Juror to Auctioneer

T BARNY SCULPTURE NEWS
I love the ocean! My trip to Cambria this past weekend was exciting. I was asked to be the "honored juror" for the 8th Annual Stone Symposium. Lot's of great work to view and judge. It actually was a bit of a challenge to decide where the awards should be placed. I'm happy to report that all of my chosen award winners pieces sold at the show. They even had numerous people interested in the same piece so it was decided to auction it off and I became the auctioneer. The piece pulled in $5000 which in part goes to help the Symposium. I visited with the students, the instructors and the vendors who were selling tools and stone. I'm now back in my studio with new inspiration and, of course, new stone.

Travelin'

T BARNY SCULPTURE NEWS
Today was the first trip for my new pup, Sander, to ride to town. I had errands to do and he was anxious to go. My sculpture takes me on the road at times. In the past, my black lab "Rufus" traveled with me to Stone Symposiums, Art Receptions and to pick up supplies. This weekend I'm off to Cambria. I was asked to be the "honored juror" for the Stone Symposium. Sander's too young to make this trip but will be ready for next time. Talk about travelin' ... I have my large mobius bronze, CATENAX, being crated for its' travels to Austrailia. Interesting the challenges that arise from crating. The picture above shows the sculpture crate and pedestal crate being shipped to Chicago. Typically my shipper crates my pieces in plywood and fir which is fine for the USA. However, the wood first needs to be treated and date stamped for international travel. A crate can be built with pre-treated wood but can't be shipped until the date on the stamp. Good to know.

Sander

T BARNY SCULPTURE NEWS
I'm proud to present the newest addition to our family, Diamond P. Lysander Stone. He's 14 weeks old and we call him "Sander" for short. Not a whole lotta sleep for the first few nights but we're getting better. He's already taken to the vineyard walks in the morning. He will join our other black lab, Rachel, as another great studio dog. And, it's all good out in the studio today. I had the Santa Rosa Symphony group here today for their tour. They asked a lot of great questions like how to hold the blocks of stone down. I use sandbags to anchor it in place or I strap the block to the table. Old blue jeans work best to use as straps. They all tried my demo set-up using my hand tools - hammer and chisel. They were amazed how hard it is and said that what I do just looks impossible.