Metafiction, Myth and Language: A World in Words (and Pictures)

 Today I managed to finish off the very tricky 'Gydena and Hrefni Cosmic Stone', which features the solar goddess and the raven storm-god standing on the two cosmic beasts who beget all the animal species in Gyldland cosmogony.  This was definitely the hardest one yet, given the relative size and the detail, and in the end I had to simplify a lot of it. It was also very hard to engrave as the surface wasn't smooth, but the shallowness of the line makes it look old and worn, which is helpful. I think this is the last one - five stones is probably enough unless I decide to render a fragment of something later on. I'll be on campus soon to look at the availability of glass-topped museum style display cases for the show, which will have to be discussed re: a) lighting conditions so the lights illuminate the engraved lines well enough but don't reflect off the top of the glass, and b) the ability of the case to support over 60kg of stone. So I may need two cases - or els

 Last night, I spent a few hours considering and writing up textual wall displays for the 'museum' exhibition, covering a healing charm and a bardic elegy which both feature in the poetic text, including some 'scholarship' regarding the text itself, and its 'translation' and interpretation. I'll continue work on these and get them printed up, along with colour matt prints of the 'land art' images. Today, taking advantage of the prevailing good weather, I got on with finishing off the four stone pieces which I've been working on this month so far. I added runic names to the 'lunar stone' (not very clear in the below image) and scrubbed and washed them all down, getting rid of the lingering dust which covers not only the stone surface but also clogs up the lines. The stone is so soft that even the toothbrush marks have begun to show up so I had to change to a small paintbrush to clean out the engraved lines. This leaves one stone left, the

  Having not been home the last couple of days, I needed to get back into some of the 'heavy' work and managed to bash out this rather 'primitive' and 'amateur' rendering of the main character of the epic poem - evidently carved by a friend or colleague of hers, whether a fellow member of Greyfair clan or even one of the other characters mentioned in the text. I used a much wider chisel (in truth a ground-down screwdriver) and hammer, eschewing fine lines and going straight for the memorialization aspect, whilst encapsulating the essence of the character. Rustic, basic but inherently honest in its intentions - perhaps the essence of 'folk art'. I like how the thick, simple lines are also suggestive of the English chalk hill figures: The Cerne Abbas Giant and the Wilmington Long Man - hill figures which have fascinated me for over 30 years This was my first attempt at writing actual Gyldish runes, namely her name and title: "Womba Wislig" (Womba

 This afternoon brought part 2 of the Mægtha/Hretha stone to completion - thickening the outline on Mægtha's sickle and carving Hretha in their entirety, with a bit more improvisation in the spiral design work, creating a bit more symmetry and balance within Hretha's body to mirror Mægtha's: Hretha still has something of a bovine look to their head, which I kind of like, as it suggests a particular breed of goat which is unknown in our world - hinting again at the idea of species extinction and 'lost times' and 'lost worlds' (rather than just slightly wonky art drawn without reference). Tomorrow I'll likely be busy with other things all day and I need a break from physical work anyway. That will give me time to reflect on this and figure out if there is any need for further design elements, or if it should just be left as is? The slab will sit outside to let the elements get rid of the dust and the freshly-engraved look for the next few weeks. It would b

  This slab is one of the smaller ones - about 30cm wide by 40cm high, weight about 7 kg. I tested all the earmarked stones with my old luggage trolley and it (just) managed to transport them all (one at a time) to the car - good to know for when these finally have to get installed in less than 2 months. As the sandstone is not strong, dropping and knocking these finished works will have to be avoided at all costs. Following on from the earlier 'scratch' work, I spent several hours outside today finishing it off  (the design looks better in reality but I had to compensate for strong and very bright lighting conditions). The sandstone is soft enough that no actual chisel work was required - in fact that's convenient, as any hammer work tends to chip away from the determined groove, causing flaking and diminishing the design. The only tools used were a small awl, a toothbrush (for cleaning out the dust) and a steel ruler for defining the spear lines (plus, of course, a face m

 Recent family emergencies will impact my ability to keep this blog updated as often as I had planned, and work will likely be progressing slower as a result. But I'll continue to plod on and do the best I can. Since deep critical thinking is not really an option at the minute, today I mostly returned to the practicalities of engraving - this time on wood, which seems much easier to work with than even the rather soft (and at times, flaky) sandstone which I explored last week. The problems with the stone are not so much technique (which I basically picked up as I went along) but rather my own weaknesses to RSI - I used the lightest hammer I have for the purpose, but even that left my hands sore and stiff for the next day or so afterwards. I've prepared a number of experimental pieces of wood to explore the process of creating primitive figurations in this medium:   These long, thin sections (from surrounding farm gates, fences etc.), with vertical grain, impose limitations on