Carving finished on the Yaany and Mimi memorial sculpture

The carving of the statue for the memorial is finished. Now all that remains to be done is to prepare the plinth, mount the statue on it and place it in the churchyard at Minstead. The video below shows the sculpture from all angles. It looks beautiful.

The video lasts about four minutes.

There is a "tiny url" for this which is http://tinyurl.com/mimimemorial

You Tube url is: http://youtu.be/pHxo3ZCbG14

Carving for memorial almost finished

It's been a long time since the last post on the sculpture.  But now Jeanie is at work again and the carving is almost done.

Sculpture from back.

Sculpture from side.  It is about 2 foot high.

Only the final shaping and sanding to do now.  To see the sculpture from all sides click on the link to this Youtube video.

http://youtu.be/_9VW6PNQLDQ

You can see how the sculpture looked in August last year at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRYp1VuXfGw 

Later posts may describe what happened between August last year and now and the interesting carving course at Elbiin alp in the Tyrol 

Happy Birhtday Mimi

Mimi

Your little life sang beauty to me, and always will.

I love you so, so dearly, my darling, and always will.

Happy Birthday, you little Wonder! Wow, imagine you, 8 years old!

I so miss you.

Love Dad

And love from all of your Dad's family, we miss you so much wherever you are.

This is a link to a video of you singing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8EPs8Bb1ro

The cross in your and Yaany's memoriy in Minsteqad churchyard. A  Forget-me-not in front (and we won't forget you ever) reflections of the forest in the plate.  It is a beautiful spot.

More work on the detail

View from the front

I'm getting round to the details here, and also the surface textures.  I'm aiming for curly wavy hair on the girl, the smaller figure, and for shorter straighter hair on the boy.

I'm tentavioley positioning the noses, eyes and ears and have slimmed the necks..  The sweep of the skirt and the wavy hemline gives it all movement but I'm yet to work on thte surface of the skirt.

Side view

I winkled out a large shell from under the girl's arm which left a small pit - that's the nature of Portland limestone.  It's a beautiful piece of stone - tiny shells surfacce and I clear the stone from round the edge and take the corner of my tiny chisel and tap, off it comes - usually!  I like to see the shells normally but not on the tip of the nose and so on.

With a person (Nick) to show the size of the sculpture

I still work mainly with a one inch wide chisel.  I thought a Dremel drill would come in handy but I wasn't happy and went back to chisels.  I file with a "marble file"  or small shaped files and riflers but I am looking forward to getting the surface sanded down and gleaming.

Back view

The sculpture is resting for a while now.  I have a turntable which I find very useful for looking at the whole sculpture.  I am quite emotional when I carve as I think of the two beautiful children, Yaany, 8 and Mimi, 6 and search for them within the stone, chipping away the stone that is not "them" They seem to be emerging..  I call the sculpture "Love Reborn." I seem to be in a unique position carving a memorial to our two grandchildren who I adored so much and who died on November 18 2011.

Other side

Jeanie

Working on the detail

The sculpture  get nearer and nearer completion every day.  Now Jeanie is working on the detail of the head and arms.  Mostly filing with a riffler.

There is a video that shows the sculpture from all angles on You tube. You can see it here http://youtu.be/LRYp1VuXfGw

Happy Birthday, Yaany

We remember you with love.  You would have been nine today.  Mimi and you are the ones we are doing the sculpture for.

The shape's becoming clearer

Jeanie has been carving solidly yesterday and today.  The shape is becoming clearer day by day.

Here are two pictures taken today.