girls who were taken from this world prematurely.

It is inspired by a painting created by the Renaissance artist Raphael which features a pair of cherubs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael  Visit this site and scroll down to a picture of The Sistine Madonna, the Cherubs are at the bottom of the painting.

The brief was to use the motif but have the pair closer together and the little one looking up at the older one.

This series of posts will follow my journey from concept through to the finished carving.

The first thing I had to do was create a maquette in clay-a model that could be altered until it was what my client had in her mind.

I commissioned my friend Missfire a Blacksmith to make me some armatures onto which I could build the cherubs. I secured these to a wooden board and wrapped hessian around them.

As you can see, I layered up the clay, making the forms that I wanted, until I had the shapes I needed. I then started to add some detail.

Obviously it was unnecessary to add too much detail as this would all come in the final carving, however I needed to show enough so it would give my client a rough idea of what I had in mind.

I had my client’s approval so it was on to the next stage, Casting them in plaster.