The second sphere, "Before The Fall", is about the time immediately before his untimely death and is a collaboration between me, wax-carver, Carol Docherty and stone-setter, Inness Thomson:
I love the way that these look when hung together:
They have been away for photography and will be sent off to the ACJ ICONS exhibition tomorrow.
For those of you who are interested, the burnt-out factory from whence the original spheres came looked like this:
And the spheres looked like this:
I have absolutely no idea what these would have been used for.
Today, I set about using up some of the spare elements from this piece. I got my orders of gemstone flowers just about right but had enough to make a pendant and earring trio:
There will be more pieces to follow as I have a small bag of spare silver "raptor claws" from the first sphere.
The last couple of weeks have been badly-managed by me in some ways, in that I have had three different stone-dealers through the workshops in very rapid succession, which always leads to me spending money, albeit money to be recouped at a later date. Due to a commission, I had a very specific shopping list in mind, but I also bought a few other things for my own interest:
Some Brazilian gemstones in unusual cuts.
Sapphire cabochons.
Aquamarine Cabochon
Cambodian spinels
Natural Zircon crystals
A very unusually-cut flat and clear citrine (which may end up paired with the zircon crystals).
Made from corroded iron gas-pipe, steel box-girder and silver and to fit an enormous amethyst:
Off on holiday on Friday. Can't wait!
One final note... I think I have discovered the ugliest public "artwork" in the world:
This is outside the BT headquarters in Glasgow.