Carving the Grizzly and Ely SOLD!

This is the left side of the bear. I have been removing stone from the rear leg of the mother bear. Under the mother's foot you can see (if you really use your imagination) where the cub clinging to it's mothers leg will be.

A great deal of stone needs to come off around the bears back legs. The block is also too long and needs to be cut down. At the bottom of the stone, on the right, is a quarry dog hole, which will need to be cut out. These holes (there are two for every block) are made for quarry dogs, metal tong-like devices which are used to lift stone out of the hole. Cutting out the hole was awkward as the bear curves under and I needed take out just enough to get rid of the hole. I kept thinking I was done, but the hole was packed with gravel. It just went on and on. I finally got it, though.

I am using an angle-grinder with a diamond wheel to make cuts into the stone. I make a series of cuts (you can see these cuts under the wheel of the grinder) and then break them off with a hammer. Sometimes, I cut the sections off with the grinder by cutting across at a right angle.
I use a hammer to break off cuts of stone.

A little piece of stone (lower right) got in my eye while carving. I thought that I'd share this with you.

Great news! Ely sold at Yew Dell Gardens!

These are blackberries. I never realized that they had these coverings. I searched for what these coverings might be called, but had no luck. They look cool, though, like Sundew plants.

Light of Hope sculpture finishes, a new sculpture begins...

The sculpture is finished and I have sent photos for approval to the committee. Below are some views of the sculpture.


This the front.


This is 3/4 left of the front.


This is the back.


This is 3/4 left of the back.


The next job is a limestone mother Grizzly with 3 cubs. She is lying on her back cleaning one of her cubs. Her head is on the left side of the stone. I originally designed this piece as polar bear playing with it's foot, but then I got interested in grizzly bears and decided to change the sculpture to a mother bear with cubs.


Most people can't see the bear in this piece. I try to explain, she's on her back, cleaning a cub and there are a couple other
cubs somewhere on her belly, and the response is "yeah, I see it" but I'm not sure they do. But a woman who had purchased
a pink marble snow monkey from me could see what I was doing with the piece and asked me to do a maquette of what the bear would look like finished. So I did - it's posted in an earlier blog - and she liked what she saw, so now I'm carving this Grizzly family for Kosair Healthcare Center on Brownsboro Rd. in Louisville,KY. The second bear cub will be gripping his mothers back leg, playing with his littermate who is lying on his mothers belly.


This is the rear end view of the mother bear, the third cub will be lying on it's back playing with it's brother. You can see it, right?


I waded out in the creek the other day to visit the island. This is a view upstream.


This is the view downstream, I like the cathedral feel of the trees.


This is a guy that went past who was taking photos with his camera,just like me.