This is the Walking Liberty coin memorial I have been working on for Mr. Gerald Kimble. This represents some of my finest custom drafting and sandblast finishing work ever. It is difficult to say no to a customer, even when you know what they wish for will be hard to achieve, and I told this family that they could get enough detail with regular sandblast in gray granite with this coin concept. (You could etch an exact copy of a coin with a laser black granite, but the costs involved would be much greater) So, I had to pull out all of the stops and do my best work, and be a little innovative. The first picture is a drawing of the Walking Liberty coin I found on the internet that I knew would be good to digitize with my CAD software. The pictures of the actual stone were taken in various levels of sunlight, and the shadowed ones actually show some of the sandblast work better. I also added a zoomed in pic of the proof I created that the customer saw before we made the stone. You can see in that pic (its one of the last ones) that the lines in Miss Libertys dress are more parralell and even than in the finished product. I do it that way during the drafting process, and then rough up the lines free-hand before sandblasting to make the lines look more natural and have more flow to them. You will see a picture of the back of the stone, with the mans bronze veterans marker attached. I also added a pic of the real coin, so you can see how well the concept of the image on the coin was captured in this stone. I was able to achieve four colors on this stone, with various stencil and sandblast techniques: -Elements of the stone were left polished, by cutting out and leaving in certain parts of the stencil before you sandblast, such as the family name, the border around the outside, and the part of the flag (her dress is the flag) that has the stars. -The lightest color is the frosted panel for the name and the light parts of the coin. This is accomplished with high pressure sandblast using very clean sand. -Some details in the flag dress were blued or darkened by removing those parts of the stencil during the final sandblast and using lower pressure and dirty sand. This creates a different depth as well, which catches the light differently. The stripes that would be red in her flag dress were blued in order to stand out from the white stripes. Yes, it could have been painted red, but this will fade quickly and disappear over time, while the process I used will be permanent. -The detail outlines and the first name and dates have been sandblast sunk into the stone deeply, and have black lithochrome added for extra contrast. The carving is so detailed, that it couldnt be sandblasted as deeply as other designs, so I used the lithochrome to help the lines pop off of the stone. The lettering and lines are still deeper than the granite manufactures are going these days, and are deep enough to catch shadows in the light. Granite erodes at the rate of about the thickness of a hair over 500 years, so, the lines are permanently carved into the stone. This truly is a one of kind memorial, and one I most likely will never make again. This is some of my best work, and I am proud to be able to offer my talents to the community we serve. Custom work like this really takes all of my skill, patience, and energy. It is very rewarding and stressful at the same time. If you read all of this, GOD BLESS YOU!
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 21:38:47 +0000
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