Matchbox Studio
(01/30/17)
Yes, the studio blog is up to speed!
These reference shots were taken last night after I finished post-production on episode no. 5 of the new show. Compared to last month, there's more evidence that I've gone as far as I can with the chisels...
The elements stand out more, exposing more features to lose with sloppy carving...
The holes are much deeper than they look; there's about an inch of carving to go in each of them...
The base is cleared so the different feet will stand out and let light under and through the piece...
The numerous holes in the stone are slowly working out. Using a dremel slowly, all of them will be broken through as late in the work as I can...
(02/13/17)
Ok, the studio blog is back up to speed!
The work on the marble proceeds a little at a time all over, but as the element blocks from the different sides come into focus, I can see how they intersect and interconnect, and where the next cuts have to go...
The negative space here I wouldn't even touch until the piece is this far along...
The way these different elements shape up (like what parts can fly free and which parts are load-bearing) was only apparent after I began digging in and through...
The biggest hole in the piece goes here, where the stone is most liable to split in half if I hit it wrong or position it badly to work on another element. It's all dremel here...
These shots were taken under a weaker CFL bulb, but that upper element's negative space is started, slowly...
There's about an inch or so of stone between the two 'legs' on the end...
The other side of the big hole, all that negative space...
I'll have to gingerly make a series of little wormholes along the cut lines to maintain integrity. Wish I had a tiny masonry bit...
(02/19/17)
The latest pics in blue show the progress in each of the 'holes' as I slowly work to the center...
One of the cone-shaped grinding stones finally gave out after it worked on all three sculptures. Nice...
I'm trying to avoid one big empty space in the load-bearing center, so the idea of interconnecting wormholes might just work...
The foot needs to be further along before the delicate top elements are opened up...
It's all slow and steady grinding away, even if just for an hour or so each day; I'd like to have at least one these stones presentable for the upcoming California Sculpture Symposium, even though I'm not going this year (I could send them a pic from inside my holodeck...)
(03/02/16)
These pics were taken with my cheap replacement smartphone, so no blue tint... Yesterday I finally bored through the hole elements from all four sides after getting more dremel grinding stones...
I like the non-neatness in the connecting junctions...
The underside just needs to be opened up a bit more for shadow effects...
The element on this side is steep to make you move in close and peek (I hope)...
The grinding stone I'm using to bore all the negative space at this point. ...
I went through three of them before breaking through; leveraging the spinning bit the wrong way and jamming it two or three seconds too long and it strips itself. Anyway, the wormholes are open, so the foot is next as I work on the other holes...
(03/09/17)
With the first wormhole set open, the overall blocking continues with the dremel serving as a mini angle grinder...
This morning I finally opened up the central gap and stopped sweating - no cracks anywhere...
...And both sides broke where I eyeball guesstimated, so the big transverse elements can be slowly blocked out and cleaned up.
Seeing the depth from this side a bit clearer suggests a more complex element down here...
(03/22/17)
Ok, almost two weeks later (and another grinding bit bites it), and I have all the planned holes cleared and haven't encountered any cracks...
The biggest temptation with this marble is wanting to treat it like alabaster and just bull through, but the stone actually resists brute force; a lighter touch with both the dremel and the chisels works well...
The topside holes open, but not much more till later...
These elements are all gonna fly free over the one load-bearing area I can still carve out...
...Meanwhile, to help reach my goal of a dozen-piece starter inventory by year's end, it's time to use up the ADC making blanks for a few abstract figurines. The chunks of marble will be an attempt at jewelry pieces....
Presently I have six or seven exhibit pieces finished or (mostly) in progress, so three or four clay pre-castings will work...
(03/30/17)
Ok, it's the end of the month (actually, end of the quarter for this studio page) and I spent today's session de-gunking and unclogging my dremel of all the fine marble dust; even with my holodeck fully deployed it still gets in everything...
Anyway, I finished blocking out the 'foot' of the stone. Not going for a flat plane that would make the piece look heavy at rest, but a more dynamic floating effect...
The other side...
There's three contact points, with one clearly visible. Nice...