Keystone

[Gargoyle]

Haven't been around lately, it's been pretty busy this year. I just stopped by because I thought some of you would enjoy this. I finished it yesterday. The stone block is 36" tall, 22" wide, and 18" deep, Indiana limestone, and weighs about 950 lbs (ok, so maybe I work a little bigger than you do). It's a keystone for an arch over a spa area in a client's back yard; water will cascade out of the mouth, into the spa, and then down to the swimming pool.

A bit bigger than the wonderful greenman on the watch cover that Paul Lantuch just posted, and a little more cheerful (my client didn't want it too fierce), but still links to the same tradition. I pulled in a bit of an acquatic theme with the seashells mixed with the scrollwork.

[KCSteve]

Lovely work, if not quite as portable as Paul's.

I predict he'll preside over many a happy time!

[sam]

Wow, Arnold...that's fantastic! It's amazing to see your large carvings, especially since most of us to postage stamp-sized work! / ~Sam

[Gargoyle]

Here are some progress shots. I use both mallet and pneumatic hammer; the chisels are the same either way. Mostly hand forged steel, but some carbide tipped chisels. I mainly use the carbide for the heavier roughout, they don't have the live feel or delicacy of the tempered steel.

Final thing I did, after these pix were taken, was to core a 2" diameter hole 18" long from the mouth through the back- it will have a lot of water flowing through it. Can't wait to see it installed and hooked up and get some pix with the water cascade!

[Tim Wells]

Hot dang! Garg, you are "the man", I used to think my old pal Roy Rogers was but nope; I'm sure of it now, you're da man.

[Mike Bissell]

Gargoyle - You are certainly talented !!!!

Mike

[Peter E]

I love that kind of sculpture. Fantastic looking gargoyle. I'm sure the new owner will be thrilled with it.

Pleasure seeing it.

Thanks,
Peter

[Roger Bleile]

It' good to see you posting again Arnold. I have always gotten inspiration from classical stone sculpture. And yours is top shelf. In fact, Dr. Harris, in his book "Gun Engraving as Decorative Art" opined, with some authority, that gun engraving styles are mainly based on early archetictural stone carving. Especially Islamic styles. It must be nice to work on a large scale instead of in minutia like we do but then you can't work in your basement or at the kitchen table!

Roger

[KCSteve]

Wow! Those progress shots give a much better sense of size. That thing's huge!

And yet it still manages to hit the balance between size and detail.

When doing your layout do you do side views as well as the face-on one(s)? I imagine that for something like this you have to do at least a simple sketched side view to make sure everything - including the water line - wind up in the right place.

[Christopher Malouf]

This is incredible. In 2000 years, an advanced civilization will be looking at this in awe wondering how you did it.