As I already explained inin an earlier blog post I spent my days before the summer holidays carving crockets on finial parts for St. Eusebius's Church in Arnhem (the Netherlands).

And my colleagues Stide Vos, Serge van Druten and Jelle Steendam were also contributing to this project. I have not seen how these finials are installed now, but I have every confidence that they're looking great.

Completion

For a while, it was still a bit uncertain whether it would all be finished on time. The stonemasons always make the basic work, i.e. all the geometric parts of the finials. We take care of the ornamental parts (the crockets), then it's all sent to the church, where the contractor is responsible for the installation. It was at that time very busy at the church yard, because the tower was completed, the holidays were coming up, the whole church interior was overhauled (the floors were ripped out, two massive new entries were made on either side, underground toilets were constructed, archaeological excavations).

Battle of Arnhem

But it was not only the holidays why it had to be finished on time. This September 2019 it will be 75 years ago that the Battle of Arnhem was fought during the Second World War. A movie was even made about it, ‘A Bridge Too Far‘.

Before that memorial, the church should look tiptop again. Should we deliver the goods too late, the entire schedule would be in a fix. We actually got the blocks in the yard with some delay. We could of course work a bit longer each day, but the work cannot proceed much faster. It should also look good.

I did once make something that was not quite to my liking, because of time pressure. Within a few weeks, all those time constraints will already be forgotten, but the ugly thing remains. We don't want that anymore. So it was a bit tense for a while, especially because I had my holiday a bit early this year: to Scotland! While everyone here melted in the heat at 40 degrees Celsius, I sat on a beach in the sun at 24. Beautiful country.

Elgin Cathedral

One of our trips was to the ruins of Elgin Cathedral. They have a wonderful display of medieval sculpture that I thoroughly enjoyed. Definitely worth a visit! There were all kinds of fine sculpture, mixed with crockets and other ornamental carvings. And that just happens to be one of the last things I'd made before my vacation!

Zipper-crocket

Those two finials of the Eusebius Church's contain various ornaments. The same crockets keep returning and stack up higher and higher. Once I'd made a whole batch of these things, I thought that perhaps ther could be some room for a little contemporary joke. This was done with ornamental work throughout the ages, so I thought my crocket-with-zipper would fit within the tradition.