Our Dear Lord out of the basement

2017 was an interesting year with many different commissions.

For example, I had a Sacred-Heart statue to repair, which first had to be freed out of its basement. The statue had received some damage during previous storage and lost its hands at one point. I made two new limestone hands, but because the fingers turned out very vulnerable I had to make them again, this time in strong restoration mortar with a stainless steel frame. I also made a new limestone pedestal for the statue. The installing of the statue was not an easy job, but with some ingenuity it all went just fine.

Cinema Royal

Next, an old cinema in Den Bosch needed to be restored with new flourishes. I carved them out of Udelfanger sandstone, after which they were exactly made to fit by stonemasons on site. As part of the refurbishment of the inner city many of the (store)fronts are being restored to their former glory, and this was one of them.

Bull and Crane

At the beginning of the year I also made a marble bull and a base, and a marble crane. The bull has meanwhile arrived at its final location, but the Crane is still looking for a home!

The Herculeses from Castle Schaffelaar

My first really big job that year was making a large stone plinth for the Hercules statue of Castle Schaffelaar in Barneveld. First I had to remove the old base, then carve the base, and then install the old base and the old statueinside the castle, and the new plinth for the new statue in the garden. In any case it made a nice overview. There are two nice videos about it anyways, so you can see what the job was about.

Four heads for the Nieuwezijds

For the next project you can find a video of the process as well. I show how I'm copying four grotesque heads for a building on the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam and how they should end up looking all combined. The heads were made in Udelfanger sandstone and over time they eroded considerably, but they still were good enough to make copies of. A nice commission!

A professional shelter

I had been working under a simple party tent for several years, but in the beginning of 2017 it was time to build something a bit more solid. I'd bought a second hand steel frame, and with some new rafters, roofing sheets, lighting and a new hoisting beam and two-ton electric hoist it became a complete shelter. For example, it also became a lot easier to handle the larger blocks. I could now put my copying saw under the roof. My son Joram helped me during the build.

A streetcar full of penguins

Then there was the gable stone relief project from the former coach- and tram depot site in Haarlem. Comic Illustrators designed ten different relief stones, which were then carved in stone by a group of sculptors and polychromed by painters. These turned out to be ten very different stones, I myself got the stone Toon van Driel under my care. Read the post about the process here 1↑, 2↑ and 3↑.

Noah's Ark: full of animals

In May, 2017 I received the first figurines from flying buttress no. 7 of St. Eusebius's Church in Arnhem. It was the beginning of a nice series on the theme of Noah's Ark. All kinds of animals.

So in succession there were Noah himself, the rescued Ark, a Whining Dog, an overly joyful Lion, A Lady With Big Feet, a Fat Man wit a Jug and a Capercaillie in my shop this year.

Then some more came: Elephant, Praying Man, Owl, Kangaroo, Mountain Lion, Old Woman with Mortar and Pestle, another Ark with Noah Praying, Cape Buffalo and Lion, Squirrel, Razorbill, and finally again a Ark with Noah fleeing the rising waters, as the finishing part of the year.

And after this Review of the Year 2017 I thought I had deserved a Christmas break!

-gallery: Just click on a picture to view the entire gallery-

-Read here het jaaroverzicht 2018↑-

Beeldhouwerijblog.nl is the blog of Koen van Velzen, sculptor in stone and bronze. Look up my website as well: beeldhouwerijvanvelzen.nl

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