A piece of Alabaster I am working on

[BeyGon]

This is called Italian Ice, it's an Alabaster, I have been shaping it semi Abalone. The base is a piece I picked up in the desert, around Apple Valley. I think I will do some more work on the holes, maybe taper them a little in the back, maybe more light will come through. The shell part is 16" long. I hope these pictures load right, if not, what do I have to do to make them work?




well, ok, not right again. In real life the holes fit the contour of the shell, but being all white you can't see the form, just the line of holes. It's pretty thin and light shines through nicely.

[Zeke]

Wow, Dean, that is nice. If it works, don't fix it. IOW, don't slip!

[PD41]

Pretty cool. Never seen a Abalone sculpture.

I've been collecting Abalone shells for decades.

Took a big 11" Ab and put about 8" of LED strip lights in the inner lip, then epoxied it back to back to a smaller Ab with a 120v to 12v transformer in it and mounted it where my porch light was.

Coolest porch light ever !

[BeyGon]

Originally Posted by PD41

Pretty cool. Never seen a Abalone sculpture.

I've been collecting Abalone shells for decades.

Took a big 11" Ab and put about 8" of LED strip lights in the inner lip, then epoxied it back to back to a smaller Ab with a 120v to 12v transformer in it and mounted it where my porch light was.

Coolest porch light ever !

pictures?

[masraum]

Very cool, sculpture!

Originally Posted by BeyGon

pictures?

Yeah, I'm curious to see it too.

[KFC911]

I always enjoy seeying your work Dean...thanks for sharing!

[BeyGon]

Thank you all, just wish I knew how to post pictures better. and, when I take these pictures I see things that need to be changed, it always happens.

[Steve Carlton]

Still thrilled with my peach geckos!

[72doug2,2S]

There's a place in Naples on fifth ave that would sell that at a premium.

Nice work.

[BeyGon]

Glad you still have and like that Steve. Thank you.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by BeyGon

I think I will do some more work on the hole.........

I'm curious about the holes.

Were there natural forming ones, and you just accentuated them?

Reminds me of rivet holes on biomorphic machine of some sort.

Kind of like a part off a F4D Skyray or alien Roswell stuff.

Douglas Skyray | Aircraft |


I like it.

[BeyGon]

nothing to say but has to say it

[scottmandue]

Very nice work!

Kach, those holes are replicating the holes on a real abalone, I have a shell at home but I'm at work right now or I would post a picture.

My brother was a scuba diver and knew of a place where they harvested abalone, apparently they scooped out the meat and tossed the shells in the ocean, he would come hone with bags full of shells.

Alabaster lamp shades at Hearst castle:

[Jeff Higgins]

That is some cool stuff there, Dean. So, just curious - how did you ever get into this kind of thing? You've shown your work here before, and it's all quite beautiful. Something you got trained in, just a natural ability, some combination? You certainly have a talent for this.

[BeyGon]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

That is some cool stuff there, Dean. So, just curious - how did you ever get into this kind of thing? You've shown your work here before, and it's all quite beautiful. Something you got trained in, just a natural ability, some combination? You certainly have a talent for this.

I think in 2010 or 2011 we went to Vancouver and went to the big museum on campus, I saw all that native carving and went nutz. I couldn't afford anything real and flying home I told my wife I was going to carve some of that. She laughed, a lot. I started a little after we got home in wood, then did some stone and got into bronze. so, about nine years, the family is amazed, I never did anything like this. The only drawing I did was as a surveyor and thats not the same. Thanks for looking.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by BeyGon

I think in 2010 or 2011 we went to Vancouver and went to the big museum on campus, I saw all that native carving and went nutz. I couldn't afford anything real and flying home I told my wife I was going to carve some of that. She laughed, a lot. I started a little after we got home in wood, then did some stone and got into bronze. so, about nine years, the family is amazed, I never did anything like this. The only drawing I did was as a surveyor and thats not the same. Thanks for looking.

Wow - so just a natural talent for it then. That's amazing. Vancouver, Washington or British Columbia? I live almost exactly equidistant between the two. I much prefer the B.C. version, by the way.

[BeyGon]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Wow - so just a natural talent for it then. That's amazing. Vancouver, Washington or British Columbia? I live almost exactly equidistant between the two. I much prefer the B.C. version, by the way.

we were in BC, my first time in Canada. Spent that day at the spot on campus, went to a Motorcycle place with one of the Pelicans that lives there. I was just so amazed with the wood working and stone sculpture there, I had to try it. Never did anything like it before, no art/sculpture background at all.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

Kach, those holes are replicating the holes on a real abalone, I have a shell at home but I'm at work right now or I would post a picture.

Thank you for the information.

BROOME MOTHER OF PEARL ABALONE SHELL
https://www.gemrockauctions.com/auctions/broome-mother-of-pearl-abalone-shell-206-cts-aaa1746-203493

Abalone (from Spanish abulón) are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis. Common names for abalones also include ear-shells, sea ears, as well as muttonfish or muttonshells in Australia, ormer in Great Britain, perlemoen and venus's-ears in South Africa and pāua in New Zealand.[2]

BeyGon's work still looks much more mechanical to me, perhaps that's the intent?

http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/red_abalone

The coloration, open pores, epopodium, and irs sensory tentacles are visible in this image.
Courtesy of NOAA

An alien looking creature, hey?

Originally Posted by BeyGon

nothing to say but has to say it

I forgot for a moment that your work is literal, nothing abstract about it. I should have known you were attempting to mimic something, a mollusk this time - yea.

[72doug2,2S]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Still thrilled with my peach geckos!

I want one.

[astrochex]

The gecko piece is cool. Is it ~12-18" long?