While cleaning (once is not usual) my workshop, I fell on some slates of the Monts d’Arrée, full of rust. And as I had a little time, I took the smallest of them to try an engraving and I chose a knotwork pattern from the book of Kells.
The top layer of the slate has left in places, removing the rust color on fragments of the pattern but I’m not too dissatisfied with the result.
This weekend, we celebrated a friend’s birthday. For the occasion, I engraved a small zinc brooch reminding her of her year of birth.
And also some slate triangles to put in her garden.
And as I offered her the engraving of “you are here”, I made another one for my garden.
For those who would still wonder how it is done, here is a little video where I am engraving the slate with my homemade tools
It is important to know where you are and to identify what is around you.
So I continue to engrave slate triangles that I place in my garden for crowd edification.
Chards that don’t seem to want to go out…
Salads that are difficult to confuse with an elephant but you never know…
A sign to know where you are…
And another sign, to know where everything else is. It is written in Breton and means “all directions”.
Yeah, because granite’s still hard. And when the slabs are already in place, it means making his engraving on his knees which is quickly painful.
So I resumed the slate engraving started last fall and abandoned because of cold.
The pattern is finished, all that remains is to dress it with filigrees. A few more hours of work ahead!
Some news of my latest work (still in progress).
After the preliminary drawing, I started with the engraving on the selected slate plate.
It’s long, very long… one hour and a half later I’m not really further…
My usual chisel (made out of a butter knife) is not sufficient as I have quite a lot of matter to remove so I made a new tool with a steel shaft.
I flattened one end with a hammer before sharpening it with a grindstone.
For the other end, I drilled a cork and stuck it on the shaft.
And here I am, with a brand new chisel perfectly ergonomic.
A bit tired of working on white vine for two weeks now, I rest a little with this engraving of a slate plate with a stained glass pattern.
I built the pattern by mixing elements from the gothic period, which doesn’t mean that it does not exists somewhere in the real world. If you know about it, please let me know, I’ll be happy to see it.
And I just don’t have a clue about what I’m going to do with it once finished, maybe a table mat ?
