• A gargoyle head for the Zegersmonument

    Restoration

    In Heemstede on the grounds of SEIN Expertise Center for Epilepsy there is a brick monument for one of the first directors, Lambertus Zegers.

    Weathered brick and missing ornament

    The monument was in serious disrepair. It once possessed a gargoyle, but it had lost it in the distant past and now all that remained was a hole reminiscent of a ceramic ornament. This ornament had been made by the famous ceramist Willem Coenraad Brouwer, but it was no longer possible to find out what it looked like.

    At first I thought of some kind of bulldog with two big ears, but the photo of the remains subsequently showed that this could not be correct.

    Then I thought of some kind of Indonesian dragon or snake head, with the tongue out to the side. After some searching I found a photo of a snake head that Brouwer had made for the Van Karnebeek fountain near the Peace Palace in The Hague, but this was a very stylized version. So this one didn't qualify either.

    Gallery: condition before restoration and reference material

    Reconstruction

    AI turns it into something beautiful

    For me, reconstruction always starts with looking at and editing old photo material. But unfortunately, the one old photo was so grainy I couldn't get much information from it. I didn't get much further with enlarging and sharpening either.

    Which was funny however: I entered the old photo into Grok AI and asked it if it could make something from it. See the beautiful result below. What looks like two large ears in the old photos turns out to have been just a play of the shadows over the monument..

    Modeling

    So after a lot of digital trial and error, it finally came down to modeling in clay. I had made a rough clay model and sent the photos to the customer, but the answer came back that it could be a bit lighter. Not too threatening.

    Because I thought I recognized something of a dragon in the old photos, I had started out with a snake or dragon's head, but the teeth could be removed and it overall could be a little shorter and a little friendlier.

    I agreed and started with a more cheerful gargoyle head, with big ears. The ears of this second version needed to be adjusted a bit. The bulge had to be removed. It was all still a bit coarse, but it was close enough. The third version was approved.

    Starting with the actual sculpting part

    I had chosen a block of Obernkirchen sandstone, because historically this stone was used in these types of applications, it casts clear shadows well and keeps in good condition through all weathering- and is water resistant. I did not make it in ceramic like the original, because I'm less familiar with that, making sandstone much cheaper for the customer. You'd also need to take shrinkage into account and the finished work would be much more vulnerable.

    Obernkirchen sandstone is a very strong material, that's why we chose it at the time our griffins. But the first block turned out to have a crack and I thought the second piece had started out too small, so that I finally made it to this stage three times!

    False gargoyle

    The ceramic head used to be a real gargoyle. However this time it was decided to keep the monument dry, because it places a lot of moisture on the masonry and because the tree roots of thick beech trees close to the basin would quickly crack the monument again. That is why this gargoyle is not a proper gargoyle but a fase gargoyle, just so you know.

    Installing

    When the gargoyle head was ready I went to Heemstede. A bit of bad luck: As soon as I turned on my angle grinder the fuses blew out and the water turned out to be inaccessible too. But luckily I had water and hand tools with me and it all turned out fine. The customer had measured it for me and it was perfect, so the job was done quickly. Just pulling some weeds from the planters, sweep up, and it all looked neat again.

    Weathering

    A MAN OF LOVE, STRENGTH AND PRAYER – FOUNDED BY FRIENDS – 2 MARCH 1929

    The monument is located under the trees and has become quite green again since its restoration. The restoration had already been done a few years ago, with a new flagstone floor in it, restored brickwork and a beautiful new fence around it. But the gargoyle head was missing for a long time because they were still looking for a sculptor. Apparently I need to advertise some more or be easier to find on the internet.

    But now it's all complete. The gargoylehead still looks quite white, but it will also quickly match the rest of the monument, until it looks as if it has always been there. It also depends on how wet the monument usually is. The algae on the trees will make a significant contribution to this next autumn.

    Epilepsy Centre

    All in all a nice assignment, and a nice idea that with my addition the monument is complete again, a monument for an enthusiastic doctor 'for sufferers of falling sickness'. It was a strange idea to work there on the SEIN site. My own daughter has epilepsy and has been seeing a SEIN doctor for years. She nearly would have been admitted to this clinic for a month for research. But we didn't want to put her through a month away from home at the age of 4, so that didn't happen. Strange how those kinds of lines sometimes come together.

    Now, looking back at all the worries, pain and suffering of all those people with epilepsy and their families, and also our own family, I am glad that I was able to contribute something light-hearted here at SEIN. I'm not a fan of scary devil heads myself and I can appreciate a bit of witticism in the sculpture.. There's enough seriousness everywhere.

  • Working on the Dom Tower for five years!

    background, Utrecht Dom Tower, Latest projects, Restoration
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    The upper part of the Dom Tower in Utrecht, de zogeheten 'lantaarn', just after the restoration. It is easy to tell that all kinds of old and new blocks in different types of stone have been used.

    Sculpture Workshop 't Oud Erf

    Well it's almost ready, the Dom Tower. And we have been working hard at it. As subcontractors of Slotboom Steenhouwers in Winterswijk we were asked to carry out a large part of the ornament work. The stonemasons took care of the complete measuring package, ordering the stone, consultation, 3D drawings, and cutting and carving the stonemasonry parts , and we were asked to sculpt the ornaments where there were still some square blocks left for us to carve.

    exterior of Sculpture van Velzen in the cold, the apprentices at work in the winter of 2024
    Martijn, Martha, Jelle and Tim working in the cold of winter, in January 2024

    We, that's first and foremost Jelle Steendam and myself, who started on this journey. Later also Nico Hogervorst and Tim Kaarsemaker joined in, and later on, Martha Onderwater and Martijn Linssen also assisted us temporarily.

    Koen van Velzen copying a finial from the Dom Tower in Udelfanger sandstone

    Caarying all the stuff up the narrow stairs

    In 2019, when there was no complete scaffolding around the Dom Tower yet, Jelle and I both climbed the stairs with kilos of tools in order to carve a number of test ornaments in Monte Merlo trachyte, and in Peperino Grigio and in Ledesteen. To our delight, fortunately the decision was made to not have the ornaments carved in Peperino (way too dead looking) or in Ledesteen (“Stonemason's sorrow”, that's what I call it. Rock hard and glassy).

    Why the need to restore it?

    Well, you can have long meetings about that, but it just was necessary. I'll show you above. You don't even want to think about pieces falling from a height of over a hundred meters onto the people walking blow….

    Three times on video

    After a period of silence, our work started with carving huge finials in Portland stone. RTV Utrecht came to visit to record the first inspection round.

    You can watch the video here at timestamp 04:49 in the video.

    Later, nephew Tim was interviewed by a reporter from RTV Utrecht, where I was also asked some questions, also by RTV Utrecht. A short part of it was captured in a video as well.

     

    Later we were approached by the TV show InsideOut (Binnenste Buiten) of the KRO/NCRV, that ended up making an extensive report of our studio. Koen with the finials and crockets, Tim with a big block for the Dom Tower, Jelle with a family crest and Nico with two statues that he was restoring. We were very happy with the end result, that was a good portrayal of our work. A photo report has also been made, that you can find here at this link.

    The Little Cloud Man


    Finally, there was one more journalist from the newspaper Trouw. She came by because she was making a report about the restoration work on the Dom Tower (click on the images on the left to read a small part of it). Based on 1 block she highlighted the role of the architect, the contractor, the stonemasons and the sculptor in this project. My work naturally attracted attention again, because I'd inserted a little 'cloud man'’ in the pinnacle.

    Where an ornament should have been, I used that space to hide tiny figurine. It's just a little thing, but of course it caused a bit of a stir. The idea behind it is that the tower can now defend itself. Anyone who criticizes this restoration of the Dom Tower can expect a snowball from above. I just didn't expect that this corner of this large block would exactly face the Town Hall… Please don't suspect me of ill intent.

    We've made a lot of work for the Dom Tower in those five years, such as tiny finials and enormous crockets, gargoyles, ornaments on all kinds of pinnacle blocks, sometimes of nearly 800 kilos, and occasionally something other than ornaments. Very occasionally we were able to hide a little surprise among all the endlessly identical ornaments. That Little Cloud Man, a scene with wolves, little faces that lift a tip of the veil…

    A Wolf Capital

    Above is one of my very last blocks for the Dom Tower. It is a capital in Monte Merlo trachyte, a quite hard and brittle stone, and the tiny flowers are only a few centimeters tall.

    But if you look closely, you can find a wolf on the right, and to his left a man with binoculars, a fat photographer and a woman with a shotgun, who threatens to shoot it. On the other side of the block we find someone with a protest sign (“Go Away Wolf”). But behind him, a wolf in a top hat is hiding, grinning.

    You can see what you want in it, but I had- when I carved it- never thought it would become so connected to actual news, because the week after it was installed a wolf snatched a small dog from a hiker who had it on a leash, and a toddler got a warning nip from a nursing mother wolf. In the province of Utrecht, less than 15 kilometers from the Dom Tower. You can, if you look carefully with binoculars, find the blocks on the Zadelstraat side, at 20 meters up.

    Architect Erik Jan Brans immortalized by sculptor Jelle Steendam on a capital on the Dom Tower

    Jelle has incorporated the departing architect of the Dom Tower on his capital block, Erik Jan Brans. Architect Brans passed the baton in July 2023 to his successor Karlijn de Wild. With this, Jelle pays a small tribute to a modest, friendly person, on one of the last works in which he was intensively involved. There are also a few blocks with animal figures incorporated at approximately 6 meters up, on the Dom square side.

    Gallery: Capitals and blind tracery Dom Tower

    Apprentice project

    Tim, Nico, Jelle, Martijn and Martha on the scaffolds of the Dom Tower

    The work on the Dom Tower has gradually developed into a apprentice project. I started in 2019 started with colleagues Stide Vos, Serge van Druten and, in my workshop, Jelle Steendam. Later, Nico Hogervorst and Tim Kaarsemaker came to work for me, and later on Martha Onderwater and Martijn Linssen joined us for a shorter period, while Stide and Serge withdrew from work.

    So now I was the only one of the 'old guard of the 90s', and hopes were pinned on the younger generation, as can be seen in the documentaries.

    Martha Onderwater carving her first finial
    Tim Kaarsemaker with his first finial

    Jelle has stopped being an 'apprentice sculptor' for years’ now, he is a fully accomplished sculptor, and I am pleased that the profession is getting a good continuation with this batch. My dream is that there will be enough work for each of them with inspiring commissions. Not just restoration work, but especially new sculptures and reliefs of their own design, in stone and bronze, and probably also in other materials such as cast iron and ceramics. I just keep doing my thing, but I especially enjoy it when these newcomers to the profession push their boundaries and develop new skills in previously unexplored areas. The future belongs to the computer, or so it seems, but I hope with this blog, newspaper articles and video reports to convey that the human hand remains essential to maintain liveliness in carving.

    Photo gallery: Collected works Dom Tower

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