Recent works: Eight leaves on nine stories
October 9th, 2009
The eight leaves are of blue bluestone; six are visible in the image above. The background is made up of what’s known as off-color bluestone. It runs green to brown, but I chose only the browner tones for this piece. Texture was important too. Several pieces have reeds or stalks of plants embedded in the stone’s surface.
The patio is laid dry, but the joints aren’t filled with sand or gravel, as is usually the case. This keeps the joints dark, a detail which I absolutely love.
The nine stories is how high up this small patio is over Asheville. It’s situated on a ninth story balcony in a downtown high-rise. Thankfully there was an elevator. My big truck barely fit in the parking garage.
In these images the stone is fresh wet, having just been washed down. I’ll take further images when the stones aren’t so sopping. Stone looks best damp, not wet.
The design was inspired by a rug fragment, seen in the top left corner of this image. I made a color study based on the sample and created a design that borrowed from the rug. The balcony railing has similar swooping lines and even some of the furniture features a subtle leaf design. The rug itself, when completed, will be placed inside the condo, opposite the balcony, designs reflecting each other through the floor-to-ceiling wall of windows.
Crafting the stones was a fascinating process which will be detailed in a forthcoming blog entry. I had full-sized templates printed from my design, shown below.
