A Bear with a honeypot (flying buttress figurine)

The bear that didn't look like a bear

And then the bear came with its long snout and blew out… no, he ate all the honey. This 'bear’ was the next flying buttress figurine for St. Eusebius's Church in Arnhem which was to be copied into new stone. Only you needed to look very carefully in order to see a bear. I am currently, for those who do not know yet, 96 recarving tuff flying buttress figurines into new Muschelkalksteen.

Broken

The ritual should be well-known by now: repairing the original, placing the new block of stone on the sawing machine and presawing the statue. Next, carving the profiled sections at the bottom and laying the finishing chisel strokes, then carving the bear and finally detailing and finishing everything.

This bear, just like a number of other flying buttress figurines, had also broken off once before and was glued back together. He had a clear crack line across his waist and the honeypot in its claws was lying in pieces on the pallet. After the glue-up and remodelling of missing parts with plastiline clay (which never hardens) I've put the new block of stone on the sawing machine and started to meticulously copy-saw the whole sculpture.

That saves me a lot of work: I don't need to remove all of the unnecessary stone with hammer and chisel, I don't need to cut it out with an angle grinder (lots of dust and noise) and most importantly: it saves me days if not weeks of measuring. And I have a thorough dislike of that, as you can read in this blogpost here.

This piece of stone, particularly at the bottom part, was a lot rougher and more open than I'm used to. So it wasn't easy to carve any details in it.

Have a good trip!

The group of five flying buttress figurines I made over the last weeks were ready for transport as well. I got at once much more space in my yard, and I think the other drivers must have had some fun while they were underway , riding behind the lorry of Slotboom Stonemasons (it only looks like it's time to wash the lorry again, Hans!).

Nasty the following flying buttress image.