• A Bear with a honeypot (flying buttress figurine)

    Eusebius, Restoration
    2 comments

    The bear that didn't look like a bear

    flying buttress statuette of bear with honeypot - old original tuff
    flying buttress statuette bear with honey -new copy in muschelkalk limestone

    And then the bear came with its long snout and blew out… no, he ate all the honey. This 'bear’ was the next flying buttress figurine for St. Eusebius's Church in Arnhem which was to be copied into new stone. Only you needed to look very carefully in order to see a bear. I am currently, for those who do not know yet, 96 recarving tuff flying buttress figurines into new Muschelkalksteen.

    the presawing of flying buttress figurine Bear with honeypot.

    Broken

    The ritual should be well-known by now: repairing the original, placing the new block of stone on the sawing machine and presawing the statue. Next, carving the profiled sections at the bottom and laying the finishing chisel strokes, then carving the bear and finally detailing and finishing everything.

    copying flying buttress statuette Bear with honeypot in muschelkalk limestone

    This bear, just like a number of other flying buttress figurines, had also broken off once before and was glued back together. He had a clear crack line across his waist and the honeypot in its claws was lying in pieces on the pallet. After the glue-up and remodelling of missing parts with plastiline clay (which never hardens) I've put the new block of stone on the sawing machine and started to meticulously copy-saw the whole sculpture.

    flying buttress statuette bear with honey -new copy in muschelkalk limestone

    That saves me a lot of work: I don't need to remove all of the unnecessary stone with hammer and chisel, I don't need to cut it out with an angle grinder (lots of dust and noise) and most importantly: it saves me days if not weeks of measuring. And I have a thorough dislike of that, as you can read in this blogpost here.

    This piece of stone, particularly at the bottom part, was a lot rougher and more open than I'm used to. So it wasn't easy to carve any details in it.

    Completed flying buttress figurines together in my yard

    Have a good trip!

    The group of five flying buttress figurines I made over the last weeks were ready for transport as well. I got at once much more space in my yard, and I think the other drivers must have had some fun while they were underway , riding behind the lorry of Slotboom Stonemasons (it only looks like it's time to wash the lorry again, Hans!).

    truck loaded with flying buttress figurines

    Nasty the following flying buttress image.

  • A Long-legged Squirrel (flying buttress figurine)

    Eusebius, Restoration

    The last flying buttress figurine from flying buttress no. 5 of St. Eusebius's Church in Arnhem was this Squirrel. In these past few weeks I have presawn all the remaining blocks of stone for flying buttresses nos. 5 and 4 machine, so now I can start carving all the remaining figurines.

    beeldhouwerij van Velzen around Christmas 2017
    My sculptor's workshop around Christmas

    This one was not very remarkable in itself, but it did have a nice coarsely carved tail, a piece of tree trunk on which it leaned and very long hind legs.

    The first thing I often take on in these figurines is the profiled stonemasonry parts at the bottom
    old tuff flying buttress figurine of a Squirrel
    old Squirrel, tuff stone

    That piece of trunk was left there by the sculptor because a free standing squirrel would break off immediately at the feet. In this position, at least; I've shown before that it can be solved in a different way as well. I do not quite get why it has such long hind legs , but that's probably the poetic freedom of the original designer.

    New Squirrel, muschelkalk
    New, muschelkalk

    I imitated as closely as possible the design and finish of the original flying buttress statuette, but with another stone and other method, the effect will always be a little different. Yet the atmosphere of the ancient figurine has been properly preserved.

    Read here a message about Two Squirrels in red sandstone.
    Nasty the following flying buttress image.

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