Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Frosty Leaf Patch


Frosty Leaf Patch, originally uploaded by escher1.


Frosty Leaf Patch in Context, originally uploaded by escher1.

Frost Sun


Frost Sun Close-up, originally uploaded by escher1.


Frost-Sun-in-Context, originally uploaded by escher1.


Frost Sun, originally uploaded by escher1.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Frosty Leaves Around a Goldsworthy Hole

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Clougha Stick Cone


Clougha Stick Cone, originally uploaded by escher1.


Clougha Stick Stack, originally uploaded by escher1.


Clougha Stick Stack Close-up, originally uploaded by escher1.

Vertical Stack


Vertical Stack, originally uploaded by escher1.

Ball Slab Tower Two


Ball Slab Tower Two, originally uploaded by escher1.

Ball/Slab Stack One


Ball/Slab Stack One, originally uploaded by escher1.

Cairn on Boxing Day


Cairn on Boxing Day, originally uploaded by escher1.


Cairn on Boxing Day, originally uploaded by escher1.


Ice Catch Light, originally uploaded by escher1.

River Cairn


River Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Cairn at Dawn


Cairn at Dawn, originally uploaded by escher1.

River Cairn


River Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

After completely screwing my wrist building this thing last weekend it has put paid to any new land art for a while so I went back to try and get some better pictures. Had to wait around in the cold for 3 hours waiting for the light to improve and managed to get three useable shots. Still could be better though!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

River Stone Cairn


River Stone Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

Tried to build this yesterday but it collapsed 8 times which is why I ended up making the snow sculpture. Went back today and the river level had dropped a lot . Yesterday it was in full spate so the choice of rocks was very limited which made it very difficult to build. Today many more rocks were available and it was slightly easier to construct. The rounded river stones were much harder to work with than the gritstone slabs the other ciarn is made of and it meant I couldn't give it much shape. But I have learnt a lot about working with misshapen rounded stones and the next one I build will hopefully have more curves.


River Stone Cairn View, originally uploaded by escher1.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Snow Stone Tower


Snow Stone Tower, originally uploaded by escher1.


Rock Snow Balance, originally uploaded by escher1.


Stone and Snow Sculpture, originally uploaded by escher1.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Snow Ice Cairn


Snow Ice Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

I went back up to the place I made the other snow and ice sculptures in the afternoon and started to make the base of a cairn with ice. I didn't take a torch with me and I had to give up when it was too dark to see. I chopped some more ice before going home ready for the morning. I hoped that the base would freeze and be strong. I returned before dawn to finish it off but now the ice had frozen solid and I couldn't now dig any more out. How am I going to finish it now?! So instead I used frozen snow to build up the top which still lay on the grass around the ice. I didn't intend to build a cone cairn exactly like Andy Goldsworthy's but it just seemed to grow in that way. I can see why AG builds cones as it is a shape that just appears when you make it strong, a natural form that is inherent in the material. If you don't know what I mean you'll just have to build one!


Snow Ice Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.


Snow Ice Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Snow sun window


Snow sun window, originally uploaded by escher1.

Ice Catch Light


Ice Catch Light, originally uploaded by escher1.

Ice Snow Sandwich Towers


Ice Snow Sandwich Towers, originally uploaded by escher1.

Ice tower


Ice tower, originally uploaded by escher1.

Tower at Dawn


Tower at Dawn, originally uploaded by escher1.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Snowballs


Snowballs, originally uploaded by escher1.

Although a thaw was in full swing there was still some snow up on the tops. There is no refinement to these as I had very little time after work and before it got dark to build them. So I rushed to get them done without being as pernickerty as I would normally be. So there are lots of annoying mis-shapen parts! I was distracted by the amazing sunset behind too. See the other pictures to see what was going on behind me.


Snowball towers, originally uploaded by escher1.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Frost Leaf Patch


Frost Leaf Patch, originally uploaded by escher1.

Frost Leaf Patch


Frost Leaf Patch, originally uploaded by escher1.

My Arch is Still There


My Arch is Still There, originally uploaded by escher1.

It's been standing more than a month now, I really expected it to have fallen down by now. There is a spot where this, the egg cairn and the balance cairn are all visible. This morning the dawn sun lit them all up against the bank of fog across the hills. It looked quite spectacular.

Frosty Slabs and Ball Balance


Frosty Slabs and Ball Balance, originally uploaded by escher1.

Frosty Ball Balance


Frosty Ball Balance, originally uploaded by escher1.

Frost Stack


Frost Stack, originally uploaded by escher1.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Coloured Rock Splash


Coloured Rock Splash, originally uploaded by escher1.

Coloured Rock Splash


Coloured Rock Splash, originally uploaded by escher1.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Moon Rise Cairn


Moon Rise Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Millstone Grit Cairn


Millstone Grit Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

I've always wanted to build a big cairn like Goldsworthy's stone cones. Obviously the design is based on his but I went for a slightly different look, I wanted the curve to be symmetrical for both the bottom and top sections. I think I have achieved that to some degree. The first two attempts collapsed early on but the third worked. I had to pay more attention to making sure that long, large and heavy stones are placed often enough, to anchor the small stones on the outside. These long stones are positioned like spokes all the way through the cairn. When it was nearly done there was a loud crack as a stone snapped in the middle. My heart was in my mouth as it shifted and settled but it held. I could only spend a few hours each day building the cairn so it wasn't until the third day that I completed it. THis was a couple of hours into a big storm that dropped 2 inches of rainfall and brought 80mph winds. This meant that I couldn't film or photograph the finished cairn. Instead I had to leave in a hurry thoroughly drenched, hoping that it would stay up to be documented on a calmer day. Fortunately it has and I managed to get some pictures and film the day after I finished it.


Millstone Grit Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Arch


Arch, originally uploaded by escher1.