work in progress: another stone!

My new rotary bits finally arrived, so I am working to finish this stone and the one from my previous post. Please excuse the bad photo - I'll try to get a better one up.

work in progress: green square knot stone

Newest stone in progress

I began this yesterday- spent just over an hour carving on it last night. This stone is carving nicely, and I can't wait to get more done.

I'm still here!...

Kejimkujik Lake, at Peter Point Beach. 21 April 2007.

Boy, have I been slack with posting. And with art, as well. I've worked on a few things these past two weeks, including a few stones. I tried carving a chunk of raw amethyst I found on the North shore a few years ago, but found out that it's too hard to carve. I burnt out three diamond bits right away, and barely made a scratch on the stone.

I have been outdoors since last Friday enjoying the beautiful spring weather we've finally been treated to. The photo above is from a ladies-only hike into Keji I took with four friends on Saturday. It was such a great day - no kids, no men, just good friends and a couple bottles of wine. My kind of hike :) . The temperature rose to 20*C, and I hiked in a t-shirt. It was really the nicest day of the year so far. And it was a lovely day to begin life - another friend delivered, with the help of a midwife at her home, a beautiful baby girl early Saturday morning. Welcome, Synia!

So, please forgive my slackness, dear readers, for spring has finally arrived, and spring fever has struck full force. I hope to be back soon with something more to post.

daily sketch... 04 April

Keji morning... new ATC

Keji morning, 2.5" x 3.5", watercolour on watercolour board.

I'm not too thrilled with this one, but they can't all be fabulous, can they? The eagle in the sky wasn't s'posed to be there, but morphed out of a drip of dark grey paint that happened at the very last moment. I had fun doing the wet-in-wet washes for sky and water.

daily sketch: 30 March 2007

Last Light, Petit Passage... a new ATC

Trying to catch up on my ATC project, I made this last night and finished it up this morning.

Last Light, Petit Passage, ATC 2.5"x3.5", watercolour on watercolour board.

Aberlemno Stone Spiral rock carving - finished

Taa daa! After about 1 1/2 hrs last night, she's done. The outside circle is 7.5 cm in diameter, I've photographed the stone with my chequebook to give a better idea of the size. It was challenging to work with such small lines so close together, but I'm very happy with the results. I think I'll have to go the the beach today for more art supplies. ;)

spiral stone work-in-progress

I'm working on my second stone, and thought I'd post work in progress images to document how I'm doing this.

The spiral design I'm using for this one comes from the famous Aberlemno stone cross. I've used the pattern in paintings before, and I'm excited to be rendering it in the medium it was meant for.

Here is a photo of my set up:

Following my crude little green numbers, I'll walk you through. #1 is the original line drawing. What you can't see is that the back of the paper is covered in a layer of red pastel dust. Previous to this photo being taken, I taped the pasteled pattern to the stone, and traced the lines. When I lifted the paper, the rock looked as shown at #2. You can (kind of) see the red lines on the stone. Next step is to use a pigment pen to trace the lines on the stone, so then I can wipe off the red dust. #3 are my mask and goggles - sexy I know, but I don't want stone dust in my lungs or contacts. #4 is my trusty dremel tool, along with #5, my diamond bits. And #6 is the toothbrush I use to keep the rock dust/water gunk off the stone so I can see what I'm doing.

And here we are after about an hour of work with the dremel. Getting there, but still at least another hour on this one. This was a challenge, as I didn't know if I could work this small... if your monitor is set like mine (800 x 600), then this photo is about life size. The spiral design is about 8 cm across.

I'll post again when I finish.