The Art of Indentations

The cool season is the sculpture season here at Niris Studio. Stone carving is messy which is fine with me. Stone is also very heavy so I work on it outside in the beautiful weather and bring it into the studio upon completion.

My last completed piece of stone sculpture doesn't have a title yet. It is the first sculpture in a very large series called "YOU GOTTA HAVE BALLZ " (Trust me.You do.) So anywho, about the piece. There has been a lot of discussion about it lately. The piece is a fairly large abstract vessel carved with large sphere shapes. It was a lot of work.....about 1 1/2 years. As I entered the finishing stages it happened.........OH NO........it need lots of round intendations to be "right". I tried to leave it alone. After all, no one but me would know the intentations "should" be there. Right? PHOOEY! WHO AM I KIDDING ?! I MUST ADD THE DREADED INTENTATIONS. AHHHHH. What did/does that mean? About an extra 40 hours of work. That's all. Each intentation (which I now lovingly call balls ) had to be hand sanded starting with 60 grit and finishing with 1200 grit. Sheez. There are about 55 of them, small and placed over the entire piece. Right where I knew they would go from the beginning.DRAT.

So now everyone loves the piece including me. The indentations are cause for much discussion. (Well, I guess you have to be here.....) The indentations are also a source of great pleasure for me to look at knowing I was willing to put in the time needed. It's all about the details at my studio. Ya gotta have ballz to put in the extra hours when you want it to be FINISHED ALREADY....... in any worthwhile endeavor.