Limestone eagle

[Gargoyle]

Indiana limestone. 32" wingspan (81 cm). The stone is 5 in thick (12.7 cm), with 3" of relief and a 2" background.

 

[Gargoyle]

Progress photos

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

That must be a lot of work just to get the background relieved! Another of your excellent sculptures for sure!

 

[atexascowboy2011]

Fantastic!!!

 

[JJ Roberts]

Beautiful sculpture of the bald eagle at it's best and says every thing about this great country America ,keep up the good work. J.J.

 

[Jesse.beckham]

Incredible work!


Jesse Beckham
Lost Penguin Leather
Wichita Falls, Texas

 

[Dulltool]

Very very... very nice

 

[thughes]

Very beautiful.

Please forgive the dumb geologist in me, but you have mentioned this "Indiana Limestone" several times in your posts. I'm just curious about what makes it special for your work. Thanks again for the photos.

Todd

 

[dlilazteca]

Stunning, where is this going?

Carlos De La O III

 

[RDP]

Amazing work!!, thanks for sharing,

Richard.

 

[Gargoyle]

Stunning, where is this going?

Carlos De La O III

Private client.

 

[Idaho Flint]

Wow, love it. Thanks for sharing.

Mike

 

[phil]

My arms ache just looking at that. Excellent work. I bet that is real hard graft physically.

 

[rod]

So pleased you post regularly here, Walter,

I am always inspired by your work, and your sense of humour!

best

Rod

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

Looks great, thanks for sharing

arnaud

 

[LVVP]

Cool.

Thank you for showing

 

[mrthe]

Wow!!! this is extremely cool!

 

[Gargoyle]

Indiana limestone is an excellent carving and building stone. Soft enough to work relatively easily and quickly, but extremely durable and weather resistant, so the carving can hold its detail and the stone can hold its strength and structure in harsh environments and climates. It's very abundant and pretty consistent; some of the other good carving stones are from small quarries with limited supplies, shallow beds (quarry depth), or geological locations with lots of flaws and fractures, meaning they can only be extracted in small blocks.
Note the photo below of one quarry, the stone continues a couple hundred feet down into the ground.

All stone has grain, the bedding planes formed geologically. With some stones those are very strong (slate is an extreme example) and so they are good as flat slabs, (tiles, countertops, blackboards). It makes them strong with the grain, weak against the grain. (imagine a wooden table leg cut cross grain instead of with the grain- it will split if you put any load on the table or shake the table). Indiana limestone, Carrara (Italian) marble, and the other good carving stones have very minimal grain and work well in any direction.

Very beautiful.

Please forgive the dumb geologist in me, but you have mentioned this "Indiana Limestone" several times in your posts. I'm just curious about what makes it special for your work. Thanks again for the photos.

Todd

 

[Roger Bleile]

Walter,

Is that quarry near Bedford, Indiana?

Roger

 

[Gargoyle]

Roger, I took those shots at the Victor Oolitic quarry, about 20 miles north of downtown Bedford.