Canopy finished

The baldachin for St. John's Cathedral in Den Bosch is ready. The stonemasonry was made by Mike Slotboom of Slotboom Steenhouwers in Winterswijk; I carved the ornaments on this piece. The trickiest of these were the hanging parts on the front, the so-called suspended flowers.

Whereas these were formerly carved separately as loose parts and were attached later to the rest of the baldachin, it all was now carved as one single piece. This meant that I had to carve the ornaments and the profiles on the inside as well.

Sandstone is always a little vulnerable to bumping (not for weathering) and I could only get access by suspending the whole block in the hoist and stand below it/in it. I was a little apprehensive about transferring to much vibration on the suspended parts during carving, and there was also far too little space for carving properly (the middle ornament hung at 10 centimeters from my face), but it all worked out and if I may say so myself, rather nice too.

In this position I couldn't carve the ornaments on the inside either, because then I would have had to lie on my back as well!

And now? This week the block will be trucked to Den Bosch, where it will be placed between the existing sandstone blocks by the masons, as a kind of umbrella for a statue of a saint. For hoisting, two stainless steel threaded bars were glued in the top of the block, on which two lifting hooks are screwed. I gratefully made good use of those myself.

Read more about sculpture for St. John's Cathedral here.