Collection Series Marble Sculpture Review

Which of The67 are still available, and which have sold?

This is a question we will now address in a couple of posts – this one – where we’ll take a look at those pieces still remaining for sale, and in the next one where we will have a look at all those that have sold

Splitting the Maiden Slab, September 2011. Birdhaven Studio Workshop, Woody Creek, Colorado

The Collection Series Marble Sculpture concept arose as the project gained traction with the arrival of the second and third collections, but the pictures above portray a vivid tale of how it all began, by drilling and splitting the mysterious Maiden Slab. A monster she was, and probably used at some point to shore up the bank of the Crystal River in order to stop the tracks from being utterly washed away by the Spring run off.

It had endured a torrid time by the looks of it, and had sat in my stone yard for a full two years by the time I took a drill to it, but once I split it open and began to take a look at what lay inside I knew in an instant that I was on to something. For despite the tortured outside shell the marble proved astonishingly and brilliantly white – white as can be, and sprinkled with millions of twinkling diamonds, sparkling in fact. Across the whole slab mysterious swirls and intrusions – massive lumps of grey rock – appeared stuck in place, like ice chunks locked in a frozen river. I was smitten from the start.

And this epic moment seems a good place to begin – this was the beginning of something – that much I knew, but just what, I had no idea. For this randomly selected slice of the block would be but the first – Genesis, as I named him – of 41 carvings that would go on to form The Maiden Collection.

So this is what I found as I took, at random, my first slice of The Maiden slab, and what an unexpected sight it was. What were all those swirls, markings and huge chunks of rock? Later I would learn that these chunks and swirls are actually bits and pieces of the magma that caused a three mile by one-and-a-half mile seam of Leadville limestone to metamorphose into the spectacularly pristine white marble that it is today.

But what you are seeing in Genesis is the actual point wherein the magma hits the limestone – the secret to Yule marble’s unrivaled quality and the actual point of contact in the Contact Metamorphism, and Click Here to learn all about that. And so, a very special carving is Genesis, very special indeed.

Indeed, Colorado Yule marble is now widely recognized as being of some of the very highest quality ever to have been quarried. Yes, that’s right. You can read all about it in plenty of places on my website, however the statement doesn’t come from me but from the Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt’s chief geologist Elaine S. McGee, and her 1999 investigation into the building stone of the Lincoln Memorial.

You can read my assessment of that document by Clicking Here.

Now, let’s take a look at the Hand Carved Marble Bowls that have become an emblem of the Curvilinear style that I have made my own since I coined the term several years back. Starting with…

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The Bowls

Light, portable and carved for full immersion in the real world, my marble bowls are like no others in that each on is hand carved from a single block of heavy and hard (i.e. building stone hard) marble to proportions that has any and all available light shining through the walls of the bowl to illuminate the other side. When you see it you’ll be amazed at just how translucent the stone is, and how beautifully these bowls light up. Even candlelight sets them off, seriously. And the colors and hues are something else – so very many colors and hues that ebb and flow with the slightest shift of light.

But best of all, you can simply pick these babies (yes, they do feel like picking up a child), as many people tell me this when I hand them one, or they pick one up. Just hold it close to you, as you would with a child, and let your body take some of the weight, and that is pretty much it.

Each bowl is engraved with its Collection Series Serial Number on the underside of its base, and an invisible Italian penetrating sealant is applied for added protection. Each of The67 have their own designated hyperlinked home Page right here on martincooney.com wherein I share my thoughts on the carving, why and how I carved it, and general background information surrounding its carving.

The Collection Series Marble Sculpture Home Page will also inform you of such essentials as the cost of the piece, it size, weight, Serial Number, and within which of the three collections it was carved. Please click on a title to view each collection’s gallery: The Maiden Collection, The 1314 Winter Collection, or The Autumn of 14 Collection.

Finally, each bowl is sculpted with real world usage in mind, in that the rims are carved to be generally a tad thicker than the walls so as to strengthen and protect the carving and present a toughened edge to whatever situation it may find itself: Piled with ice and seafood, mounded with delicious fruit, nuts, chocolates and sweets, or water and floating candles (that’s one of my favorite uses by the way – always quite spectacular as you may imagine).

So you see, these bowls bring an awful lot of lifestyle upgrades with them as you take them and use them all over the place; in the window, the bathroom, kitchen, entrance hall, living rooms, patio – you name it. You can even take them to the office, how about that? Now, enough talk and on with the pictures.

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Please Click on a Photo to Enlarge, to discover the sculpture’s name along with relevant information

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The Large Banquet Bowls

Along The Way – Lemonworld – On The Cusp – Mother of Pearl – No Strings Attached

These large and robust bowls always draw attention. And although they are tough and durable enough for banquet duty, they also flaunt their gentler side when the lights are turned down low, emitting a warmer, yellowish hue, in stark contrast to the brilliant whiteness of the day. And of course, as with all of my Curvilinear Collection Series Marble Sculpture, they feel absolutely divine to the touch – silky smooth and curvaceous as can be.

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The Small to Medium Household Bowls

Four Corners – Sugar Bowl – Sparrow – San Rocchino – Felucca – Noah’s Ark

As useful around the house as they are beautiful to own and display, these light weight and portable marble bowls, just as with their larger counterparts above, can be put to a myriad of uses, or may be simply exhibited as they are. Great for showcasing your latest and greatest find; exotic sea shells, autumn leaves and gorgeous jewelry, everything looks better when shown off in one of my very original Hand Carved Marble Bowls. They really do ripen fruit to perfection by the way, and far better than putting the poor things straight from grocery back to fridge. And as with their larger companions they take in and reflect any and all light available so as to put on quite a show when placed in direct sunlight of direct indoor spot lamps. Boy do they glow.

And speaking of which, here’s Titanic – who is temporarily withdrawn for the moment as he is the last of his type, the ultra-thin bowls, to remain in our possession, as the others have all sold and I need this last incredibly thin bowl to serve as an example as to what future Collections will look like.

One day Titanic will join the others and be put up for sale and not just displayed here at THE KMJ. But until then she will continue to showcase the incredible proportions that I am able to create with my ultra-thin Curvilinear carving technique. It is these very properties, to my mind, that illustrate just how amazing the Colorado Yule marble really is, due of course to it being created as a result of Contact Metamorphism, with the resulting far higher temperatures achieved than say Carrara marble, which is the result of much lower temperatures attained by Regional Metamorphism.

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The Outdoor Standing Stones

Cat Walk – Inner Strength – Pilgrim – Wolf Man Jack

Oblique Perspective – Reversed Equation

Each of my Standing Stones is secured by means of a hole drilled into the underside of its base, allowing for the sculpture to swivel easily upon a six inch long steel rod. And as you can see they are carved to withstand the rigors of outdoor life year-round at 8,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains, so I have little doubt that they will do fine just about wherever you live, to be honest.

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The Larger Sculptures

Swan Wave – Thing One – Thing Two – Polar Trout

Mabel, Terrible Lizard, Troy, Wimbledon, The Belle

Industrial Evolution, Salt of the Earth and Girl in the Moon (The Cosmic Twins)

One of the real pleasures of owning a piece, or pieces, of my Collection Series Marble Sculpture is that you get to move them around at will, put one here for a while, then move it over there. In fact, my sculpture is carved specifically to be picked up and moved around, that’s half the fun of ownership. Furthermore the pieces seem to love it too, becoming instantly revitalized at their latest move. Pretty soon you’ll have favorite places for them sprinkled around your world.

Having said that, one exception to the rule is quite definitely Top O’ The World shown below. Carved as homage to the magnificent Elk Mountains from when Colorado Yule marble was forged, this piece was carved in order to bring the full gravitas of the Rocky Mountains to bear upon this one relatively small piece. Consequently this is the heaviest Collection Series Marble Sculpture, by far. Two men can together pick it up and move it, but it is not as easy to maneuver as the rest of the marble sculpture. But once it is carefuly placed into position it really commands attention, whatever the weather or location, Top O’ The World is practically invincible.

They also love to interact together, as you may have noticed. For that’s another fun feature of the larger sculptures, they seem to draw energy from one another, and its great to place them alone in dramatic or secluded places, and in groups – marauding groups of sculptures rampaging through your life…. pretty much describes what owning these pushy sculptures is like, when I come to think of it. But as with petulant children that you can pick up and put to bed when they ‘become to much’, so you can tame these beasts, masks and ladies by simply picking them up and doing likewise – though a cupboard, garage shelf or under a bed will suffice in their case.

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The Museum Quality Sculptures

Birth of a Guin – Finger Bowl

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These two pieces of precision sculpture stand alone in one sense among the remaining Collection Series Marble Sculpture in that, for the most part, ownership of my carvings is a simple and straightforward matter, but not with these two it isn’t. Carved from the same rejected and or abandoned quoin (L-shaped masonry block) I split them apart and carved them one after the other. And having discovered such magnificent stone underneath such and unpromising looking grungy old block of marble, after having carved Finger Bowl the first time around, I set my sights higher the second time around and came up with something a tad more ambitious with Birth of a Guin, now that I knew that the marble was sound enough and strong enough to hold that massive, weighty and beaky head.

Unlike the rest of my sculpture, I truly believe that these two require and deserve the right setting before releasing them into “the real world” as I put it. Hence the museum reference. They just need that extra bit of protection that’s all – just a bit out of harms way, if you know what I mean. So many of my sculptures, indeed the vast majority can and do look after themselves out there in the real world, but these two, Finger Bowl and Birth of a Guin, fall outside of that bracket in my opinion.

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The Smaller Sculpture

Ice Boat – Troglodyte Cloister – Elk Mountain Bowl – The Mountains of Moab

And with these little tabletop trinkets we reach the end of our review. Easy to own, a cinch to pick up and move around, these small, intricate pieces bring a stunning look with them and tend to steal the show wherever they are placed. And just like all the others, they have their Serial Number carved into the underside of their bases and have their own Home Pages, where you can find out all about them.

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And so, with that, all that’s left is to thank you for spending the time to visit my online Website Magazine, and for making it all the way to the bottom of such a long post, even for mc.com standards. But I thought it about time to bring my Collection Series Marble Sculpture Catalog up to date, and so…

Next time we will take a look at which members of The67 club have sold and are now off and away in distant states, enjoying their new life, I’m sure.

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The67. Collection Series Sculpture: Available This Winter Season at THE KMJ

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thanks for visiting martincooney.com

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MARTIN