The Cherubs Part III
12 March, 2012 – 8:55 amThe next stage was to position the plaster model of the Cherubs on the stone to give me an indication of how to proceed.
I then marked the size and shape of the stone on my bench and this is where they remained until it was time to turn them round but that comes later.
I used squares, sinking squares and rulers to mark out the first cuts. I can saw this stone-it takes a while and when I hit a vein of Calcite I decided to finish by hand rather than risk blunting my saw.
As you can see from the photos I was able to mason the face that I had just revealed with my axe, this is used as a large bolster and is a traditional stonemasons tool.
Each measurement that I take represents 3 points in space-3 dimensions. The distance in from the front, the distance in from the side and the height from the base upwards.
In order to carve the cherubs with more ease and peace of mind, I ordered the stone 3 inches taller than their height. Therefore I took this into account with every height measurement that I took.
The first check I cut out gave me the side of the arm, I then took out an area that gave me the side of the head and top of the shoulder, then I cut out a section that gave me the outside edge of the taller Cherub’s head and the height of the wing.
I moved to the other side and was able to carry out a similar process.
The final part of this sawing stage saw the height of the top of the head of the smaller Cherub and the gap between the two heads revealed.
Now more points can be identified….