THE PATRIARCH

This sculpture began on April 20th 2014, and was completed on March 9th, 2015.  A rough total of well over 300 man hours was spent creating the piece.  There were no power tools used to create this sculpture; all work was done by hand. The rough blocking or shaping of the piece took 80 to 90 hours. This was done with small handsaws and metal rasps.  The next step, refining the sculpture to its desired look before polishing, required  close to130 hours.  To complete this stage of the work,  I used metal files and rasps, as well as 40 grit sand paper on various sanding blocks. Finally the piece was polished by using progressively finer wet sandpaper; 180 grit , 400 grit,  800 grit, 1200 grit, and  2500 grit wet/dry papers were used. This polishing process was repeated three times to remove all major scratches from the stone.  The sculpture was then hand- rubbed to its desired gloss.  No sealers or waxes were used to polish the stone. The sculpture was then protected with Renaissance. This is a Micro-crystalline wax polish, developed  by the British Museum, and used by restoration specialists to protect fine works of art. Some areas of the sculpture were left in rough stone; this is a trademark of the sculptor. Leaving these rough areas keeps the work connected to its original form.