"Night & Day", a new Cameo

[Doc Mark]

Well, I caught a bit of hell when I was in Reno this past January, because I had not done any new Cameos. So, I finally got off my butt and carved this one a couple of weeks ago. I just got around to photographing it this weekend. It is based on an old Victorian subject. The images are allegorical representations of Night and Day. The older style carvings were covered in "suns rays" emanating from "Day" and a lot of nonsensical bats and owls around "Night". Instead I simply used flowers like Morning Glorys on "Day" and a stars and crescent moon tiara on "Night". I "modernized" the women's images and put more present day profiles on this cameo, rather than the more classical "Greek" profiles. The cameo is 1 3/4 inches long and took around 36 hours to carve and polish. Hope you enjoy it.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Absolutley beautiful work Mark.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Marrinan]

reMARKable! Fred

 

[grumpyphil]

Wow wow wow. I'm in love with Night.

 

[Ray Cover]

That is fabulous Mark!

 

[Sam]

Mark, you amaze me with this. That is stunning work! :bow:

 

[mrthe]

wow incredible ! congratulations!

 

[Tira]

Thanks for posting - I always love to see your work.

 

[Mike Fennell]

Wonderful work, Mark. I personally like the modernization of the image. It shows a great deal of imagination and creativity on your part. Many ancient Greek, as well as Roman, sculptors experimented with such departures from convention in order to depict the real personality of the subject. Very well done.

 

[thughes]

Truly amazing.

 

[Dulltool]

Beautiful work Doc.

 

[GTJC460]

That's just flat out awesome!

 

[Scratchmo]

Really outstanding work Doc. What kind of shell are you using for this?

 

[Doc Mark]

Thanks Scrachmo, the shell is a "Cassis rufa", or Bullmouth Helmet shell. Sometimes it can be found listed simply as "Cameo shell".

 

[Marcus Hunt]

Mark, absolutely stunning as usual! I'd love to see a stage by stage "tutorial"; that'd be fascinating to see how you create such wonderful work.

 

[Doc Mark]

Thanks Marcus, here is the mini tutorial I created a couple of years ago. It's in the "Tip Archive".

http://www.engraverscafe.com/showthread.php?6058-Cameo-Carving-mini-tutorial

 

[bronc]

Incredible!!!!

Stewart

 

[Mike Cirelli]

Beautiful Doc!

 

[Marcus Hunt]

That tutorial is great Mark, I don't know how I missed it.