• Canopy finished

    Latest projects, Restoration, Saint John's Cathedral

    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.

    Baldakijn voor de Sint-Janskathedraal in 's-Hertogenbosch in Udelfanger zandsteen
    ornaments on a canopy for the St. John's Cathedral in's-Hertogenbosch in Udelfanger sandstone

    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.

    onderzijde baldakijn Sint Jan 's-Hertogenbosch
    for the last finish I laid the canopy on its back

    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!

    ingepakt baldakijn Sint Jan 's-Hertogenbosch
    quite a relief that the block goes out the door this week; It is a fragile piece

    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.

  • Installing: A garden bench for Castle Twickel

    Latest projects, Restoration
    During dead quiet weather, a very thick branch of a tree fell down.
    During dead quiet weather, a very thick branch of a tree fell down.
    During dead quiet weather, a very thick branch of a tree fell down.
    The concrete backrest with lead relief and the seat were the most damaged parts.

    Today, it was a hot sunny day. With a little power shovel machine and lifting straps we lifted the components of the garden bench and assembled them on site.

    To the first post about this project.

    tool with the new bench for Castle Twickel
    trowels, mortar, glue, hoisting straps… a car full of stuff

    The puzzle of course fit, because I had tested that beforehand.

    All stone parts of the bench were weathered and damaged, and have been replaced with new sandstone. Especially the legs are quite elaborately carved.

    Garden bench with lead relief and new sandstone elements
    The sandstone spheres are there as a temporary solution

    The lead relief will probably soon again be patinated. It's possible to use a special patinating oil to quickly turn the lead grey or black, something that has obvious been done to this relief before. I've not done so beforehand on my own account, because such a thing, of course, is usually done in consultation.

    Garden bench with lead relief and new sandstone elements
    Dancing nymphs and fauns on the backrest

    Temporarily I've put the old sandstone spheres back on the seat. The right hand sphere had received such a blow that it broke into twenty pieces. I've pasted it roughly back together, quite a puzzle. The best thing would of course be if someday in the future those little music-making fauns on the corners could be put back again (read more on that in this post), but for the protection of the sculpted sandstone legs, for now the spheres will do.

    I thought for a moment that it might be a solution to carve two small little fauns from the beginning. The originals were made of lead and were stolen, and carving new ones out of sandstone is much too fragile with such a dangling leg. But sitting, from granite, that's technically possible. It's just not up to me to decide.

    This is how a damaged garden bench looks fresh and sharp again, perhaps even a little too sharp. With the greenish haze which the bench will automatically get because of its place under an oak tree, it will fit in more with the rest of the garden over the years.

    We have also talked about tactics to get something green rapidly. Buttermilk is often mentioned, and so is yogurt. I once saw a lady on the BBC who managed to get even plastic flower pots in a thick coat of moss by mixing in a blender some yoghurt, moss and (cheap!) latex paint (and maybe some loam and manure, but that I don't remember) and brushing that onto those pots. I think I'll experiment a bit myself someday. Just need an old blender.

    Update 2 September 2015:

    Always on the lookout for other insights I started using Stumble Upon. Apparently it works, because here I came across a fine recipe for moss : how to make moss graffiti. In short: indeed moss in the blender, add lukewarm water, add water-retention gel (perhaps from a diaper??), add buttermilk, pulsate in the blender until it congeals, pour it into a bucket and paint with it whatever you want, and if you spray it a bit wet every week, in no time you will have moss growing on your desired surface.

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