• Minervalaan part 4: Carving the figurines in limestone

    Restoration

    After we had reconstructed them with plaster, we were about to start carving the eight figurines from the Minervalaan into new limestone. The new stone soon arrived. I was not involved in the stone selection for this project, but it ended up being Muschelkalk limestone, a material I was already very familiar with since the flying buttress figurines for St. Eusebius's Church in Arnhem (the Netherlands). Read here more about these figurines.

    Contour sawing machine

    the Sower of Spring cut out. Even with so few shapes visible, this already provides a lot of information about the parts

    Whenever we start sculpting in stone, we usually first rough out these kind of sculptures with the copying saw or contour sawing machine, and that was no different here. This machine is a manually operated saw arm with a feeler disk, with which we can relatively easily copy the outer contours of a sculpture. This machine cannot cut all the details, because its cutting disc is 400mm wide and doesn't reach into the deeper parts, such as the inside of an arm. Yet this saves an tremendous amount of work, because the large mass surrounding a sculpture can be removed quickly and accurately. I'd hate to think about having to cut away all the excess stone with just an angle grinder, or with a pointed chisel and hammer. Removal is not the only problem, but it also involves a lot of measuring work. And cutting with an angle grinder is heavy, dusty and noisy work. Not my hobby.

    Milling with a robot?

    carving coat of arms on sandstone griffin with baroque shield
    hand crafted

    You might think: Why not just take a CNC robot, and accurately mill everything away with a robot router?? Nowadays the computer is the panacea for all problems. Artist? Project? Shaping the forms? Step 1: the computer. What an impoverishment. So much is possible other than just the computer. Take a look at old crafts. In addition, for me, a robot has several disadvantages. First of all, I would no longer be a sculptor, but a computer programmer. It would also mean that I'd have to face quite a steep learning curve to master everything: scanning, 3D operation, toolpath instructions, etc etc.

    Disruptions and duration

    slave to the robot

    Secondly, these machines are very expensive and prone to failure. The investment will need to be recouped, so you'll start looking for all kinds of work for the machine, and before you know it, you'll be working for the machine instead of the other way around. But most of all, a precisely milled sculpture doesn't make sculpting in stone any more fun. It'd be very boring to just rasp off the last millimeters a bit. All creativity is lost.

    You'd also have to be very careful during the reconstruction phase, because forgetting to fill a hole somewhere on your weathered original sculpture means that it will also be reflected in the end product. The same applies to the digital 3D model: if a hole is overlooked somewhere, the

    image: Mastec CNC Laser on YouTube

    milling machine will simply hollow out the statue for you, entering via that hole. Finally, CNC, with all its preparation time, is not always faster than a simple manually operated machine. Its benefit lies mainly in serial work and very complicated pieces. And that actually happens very rarely in our line of work. So let me just carve away the old fashioned way. It's nice that the contour saw can remove a lot of unnecessary mass.

    Upside down

    upside down they're a lot more stable for machining

    Anyway, so we contour sawed the sculptures on the copy saw machine. This time we turned the figurines upside down, because the foot end side offered too little support, but the top did. Makes no difference to the machine. We cut it out in three courses: thick slices first, well away from the final 'skin’ of the figurine, then slices of 1 cms wide, and finally a very precise milling pass, 3mm removed from the final surface. So once we really start sculpting in stone, there will still be some material left for the chiseling part.

    Minervalaan sculpting in stone: copy image Spring. Contours cut.
    Jelle has just started sculpting The Spring here. The saw marks from the contour sawing machine are still clearly visible

    Details carving and measuring

    As mentioned, details like eyes, nose and hands are not copied in the cutting process, but there are plenty of landmarks that a good sculptor can easily use to recreate the statue.. And then it's a matter of looking, comparing, measuring, mainly with compasses, and bringing back the atmosphere of the original.

    Compasses and templates

    Jelle with The Summer

    I don't really know what I should say about this, except that this is the most intensive part of the job, and at the same time the most fun. We're really sculpting now, shaping it. With the combination of the sculpture saw machine and measuring with compasses and templates, we can arrive at the final shape of the sculpture much more quickly.. This way we can quickly focus on the design, the expression and unique shapes of the chisel strokes.

    Pointing machine

    pointing machine with wooden cross and brass needle

    Traditionally, the measuring work was done with a so-called 'pointing device', a hinged brass instrument with a pointing needle, with which one can precisely pinpoint 1 exact point on the model, and when the whole contraption is next transferred to the block of stone, that one exact point can be precisely drilled to the correct depth. Extremely time-consuming work. These pointing machines are actually the ancient version of the robot milling cutter. You do have to pay very close attention, but it's not really inspiring. That is why this preliminary work used to be done by lesser sculptors. Read here an interesting article about this device and watch the videos about its operation.

    Muschelkalk limestone and light

    While working, it became clear to us once again that the choice of stone has a major influence on the appearance of the sculpture. The large shapes of the figures and especially the hair of the ladies were ideal for this coarse German Muschelkalk limestone. The sculpture's shapes worked well with the light and yet proper detailing was still possible. Unfortunately under the roof, especially with the wind cloths around it in the winter, there are often less than ideal lighting conditions. It all quickly becomes a bit flat when the light is filtered by dust, acrylic plates and scaffolding cloth. We often move to the square outside the shelter for assessment and photos. We were very curious about what it would look like on its final location!

    • Minervalaan sculpting in stone: faun with whitefish
    • sculpting minervalaan: muses four seasons
    • Minervalaan sculpting in stone: 4 muses of the 4 seasons

  • Prince Carnival, in blue quartzite

    sculpture
    3 comments
    Koen van Velzen with statue of Prince Carnival

    Carnival association The Puupenkoppen (Pipe heads) from Achterveld celebrated its 55 th anniversary. Because they didn't want this to pass unnoticed, they asked me if I would help them come up with an idea for a statue to be placed in front of the clubhouse. Something with the logo, with the name of the association.

    Logo

    When the committee members presented me with their request, I was immediately enthusiastic. The logo is a dancing pipe with a face, which smokes and wears a prince's hat. It's just all quite fragile when you put a pipe like that on just 1 foot. So a literal representation was quickly ruled out because of the weight distribution and fragility of such a pipe. Even if you make it in bronze. Above all, it had to be vandal-proof.

    Strong

    Block of Azul Macauba quartzite for Prince Carnival statue

    Of course, when the beer is flowing freely, then people sometimes do ill-considered things, don't they? Bronze is also quite susceptible to theft these days. That's how I came up with my red statue of Pan. They liked that material. But during the quotation phase, it turned out that having such a custom block delivered was not feasible. Fortunately, I still had a rough piece of blue stone lying around, Azul Macauba. Granite, I thought, that should be doable!

    Carnival float

    clay sketch for Prince Carnival sculpture

    As we talked, ideas quickly emerged. I wanted to capture some of the fun of carnival in this sculpture, and the conversation turned to the activities of the Council of Eleven and Prince Carnival. The elements quickly came together: a carnival float in the shape of a pipe and Prince Puupenkop the First sitting on it. I immediately pictured the wheels in the shape of paper tongue whistles. The Prince's alaaf gesture, the hat and staff were all elements that came together very naturally later on in the conversations that followed.
    Then there was the question of the material. Considering the budget , strength and weather resistance, we ultimately settled on this blue quartzite. I had bought this block somewhere once and it was still waiting for me to use it for a project.

    Clay model and foam cutting.

    Once I had the idea in my head, I quickly modelled a rough sketch of a Prince Carnival out of clay. Then I cut a block of foam to the same dimensions as my block of stone, and from that, I carved out my clay sketch to full size. I was abel to easily shape the foam with small rasps and scrapers. But because I wanted to use the foam model in my sculpture sawing machine for the contour sawing process, it needed to have a hard outer layer. Unfortunately, I always lose a lot of detail from my foam model whenever I put another layer over it. But at least now I know what I want, and I've been able to practice on the details. The model gives me enough guidance to carve a copy.

    Acrylic one

    foam model with layer of Acrylic One and fiberglass mat

    To make the model sturdy and hard, I covered it with Acrylic One. It can be compared to polyester, but water-based. Just apply it with a brush, add a layer of fiberglass mats and brush over it again. It hardens quite quickly and has no odour whatsoever. Ideal stuff for this kind of thing.

    Sawing contours

    statue contour-sawn in quartzite with the contour sawing machine

    With this white hard layer over my model I could use it as a sawing model on my sculpture sawing machine. I put the block of stone on one side, my foam model on the other side, and saw the contours with this machine while rotating, just like a locksmith copies a key. The probe disc rolls over the model, and the saw blade follows that movement in the block of stone.

    Tougher than tough

    But here came the first hiccup: the material is much harder than regular granite! When I looked up why it was all so difficult, it turned out it's not blue granite, but quartzite. And that is a lot more difficult to cut. Eventually, I learned that the trick is to use a lot of water and keep the saw blade at a low speed. Anyway, two days later the contours were finally in place.

    Sculpting in quartzite

    start sculpting in stone. Next to it the foam model

    This was of course followed by the shaping phase. There's not much to explain about that: first you look for the large shapes and gradually carve them out as you go along, then it's a matter of refining. Because it has already been cut out with the contour saw, a lot of shapes are easy to find, but you could ruin a lot if you're not careful. Of course, after sawing, carving was also very difficult. I broke three chisels on it. Occupational hazard!

    Detailing

    sculpting Prince Carnival in quartzite

    But gradually it became clearer and I was able to focus more on the details: what do paper tongue whistles look like (conclusion: you have to exaggerate them a bit, otherwise they are not recognizable), how do the shapes of the hat, the cloak and the pipe run, and how does everything fit together? These are the most enjoyable moments of sculpting: the search for form and movement.

    Inspection

    Unveiling of the Prince Carnival statuette

    Naturally, the committee members kept an eye on things. The statue of Prince Carnival was a gift to the celebrating Carnival Association, and besides the fact that it all had to be kept strictly secret, it also had to look good! Fortunately, people were very satisfied. Personally, I really enjoyed being able to create something for 'my own'’ Achterveld, where my studio is located. The fact that it also sits in such a prominent place, right in front of the pub and directly opposite the church, is the icing on the cake. Well, that's Catholic village life here: the pub is opposite the church. Even though people no longer go to church, history has left its mark.

    55 and not 50 th anniversary

    Prince Carnival statue unveiled in Achterveld

    And of course different rules apply to Carnival than to normal life. It's the fool's festival, and therefore the number 11 is held in high esteem. The Council of Eleven, 11 november, and all memorable dates are at least a multiple of 11. So 55 th anniversary, and not 50.

    Anyway, this quartzite was also a new material for me; If I had known in advance that it was so incredibly hard, I would probably have suggested something else! But now that it's finished, I am very happy with how this Prince Carnival turned out, it carries exactly the atmosphere I had in mind.

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