Saturday 15 June 2013

Splitting a new block

I have worked hard on the five segment piece and although it needs lots of cleaning up I feel it is better to move on so as to uncover the next idea. I spent the last hour or so of the day splitting a block. One half of the block is a very solid rectangular block with no cracks or problems of any kind. The other half had a great crack on one side which I split off from the rest of the block before any carving so as to not run into any problems later. The block is now fairly thin at one end but I think that will present little problem with these stacking forms. The photo shows the clever little devices used to split the block. Two teardrop shaped wedges are dropped into a pre drilled hole and then a wedge is driven between them forcing the two apart and splitting the block. I always enjoy this task as the musical tone of the hammer on the steel wedges rings higher and higher as it tightens before the marble splits and the tone plummets.

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