The Three Norns - cement sculpture

Although I specialise in ephemeral materials every now and again I get a chance to do something a bit more permanent. Nothing lasts forever and I am sure that one day this too will crumble but unlike sand It has lasted till now and sits in the Blockus sculpture garden in Denmark.

A more concrete solution

This year in Blockus the organiser wanted to try something a little different from the usual sand sculptures that we make there and asked a few of us if we would like to do a cement sculpture. I was thrilled with the opportunity because most of the times I have worked with cement in the past it was a bit commercial and here I would be given the freedom to create a piece for Me around the theme of Viking Mythology.

I thought long and hard about what to make and finally decided to base it on one of my sand sculptures. Oh, the irony of ironies. It was an old piece from 2003 which I made in Roskilde, Denmark. It was one of my favourites and I thought this would be a nice opportunity to give it a chance to live on. So, sue me!

The sand piece which I have documented here was made beside a Viking museum and I wanted to see if I could simplify it still more and make it work in this new material with a different approach to its supports. You should probably go ahead and read that post and come back when you are finished so I don't have to rehash all I said before. I was really proud of this piece and I liked the tone of the post I wrote.

This may not look like cement, the reason being, I gave it a special finish to resemble bronze. That was done with several layers of paint pigment mixed with a concrete sealer.

The structure was made from steel bars which I welded into a skeleton. On top of this, I used a plastic mesh which became the muscle and then a special cement from a company called Make Make to add the skin. The rep from the company was there to show us how to use the material and he was very helpful and seemed to get into the whole spirit of the project.

In my next post, I will show a video of the process as it wass really quite interesting.

Life gets in the way

The building of this piece was a joy but my family life at the time made it quite difficult. I was supposed to have around 10 days to make it but during the project my son got very sick at home and I had to fly back to Ireland to make sure everything was OK. I was getting lots of calls from my distraught wife who was home alone with my son and so I bought a new return flight and headed home. At that point, I had made the main structure and asked could I come back after I had nursed my son back to health and finish it.

I was supposed to be going straight to another project in Sondervig, Denmark along with the other sculptors after this one but asked if I could spend a few days here instead and it might also be nice for the public to see someone still working. The organisers agreed and so after my son was in full health again I flew back and spent another several days alone working away.

I must admit it was a wonderful time. Just me and my sculpture and nobody to interrupt me. I actually took my time and rejoined my crew in Sondervig for the last day of that project.

It was a nice material to work with and I had several hours of drying time to get the surface to where I wanted it. Carving cement is a bit like carving sand. In some ways, it is easier because you don't have to worry about weight and the material that comes off can be easily brushed away.

Three trees

For the Norns I made three structures that were supposed to represent tree trunks at different ages. I wanted to keep the forms simple and straight but on welding the first ribs together the whole thing bent into a spiral. I liked the effect and so ran with it as I thought it gave a nice movement.

Weaving the web

The web in the middle was simple bars with a plastic mesh wrapped around it and then plastered with cenent. I remember that making this element in sand was much more difficult. One false move of calculation would have the whole thing collapsing but in cement and steel it was easy pease.

In the center I made this bulge to add what I liked to fantasise represented life itself Suspended in the Norns web. For this element I wanted it to stand out from the rest of the structure. I needed a different material and it was only last second that, like a magpie I found a shiny green glass bottle smashed it up and did a kind of crazy tiling with it.

It glistened in the sun and attracted the viewers to a closer look.

The whole thing was then given a coat of a mix of paint pigments mixed with a sealer which I had to Macygyver because the other sculptors had used all the special stuff that Make Make had provided. I got advice from some local builders and it seemed that what I used worked. Finally, I brushed here and there with bronze power in the concrete sealer. This helped give the whole thing a heavily patinated bronze effect.

Nothing compares

I was very happy with how the whole thing turned out. It was very different from the sand sculpture I had made so to compare the two would be neither justice. I really liked how it fit in the location where it was made and it is nice that It is still there looking as good as the day it was finished.

As I mentioned, I will do a little video about the whole process and post it to 3speak. Keep an eye open for that.

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Ps

Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.