• Removing a pedestal with the concrete chainsaw

    Last Wednesday I was at the gardens of Estate De Schaffelaar in Barneveld, the Netherlands. I had to remove a plinth of Belgian bluestone, that was anchored with four stainless steel pins of 2 centimetres thick to a concrete foundation. Of course the solution was the concrete chainsaw at 230 Volts (Cardi Coccodrillo 35 so you might say Renova chainsaw). The base will in due course be reinstalled inside the main building itself, but more on that later.

    Camera and editing: Joram van Velzen

    The anchors were very tough and it took a lot of strength in an awkward crouching position to cut them, but the machine did not budge. We had brought water, a pressurized water system ( a pressure tank with pump) and an generator of 6 kilowatt with us, so we were completely self-sufficient.

    Read all posts about chainsaw for stone and concrete here.

    Copy of this pedestal

    I made a copy of the upper part of this plinth.
    Read more about it in the next post.

  • Flora in her habitat

    Garden statue Flora after recovery
    Garden statue Flora after recovery

    Yesterday I The garden image of Flora from Lead Antimoon put back into the wild. At this site it comes into its own, a very classic and graceful garden statue of the goddess of spring and flowers.

    I made a base for her out of blocks of gray stone and a thick stone tile, to which she's anchored with three thick stainless steel threaded bars of 14 mm. This way it all has become one quiet gray coloured whole, so the base draws no more attention than the sculpture itself.

    A picture from the 20th century shows that Flora used to have flowers in her left hand and in the vase. From the strange position of the fingers, I think I can deduce that the statue already had been restored at the time.

    The statue is now restored with restoration mortar. I made the mortar in the same grayish colour as the lead alloy; the greenish colour comes from some chlorophyll that I rubbed in. Should the owner in the future choose to remove the algae, the repair will have the same colour as the original, and not a misplaced greenish tint. With the chlorophyll the repair now also resembles the rest, which already had a slight layer of algae .

    The repairs will be getting their real patina after a time in all weathers, so the difference will soon no longer be visible.

    Nasty the first message about this image.

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