Turmoil

Well there is indeed turmoil everywhere ; endless rain and flooding in the NE of Scotland (more rainfall in a day than on a Mumbai monsoon according to Radio Scotland, so its true), the Footsie tumbles and London streets are broiling with looters and rioters to mentions a few of the headlines... but I am happy because selfishly all three stones are steadily morphing... and I also today discovered the joys of the pneumatic chisel.. we won't discuss 'white finger' at the moment...

Top image shows two of the main protagonists in the production ..on Stage 1 : Harry the yard manager and Andre the chap who seems to look after all the equipment on the site. These are the real sculptors. Centre stage is the rather stunning Craiglash blockstone.

The Craiglash Sphere

A lot of progress this week- amazingly the Craiglash blockstone has also had two faces cut, and the good news is that it looks fairly sound inside. Once the wet stone emerges from the saw shed and is opened, the surface is dried with an air pressure gun. Any deep cracks will be revealed as they retain moisture. So far there are no really threatening lines showing up, which is quite amazing as Craiglash quarry is not known for 'clean' stone. I think everyone is feeling a bit more optimistic now. I will feel even better once I find out how close the figures are to the estimates.

It's been a demanding week on a number of levels, and decide to stay away from the yard on Sunday, and rest, even though there is the opportunity to go in and work, as unusually a couple of masons will be there trying to finish off a contract.

The Corrennie Sphere

As I only really have this month to offer to the project( which has stretched almost a year longer than anticipated), and have other commitments at the end of the month, I was pretty concerned that only one block had been cut when I arrived. Fyfe Glenrock have understandably had to prioritise larger contracts which often have penalty clauses attached if the deadlines are not met. To add to the pressure one of the two main cutting saws has broken down and a part needs to be sent from Italy which I am informed 'has gone on holiday for a month', so the capacity to cut blockstone has been halved.

To the credit of the yard manager, my stones are put back at the front of the queue to the saw and I then again have the nerve racking time of waiting to see what the cuts will reveal on the inside of the stone.

The corrennie stone looks sound, and after a number of cuts to reduce its awkward shape to some kind of cylindar, is offered to the machine lathe which has been specially adapted to cope with its mass. There are one or two hiccups, but mission is accomplished...

KIngs Museum

Before settling on the final design for the Pitcaple stone I hoped to see the Bourtie petrosphere again, which I saw for the first time in Inverurie Museum, to breath in a little of its magic. As sadly this local museum was closed within the last months, it transpires the Bourtie example is now at Aberdeenshire Council Museum Headquarters in Mintlaw, and I just don't feel I have time to drive up there to see it. So I called the Aberdeen University Marischal Museum, which has been closed for a considerable time due to building refurbishment ( Fyfe Glenrock supplying the dressed stone for the renovation), and heard of the new Kings Museum on the High Street in Old Aberdeen which the curatorial assistant Soraya Kasim told me has a several petrospheres on display, and by co-incidence, a box of 12 sourced for a couple of visiting researchers.

As the museum is open late on a Tuesday evening I managed to wing in past on the way back to my lodgings in town, and spent a delightful hour or so not only marvelling at the carved stone balls, but taking in a really engaging exhibition "Sounded Bodies" curated by students a post graduate course "Curating an Exhibition". Worth a visit.

The exhibition aside, I was reassured to note that all of the petrosphere designs were unique with geometric variations which may or may not have been intended at the outset of the carving process. We can only wonder.

Kings Museum

Kings Museum on Facebook

My workspace for August

I arrived in the NE last Friday evening after a 12.5 hr drive from Cornwall ( I need my vehicle here) ready to start work on the Monday morning. The yard manager at Fyfe Glenrock kindly sorted me out a workbay, which I may have to vacate when some of the masons return from holiday, and installed the Pitcaple sphere which was the only one ready for me to work on. As I had hoped to work on the other two balls first as they have a simpler geometry to their surface design, I was unfortunately not totally prepared to begin this stone, and I had quite a struggle to resolve the maths, calling on several people for advise and suggestions, before settling on a design which is inspired , but not identical to the original Bourtie stone.

Manufacture Update.

On returning home I fired up the computer on Sunday evening (having for once left the laptop at home for a few days - it was tough...) to find a email from Allan Bruce at Fyfe Glenrock, with several images of the work completed so far on the grey Pitcaple stone. From what I can see it looks very promising, and although I am feeling pretty delighted, I will feel even happier when its confirmed (hopefully) that we are within budget.

The block for the 750 sphere - a pink corrennie from Tillyfourrie Quarry, is to be put to the saw for a first cut on Tuesday. Again the first cut should reveal any major flaws hidden within the mass of the stone, so I look forward to hearing how it goes.

I would prefer all three stones to be brought up to a similar stage of manufacture, before beginning work on the final form and surface design, so that this last stage can be informed not only by the quality of the individual stone and how they work together as a group, but also by how much budget there remains in the pot.

Marking Time

At the end of last week I had to go to 'Up Country' from Cornwall and by chance passed by Stonehenge - somewhere I had never previously visited. However as it was also my birthday I felt it was appropriate to visit this timepiece which was definately even older than me. Its a curious experience to be funnelled around the fenced off monument, clutching the audio guide handset, while dodging busloads of schoolchildren ferried in from the far corners of Europe and beyond.

Here is a classic tourist photo to prove I was there. No photoshop - I promise !

The stone of course for this construction was not local, but brought, somehow or other, from Wales. Astonishing...... I wonder how far the builders allowed the material to lead the design, or did they demand stone exactly to their previously decided specifications.

But the arrangement we see today is the remains of an installation which evolved over hundreds of years, and would have possibly involved several generations of designers. Let us hope that the Oldmeldrum Public Art Project artwork is finished a bit more speedily ......