Prince Carnival, in blue quartzite
Carnival association The Puupenkoppen (Pipe heads) from Achterveld celebrated its 55 th anniversary. Because they didn't want this to pass unnoticed, they asked me if I would help them come up with an idea for a statue to be placed in front of the clubhouse. Something with the logo, with the name of the association.
Logo
When the committee members presented me with their request, I was immediately enthusiastic. The logo is a dancing pipe with a face, which smokes and wears a prince's hat. It's just all quite fragile when you put a pipe like that on just 1 foot. So a literal representation was quickly ruled out because of the weight distribution and fragility of such a pipe. Even if you make it in bronze. Above all, it had to be vandal-proof.
Strong
Of course, when the beer is flowing freely, then people sometimes do ill-considered things, don't they? Bronze is also quite susceptible to theft these days. That's how I came up with my red statue of Pan. They liked that material. But during the quotation phase, it turned out that having such a custom block delivered was not feasible. Fortunately, I still had a rough piece of blue stone lying around, Azul Macauba. Granite, I thought, that should be doable!
Carnival float
As we talked, ideas quickly emerged. I wanted to capture some of the fun of carnival in this sculpture, and the conversation turned to the activities of the Council of Eleven and Prince Carnival. The elements quickly came together: a carnival float in the shape of a pipe and Prince Puupenkop the First sitting on it. I immediately pictured the wheels in the shape of paper tongue whistles. The Prince's alaaf gesture, the hat and staff were all elements that came together very naturally later on in the conversations that followed.
Then there was the question of the material. Considering the budget , strength and weather resistance, we ultimately settled on this blue quartzite. I had bought this block somewhere once and it was still waiting for me to use it for a project.
Clay model and foam cutting.
Once I had the idea in my head, I quickly modelled a rough sketch of a Prince Carnival out of clay. Then I cut a block of foam to the same dimensions as my block of stone, and from that, I carved out my clay sketch to full size. I was abel to easily shape the foam with small rasps and scrapers. But because I wanted to use the foam model in my sculpture sawing machine for the contour sawing process, it needed to have a hard outer layer. Unfortunately, I always lose a lot of detail from my foam model whenever I put another layer over it. But at least now I know what I want, and I've been able to practice on the details. The model gives me enough guidance to carve a copy.
Acrylic one
To make the model sturdy and hard, I covered it with Acrylic One. It can be compared to polyester, but water-based. Just apply it with a brush, add a layer of fiberglass mats and brush over it again. It hardens quite quickly and has no odour whatsoever. Ideal stuff for this kind of thing.
Sawing contours
With this white hard layer over my model I could use it as a sawing model on my sculpture sawing machine. I put the block of stone on one side, my foam model on the other side, and saw the contours with this machine while rotating, just like a locksmith copies a key. The probe disc rolls over the model, and the saw blade follows that movement in the block of stone.
Tougher than tough
But here came the first hiccup: the material is much harder than regular granite! When I looked up why it was all so difficult, it turned out it's not blue granite, but quartzite. And that is a lot more difficult to cut. Eventually, I learned that the trick is to use a lot of water and keep the saw blade at a low speed. Anyway, two days later the contours were finally in place.
Sculpting in quartzite
This was of course followed by the shaping phase. There's not much to explain about that: first you look for the large shapes and gradually carve them out as you go along, then it's a matter of refining. Because it has already been cut out with the contour saw, a lot of shapes are easy to find, but you could ruin a lot if you're not careful. Of course, after sawing, carving was also very difficult. I broke three chisels on it. Occupational hazard!
Detailing
But gradually it became clearer and I was able to focus more on the details: what do paper tongue whistles look like (conclusion: you have to exaggerate them a bit, otherwise they are not recognizable), how do the shapes of the hat, the cloak and the pipe run, and how does everything fit together? These are the most enjoyable moments of sculpting: the search for form and movement.
Inspection
Naturally, the committee members kept an eye on things. The statue of Prince Carnival was a gift to the celebrating Carnival Association, and besides the fact that it all had to be kept strictly secret, it also had to look good! Fortunately, people were very satisfied. Personally, I really enjoyed being able to create something for 'my own'’ Achterveld, where my studio is located. The fact that it also sits in such a prominent place, right in front of the pub and directly opposite the church, is the icing on the cake. Well, that's Catholic village life here: the pub is opposite the church. Even though people no longer go to church, history has left its mark.
55 and not 50 th anniversary
And of course different rules apply to Carnival than to normal life. It's the fool's festival, and therefore the number 11 is held in high esteem. The Council of Eleven, 11 november, and all memorable dates are at least a multiple of 11. So 55 th anniversary, and not 50.
Anyway, this quartzite was also a new material for me; If I had known in advance that it was so incredibly hard, I would probably have suggested something else! But now that it's finished, I am very happy with how this Prince Carnival turned out, it carries exactly the atmosphere I had in mind.
