Lincoln and the Flat Faced Cat Sculpture

Lincoln and the Flat Faced Cat My attention span is about a half hour. Carving stone was on my bucket list. On U Tube they show people carving, day 20, day 30, day 60. Not me. I have a yard full of stuff I started and ran into a problem so they have been sitting for years. A friend of mine called me up and said they had a block of ice extra from a no show at the ice carving event. "Why don't you bring a couple of wood chisels and claim this $60 block of ice for free. On top of that there are 3 nice money prizes and there is only 4 hours of work and then you quit and they judge what everybody did." This was my chance to learn to carve! I was a modeler. I worked adding clay to a form. You can put and take. When you carve once you chop off the nose you are in big trouble. It is a completely different mind set. So that was a fun experience, cold but fun. I started carving faces in ice at winter weekend contests. It is really hard to carve a face in ice let alone doing it in so short of time. The big attraction was the beautiful piece of ice. It was crystal clear and I did not have to buy it. Because I used wood chisels it dawned on me it was similar to stone only a lot easier to carve. They were both crystal structures so how they react to the chisel had to be similar. I cannot remember if I ever made a Abe Lincoln in ice. It is very hard to store ice sculpture and I have a lousy memory. I signed up for a 3 day stone sculpture workshop and wanted to have a plan. I made a clay maquette for reference. The first day the man running the workshop told all us "newbees" to think small so we could have a finished product to take home. He said to think apple, pear, banana so it was not complicated. Then he went around the group and asked what they were going to make. When he got to me I said a Abe Lincoln and a abstract cat. I thought he was going to come unglued. "Do not pay any attention to this guy. What he is going to make is more chips for my driveway". What ever. I did not have any fancy tools. I had a couple of hand chisels and a cheap Harbor Freight $15 air hammer. What I did have was my maquette and some experience carving ice. So I was the "wacco" guy at the end of the line in the old farmer overalls. All the rest of the people were working in a cloud of dust with all kinds of grinding tools. I was happy all by myself chipping away with my air body shop chisel driving a hand chisel instead of using a hand mallet. By the end of the first day I had Abe roughed out. By the end of the second day Abe was 90% done. The eyes are the hardest part so I was going to do those details at home. The third day I made my abstract cat. This man made his living by selling stone and expensive tools. Some people asked the guy what about the tools I was using. He told them the cheap Harbor Freight air hammers would give them carpel tunnel syndrome. Whatever. I did make a lot of chips for his driveway. Better than working in a cloud of dust for three days and getting lung cancer. If you like this piece you might like to see more. I have hundreds more in different materials, styles and themes. Enter "Arfsten sculpture" in the search box in the upper right to see them.