Tag: slate

S like Stele

The weather is much too beautiful to stay in the workshop trying to do some calligraphy. So I try to get some fun outside.


A small initial S, in the gothic style, first engraved on slate and then filled with rust.
It has to remain some days in the garden for the rust to look similar on the whole letter but it already looks good or so think I ?

those volatile dreams…

Here it is, at last, I finished my engraving work on slate and zinc.


You can see the whole work here, and two close-up here and there.
It was my first large work on slate, I’m quite happy with it even if I spent more time on it than I expected.
I will now be able to get back to paper work, almost forgot the taste of it.

And, I was about to forget, it is a text by Petronius, a fragment of the Satiricon, you can find its trancript here.

small engraving

Last part of my current project, I engraved the french version of the text (still using my super home made tool).


I’m quite happy with the result, I used my chisel as I would have done with a nib, the engraving is not very deep but it allowed me to write quite small, the two lines here are 3mm high.

I think I just discovered a new experimentation field in slate engraving.

grave situation

Well, yes, still on my engraving project, with more than 60 hours of work done and probably almost the same amount to come, wishing everything goes well (slate engraving is not very forgiving).



Of course, the pic is not very good, there are debris from the latest strokes of my magical home made tool but I can tell that in the real world, it looks fine.

I can also tell you that it is a text from Petronius, that it will be a mix of engraving on slate and zinc and probably other media…

Proof of concept

Metal is nice but so is slate. Except that one cannot engrave it with acid, it would have been too easy.
As I don’t have the appropriate tools, I make them and test them.


For a first try, it’s not too bad. The letter is 1cm high, the tool allows quite precise work, just have to really do something with it now.

Cthulhu

First step of a new work on slate.


This time, I took a good quality slate plate and, apart from a little shard on a letter of the penultimate line, I had no accident to deplore.
Still a lot of work to do as I intend to add another line from H. P. Lovecraft‘s writings to this work. To be followed …

While waiting, you can have a look to these two close-ups of the current engraving :