Minervalaan part 4: Carving the figurines in limestone

After we had reconstructed them with plaster, we were about to start carving the eight figurines from the Minervalaan into new limestone. The new stone soon arrived. I was not involved in the stone selection for this project, but it ended up being Muschelkalk limestone, a material I was already very familiar with since the flying buttress figurines for St. Eusebius's Church in Arnhem (the Netherlands). Read here more about these figurines.

Contour sawing machine

Whenever we start sculpting in stone, we usually first rough out these kind of sculptures with the copying saw or contour sawing machine, and that was no different here. This machine is a manually operated saw arm with a feeler disk, with which we can relatively easily copy the outer contours of a sculpture. This machine cannot cut all the details, because its cutting disc is 400mm wide and doesn't reach into the deeper parts, such as the inside of an arm. Yet this saves an tremendous amount of work, because the large mass surrounding a sculpture can be removed quickly and accurately. I'd hate to think about having to cut away all the excess stone with just an angle grinder, or with a pointed chisel and hammer. Removal is not the only problem, but it also involves a lot of measuring work. And cutting with an angle grinder is heavy, dusty and noisy work. Not my hobby.

Milling with a robot?

You might think: Why not just take a CNC robot, and accurately mill everything away with a robot router?? Nowadays the computer is the panacea for all problems. Artist? Project? Shaping the forms? Step 1: the computer. What an impoverishment. So much is possible other than just the computer. Take a look at old crafts. In addition, for me, a robot has several disadvantages. First of all, I would no longer be a sculptor, but a computer programmer. It would also mean that I'd have to face quite a steep learning curve to master everything: scanning, 3D operation, toolpath instructions, etc etc.

Secondly, these machines are very expensive and prone to failure. The investment will need to be recouped, so you'll start looking for all kinds of work for the machine, and before you know it, you'll be working for the machine instead of the other way around. But most of all, a precisely milled sculpture doesn't make sculpting in stone any more fun. It'd be very boring to just rasp off the last millimeters a bit. All creativity is lost.

You'd also have to be very careful during the reconstruction phase, because forgetting to fill a hole somewhere on your weathered original sculpture means that it will also be reflected in the end product. The same applies to the digital 3D model: if a hole is overlooked somewhere, the

milling machine will simply hollow out the statue for you, entering via that hole. Finally, CNC, with all its preparation time, is not always faster than a simple manually operated machine. Its benefit lies mainly in serial work and very complicated pieces. And that actually happens very rarely in our line of work. So let me just carve away the old fashioned way. It's nice that the contour saw can remove a lot of unnecessary mass.

Upside down

Anyway, so we contour sawed the sculptures on the copy saw machine. This time we turned the figurines upside down, because the foot end side offered too little support, but the top did. Makes no difference to the machine. We cut it out in three courses: thick slices first, well away from the final 'skin’ of the figurine, then slices of 1 cms wide, and finally a very precise milling pass, 3mm removed from the final surface. So once we really start sculpting in stone, there will still be some material left for the chiseling part.

Details carving and measuring

As mentioned, details like eyes, nose and hands are not copied in the cutting process, but there are plenty of landmarks that a good sculptor can easily use to recreate the statue.. And then it's a matter of looking, comparing, measuring, mainly with compasses, and bringing back the atmosphere of the original.

Compasses and templates

I don't really know what I should say about this, except that this is the most intensive part of the job, and at the same time the most fun. We're really sculpting now, shaping it. With the combination of the sculpture saw machine and measuring with compasses and templates, we can arrive at the final shape of the sculpture much more quickly.. This way we can quickly focus on the design, the expression and unique shapes of the chisel strokes.

Pointing machine

Traditionally, the measuring work was done with a so-called 'pointing device', a hinged brass instrument with a pointing needle, with which one can precisely pinpoint 1 exact point on the model, and when the whole contraption is next transferred to the block of stone, that one exact point can be precisely drilled to the correct depth. Extremely time-consuming work. These pointing machines are actually the ancient version of the robot milling cutter. You do have to pay very close attention, but it's not really inspiring. That is why this preliminary work used to be done by lesser sculptors. Read here an interesting article about this device and watch the videos about its operation.

Muschelkalk limestone and light

While working, it became clear to us once again that the choice of stone has a major influence on the appearance of the sculpture. The large shapes of the figures and especially the hair of the ladies were ideal for this coarse German Muschelkalk limestone. The sculpture's shapes worked well with the light and yet proper detailing was still possible. Unfortunately under the roof, especially with the wind cloths around it in the winter, there are often less than ideal lighting conditions. It all quickly becomes a bit flat when the light is filtered by dust, acrylic plates and scaffolding cloth. We often move to the square outside the shelter for assessment and photos. We were very curious about what it would look like on its final location!