Square clock

Square-clock, originally uploaded by escher1.

Originally I wanted to build a series of concentric circles of interlocking stones but I hadn't found a place to do it yet. I built this when We went for a walk in Grizedale Forest to look at the sculptures in the forest. We didn't chance upon any interesting land art only more permanent sculptures and installations. Just off a main mountain bike track next to a waterfall we found a nice spot and I built this square sculpture, it is only about 8 inches across and took ages to build. The ground underneath was very gravvely with bigger rocks too and was very difficult to dig out and make flat, my hands became very cold and then it started to rain. Julia was looking cold and miserable and wanted to leave, I noticed there were brown and green branches nearby so I cut some up to make the circular pattern. The resultant picture I think is very disappointing, it was so dark that I had to use the flash and it bounced off the wet rock, creating a lot of glare. This was my first piece that I spent a lot of time on and I realised to get good results considerable effort needs to be made!

Arch Attempt

Arch Attempt, originally uploaded by escher1.

I had high ambitions to build an arch and discovered how difficult it is! I tried to build a platform underneath but did it in quite a sloppy manner and then also built the arch in a sloppy manner too. Even with the platform underneath it collapsed once! Still I liked the design a little and decided to leave it with the platform underneath and next time I will have to plan out an arch much more carefully, making the platform underneath stable and flat and the arch well designed so that when the support is pulled out it will hopefully remain standing! Lots more practice required I think!

Limestone Stack

IMG_5597, originally uploaded by escher1.

This was the first time I built this style of stack with pebbles in between flat slabs. There were some really nice white pebbles on this beach near Silverdale and lots of - sort of - flat slabs. The placing of each slab wasn't easy as there were not really flat at all. I placed each layer then went to look for another slab to put on top so it was a bit by accident that it has taken on the shape that it has but the effect of bulging in the middle - although accidental - seems to work. There were a few people who walked past us as we worked and gave us some quizzical looks. This stack didn't stay up for long either.

Jammy Dodger

Jammy-dodger, originally uploaded by escher1.

One of my first ideas and the first time I have put a reasonabel amount of effort in. I didn't plick a particularly good place to do it as it was very dark under that tree and necessitated use of the flash. The idea was there, I think, but the execution was not up to scratch. This early attempt showed me that to achieve the effect that I want then I must put considerabel effort into every detail and not rest until it is right.

Brick Stack

IMG_5457, originally uploaded by escher1.

We visited Crosby Beach near to Liverpool on a bright sunny day to see Antony Gormley's installation called "Another Place" - a scattering of life size iron men wistfully gazing out to sea. Crosby Beach is a stark windswept place with a wind farm off shore and Liverpool docks close by making for a dramatic - alomost lonely setting - for the figures. As we strolled back to the car we came across a large bank of bricks, I guess from a demolished building - or perhaps they had been dumped there as a shore break to protect from erosion by the waves. Anyway the bricks were rounded and clourful and eroded into interesting shapes and were just begging to be made into a stack.

Cone Circle

Circle, originally uploaded by escher1.

We had collected different cones and seeds around where we live and needed to make something from them. When we were walking near Birk Bank we found a really interesting wood with gritstone slabs and trees and made a beeline for it. Eventually I decided to start on this design not really knowing what I was going to do. It took ages to stop the cones rolling (the slab was sloping) and I had to use a lot of wet earth underneath to hold everything in place. It took a lot of work and was quite fiddly and had a lot of repeating patterns yet despite the effort I put in it just doesn't look right. It looks like a christmas wreath! It just doesn't have that "cool" land art quality but as a first attempt at something more convoluted it showed me that it is worth spending more time formulating ideas and preparing what I want to do.