As each and every year around the Easter holidays I went back to my home town Trier in Germany to participate in yet another proficiency workshop in stone-sculpting.
This course took place at the European Academy of Fine Arts (EKA) under the professional leadership of Peter Rübsam, a well-known sculptor and musician from Düsseldorf, Germany. It is always a big pleasure meeting again with Peter and our group of fellow-artists for two weeks of hard work and great fun. (see my former publication of April 2018)
For my new project I had ordered a large piece of fruit serpentine (140 kg), originated from Zimbabwe and shipped to the Academy via Den Haag., NL.
Sculptor Peter Rübsam and the author are carefully placing the stone on the workbench
Since I have been living and working in Rwanda for almost two decades I am quite familiar with the stone sculpting skills of the Shona people of Zimbabwe, who are famous for their sculptures made out of serpentine.
For your interest:
The majority of stones used in Zimbabwean sculpture is locally sourced and belongs to the geological family Serpentinite.
They are sedimentary, having originally been laid down on a sandy seafloor, and metamorphic, since subsequent exposure to intense heat and pressure over hundreds of millions of years has transformed them into hard stones.
Serpentines are rich in iron, so when the stone weathers it turns a rust color.
In Zimbabwe, they occur as part of the Great Dyke, a horseshoe-shaped geological formation stretching through the north and east round to the center of the country. The natural weathering processes are now exposing the rocks at the surface.
Colors range from yellow and green, through brown and black.
Serious sculptors prefer the hardest varieties of serpentine such as springstone, fruit serpentine and leopard rock. These dense stones (Mohs scale 3 – 4) have extremely fine grains and uniform structure, making them ideal raw material for sculpting. In addition, serpentine can be polished to a high gloss.
The realization: First week
After the base of the future sculpture had been created, the long process of rough shaping was following, using different kinds of special hard-metal chisels.
My fellow-sculptors were equally drawn towards their own projects, chiseling away in stone or wood…
Bärbel (sandstone)
Erich (diabase)
Jean (sandstone)
Friedericke (poplar)
Wilfried (pine)
As always, Master Peter was very busy giving his professional help and advice, in both manual and artistic ways:
And, in between, a little refreshment to wash down all that dust:
And, after work, a bit of "la vie bohème"...
The realization: Second week
After a well-earned relaxing weekend the group was back at the Academy for the remaining five days of the course.
And, at the end of our last day at the Academy, we surprised Master Peter with a special birthday present of beautiful Ebling white wine from the Moselle/Luxembourg region.
What a great time we all had again!
In the meantime my unfinished serpentine sculpture had been shipped to my studio in Portugal. There is still plenty of work left to be done, all that fine-shaping and polishing…
And my feathered family in its nest close to the studio is wondering if it still can admire my finished work before they are all taking off by the end of July…