Sculpture and Tools

And I alone am left to tell the tale.....

It's one thing to go to sea and chase a great white whale. It's another thing to have a three ton log delivered to your driveway. (How convenient!) and then be totally overwhelmed by the scale of the project. At sea, as it were....

While hiding out in my studio, I was sourcing tools. This is a peavey.

 It looks like something used in harpooning whales, no?
It's a tool used to move logs. It looks so archaic, but for basic log moving it works very well.

Sculpture and Maiden Foundry

Maiden Foundry was commissioned to create 4 over sized umbrellas for Providence Hospital in Portland, Oregon. They tried the high tec route only to discover that making their own maquettes was (once again) far more economical.

Read about the process on Pacific Northwest Sculptor's site

Sculpture and little a art

Last night, for homework, the little one read from Dr. Seuss's ABC book. "Big A, little a. What begins with A?"

Art begins with A. There's BIG ART and little art.

Big art is where you sign your name.

Little art is mostly anonymous, where you simply take pleasure in the craft of doing a job well. The concrete removed from the driveway is becoming benches, stairs and rubble behind the retaining wall. I'm using the gravel underlayment of the driveway behind the retaining wall to have clear soil for the new fruit trees.

While digging I remembered my grandfather telling me that when they butchered hogs on the farm, that "we'd use everything but the squeal!" They wasted nothing.

It shocked me at the time because it is such a vivid expression. But it's come to be my definition of little a art. Use whatever material you're working with for maximum efficiency and least wasted material. To make work that lasts. Art with a little a.

Sculpture and Concrete

Men with the right tools can do amazing work in a small amount of time.

James Patrick Jr. and Israel Sanchez of A Cut Above Concrete Cutting made short work of a section of the studio driveway. No tool lust for their big concrete cutting machines, but I did have the hots for their Burke-bar. Israel used it to move big chunks of concrete with ease. (Middle photo) When I have $120 to spend that's my next tool purchase.

They came on time, listened to me, did the job quickly and cleaned up the mess before they left. What more could I ask for?

I'm enjoying the contrast of chaos and order before planting fruit trees where there was pavement.

Sculpture and Atsco Oscar manniquin

Every so often you get lucky. On my way home from the studio, a friend called me to tell me about an estate sale. It was closing in 20 minutes. Go home? Check it out?

What decided me was that the estate was that of an artist. I found cool art books and a small Chinese votive figure, Quan Yin on a pig, but that's another post. Pleased at getting out for under $20, $19.50 to be exact, I looked behind the cashier and saw this artist's figure. I had to have it, a total deal at $42.00.

It was made by the ATSCO Company, in Los Angeles, Ca. in the 1930's. It's so beautifully articulated. Brass hinges and ball and socket joints allows all the Bakelite limbs to rotate, supinate, abduct and adduct. The torso can flex and extend. It's graceful in every position.

I was surprised at what this artist's figure is valued at, but even more pleased that it has a new home with another artist. This figure isn't decor, it's a working tool that I will use.

A Visit to Master Cabinet Maker Michael McCallister at BoxHaven

I visited woodworker Michael McCallister, aka "Mel", of BoxHaven to see his marquetry studio and lazer cutting machine. It's in a well organized basement, desk, computers and lazer clustered in one area, the rest of the space has finished projects and walls hung with stacks of colored and natural veneers.

For demonstration Mel used a Japanese design that had been translated into vector patterns. He said that paper is actually harder to cut than the veneers because of the cross linked fibers. The lazer was quick and fairly quiet. (How noisy can light be?) It quickly cut the intricate pattern, and works to thousandths of an inch tolerance. It's a wonderful example of the machine freeing the artist from hours of painstaking cutting, allowing him to focus on the art.

I was so engaged watching that I forgot to ask about the machine itself and what the cost would be to hire it out for custom designs. It's worth a second visit. If you have any questions about your own projects, Mel can be reached here.

Pencils and sculpture

Knowing how I love to draw, Emily Wilson sent me this link from the Economist about Count Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell. You know, he's the pencil baron.

So convinced is Count Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell that his pencils are the best in the world that one day in 2005 he threw 144 of them out of the window from the tower of his Schloss. They fell 30 metres onto hard tarmac—and not one of them broke. The graphite “lead” is so firmly squeezed and glued into its pinewood sleeve that it will not shatter, he boasts, something that is not true of lesser brands.

I want to see proof of that. Where is that Youtube video?

No video on that bit of PR Grandstanding, but I did find this industrial video on the construction of Farber-Castel pencils.
Pay no attention to that British voice that makes you feel like you're back in grade school. The film is actually pretty interesting.Watch it ?

Thinking About Sculpture Tools #1

Don't be satisfied by the meagre array of tools your local art store. Even Sculpture House no longer offers much variety.


The tools you use are part of what makes your art unique. Take the time and make yourself a new tool that does exactly what you need it to do.

The search for creating good forms and textures gives you permission for that ongoing collection of interesting rocks, bones, fabric, wood, any surface that catches your interest and inspires you. Keeping a good photo reference file of textures, both real and other artist’s interpretations is valuable. Look at not just what they made but try to understand how they made it. What tools did they use? To make your own tools all you need is a clear idea of what you want the tool to do and some scrap aluminum or hard wood, a saw, some files and sandpaper. When shaping the tool, it's helpful to keep a center line drawn down the middle to help keep the balance equal.

The full range of texture in your sculpture is what draws the viewer closer. It’s what makes them want to touch your art and be touched by it.

Beautiful Process

Wood carving is one of the few acts where the mess you make is as lovely as any object you produce. When something is as hard to do as wood carving, it's a good thing to really enjoy the process.

The cedar chips are softly fragrant. They sweep up easily and are good for starting a fire or adding them to my pile of wood chip paths in the garden. It's easier to focus on producing more chips than to keep noticing how far I am from finding the the figure hidden in this block.

LASH Quality Molds and Sculpture Supplies aka the Candy Store

Even though I make most of my own sculpting tools there is something compelling about the display at LASH Quality Molds and Sculpture Supplies. The potential of finding the perfect tool, and the delight of seeing clean, orderly rows is so relaxing. Picking up and feeling how the tool fits your hand is worth a dozen Sculpture House catalogs.

Owner Leslie Bell has made molds for Portland's best sculptors. Her shop stocks hard to find hand forged spatulas and rifflers and different grades of oil clay. It's well worth a visit to 4702 NE 102nd Ave. Portland OR. The phone is 503 251 6959.