In the Workshop today – chock & wedge

It isn’t always just about carving the stone.  Time this morning has been spent in getting this block, weighing over a tonne, to a sensible height for working, and so that I can move it around the workshop as easily as possible.

Just like chisels and hammers, wood battens and wedges are important tools.  You can’t have too many.  And preferably they’re within arm’s reach!

Though I’ve cursed during the effort this morning, it is one of the reasons I work with stone.  This weightiness speaks with reassuring integrity about permanence and durability.  My aim now is to shape this valuable solid into a creature as expressive and captivatingly beautiful as that which inspired it.