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It's been a long time (understatement) since I've passed by here, but I wanted to pop in and say hello!. For those of you (probably 99.5%) who don't remember me, I was profiled here 20 years ago. (yes, Virginia, there was a web back then). http://www.letterville.com/profiles/arnold/index.html
Anyway, I'm still carving stone, not much signage and lettering, but still lots of interesting projects. Here's one I did about 4 years ago, Indiana limestone, 6' wide, 4' high, installed in Marseilles, IL:
And another limestone piece, installed at Loyola University Chicago last August. Final piece weighed 3.5 tons, initial block of stone was about 11.5 tons.
I don't know if this will work, to link to an image from my Facebook page, but I'll try. Three relief panels I carved for Michigan State University in 2014. It should give an update to the 1996 photos in the Letterville interview.
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Welcome back Walter...........VERY nice work!!!
NO...VERY IMPRESSIVE WORK!!!
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6712 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Probably half the time is meeting with the clients, developing the concepts, sketches, drawings, models, then selecting and ordering the stone, shop setup, other prep, and afterwards crating, shipping. Carving is just half of what is involved. I'm sure it's exactly the same with big signage and lettering projects.
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all I can say is WOW! It would be nice to see a little video of you doing one! Is it all chipped away or do you make saw cuts to remove large sections then start carving?
-------------------- Brian Vinyl Signs Pittsburgh, PA. Posts: 159 | From: Pgh., PA | Registered: Mar 2009
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Yes on the saw cuts. I first work with my suppliers, stone mills, who have large saws and planers (saws with 10' diameter diamond blades, large wire saws that look like giant cheese slicers, etc; planers scrape profiles and moldings on blocks of stone). They cut and shape the blocks to my specifications. I then have smaller saws, 4 to 9" diameter blades on angle grinders, but I don't use them much. Mostly it's chisel work.
There are lots of other techniques, like drilling a series of holes and using wedges (actually plugs and feathers- a tapered rod and two tapered bent steel pieces, put in a row of them and tap them until the piece splits) to split a bock.
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6712 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Haven't yet met John Fisher in the real world, only on line. We tried to connect for coffee in Italy last month (we were about 10 miles apart) but timing didn't work out. We will get together at the Limestone Symposium in Bloomington, Indiana this summer.
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Great work. I've always wondered how stone carvers get those perfect images. I can imagine a slip of the chisel and knocking off an important piece - then what? Can't just spackle and paint over...
-------------------- Jean Shimp Shimp Sign & Design Co. Jacksonville Beach, Fl Posts: 1265 | From: Jacksonville Beach, Fl. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Bob, glad you enjoyed that segment, it was a fun film crew to work with. They do have it on the http://www.craftsmanslegacy.com/ website, you need to sign into their "legacy society" and look in season 1.
Jean, I view it as being similar to doing brain surgery or driving gasoline tanker trucks on the highway. Either way, not much leeway for error, but mistakes don't happen in a void- they tend to be due to a series of small, easily overlooked mistakes building up. You need to anticipate, see those things in advance, head them off or avoid putting yourself in awkward positions, pay attention to tools, materials, ergonomics and concentration. The place to stop errors is before they happen, not once they start happening.
[ March 14, 2016, 11:39 PM: Message edited by: Walter ]
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John just went back to Italy for four months. He's. My favorite stone carver in this neighborhood. He's helping me learn to carve letters in rock.
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6712 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I'm looking forward to hanging out with him in Indiana this summer; my time in Italy last month was pretty brief and we just couldn't make the connection work, but we chat sometimes on Facebook.
BTW, if you're on Facebook, check out the other thing I'm involved with (and please "like" it. I'm working with the city of Genoa, helping support restoration at their monumental cemetery, Staglieno. It's little known and less visited, but it's the largest outdoor museum in Europe and houses the greatest collection of late 19th and early 20th century Italian marble sculpture. Jaw dropping works. I post a new photo every day on the FB page:
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I'll second the wow...wow WOW! I was attracted to this thread because of the awesome work, then I read that advice on preventing mistakes. Very succinct, worth committing to memory. Thanks.
-------------------- James Donahue Donahue Sign Arts 1851 E. Union Valley Rd. Seymour TN. (865) 577-3365 brushman@nxs.net
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for lunch, Benjamin Franklin Posts: 2057 | From: 1033 W. Union Valley Rd. | Registered: Feb 2003
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By the way, I mentioned the work we're doing with Staglieno Cemetery. This is the photo of the inscription at the base of a small memorial we want to restore this summer. I think you'll find the font and design interesting.
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Just popping back in to say we're doing a lot with the restoration of the incredible marble sculptures at Staglieno Cemetery. We're currently fundraising for some of the planned work next year; a donor has committed to match all donations to the end of the year, so even small amounts are a great help. We are a 501(c)3 non profit. More info at http://donate.staglieno.com and please "like" our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/StaglienoSculpture/ where I'm posting new photos every day. These are wonderful sculptures, you should see them!
This is work in progress on cleaning the 1880 Chiarella De Katt memorial memorial:
And this is the Caterina Campodonico memorial, with the restoration almost complete:
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