Al Hone Sculpture

Weathering the storm

Mary Hone — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 10:00:49 +0000

Weathering the storm – The newest sculpture

This sculpture has been in the gallery in Jackson Hole, still in clay, waiting for a precast buyer. It can be hard to sell a piece as precast because the color of the clay is nothing like the finished bronze will be. It can be hard for people to visualize what the patina will be, and what the finished product will look like. Thankfully, some buyers got the vision of “Weathering the storm”. This is an amazing piece, one of my favorites since Al created it. The movement and life in the horse is fantastic!!

“Weathering the storm” is a Native American horse ready for battle. The plains Indians created elaborate horse masks for their horses to wear as they went to war. Whether they were fighting neighboring tribes, or trying to push back the white men, the horse masks gave their mounts a very fierce appearance. All the decorations were symbolic of extra power they wanted the horses to possess. A common and favorite theme was associated with the thunderstorms that are famous for rolling across the plains. Lightning bolts, wind and hail are all decorations found on Plains Indian horse masks. This horse mask is modeled after an actual Blackfoot mask that is covered with circular brass buttons. The round metallic buttons represent hail stones. The beading around the eye holes, was done with white beads, to give the horse the appearance of lightning shooting from it’s eyes. The scalp lock hanging from the horses mouth, depicts an enemy the horse trampled and bit or “ate”. Many coveted war horses were given a split ear as another symbol of their bravery.

Dimensions are 16″h x 23″h x 12″d $6600.00

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Wood carving class

Mary Hone — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:00:34 +0000

Attend a wood carving class taught by award winning artist, Al Hone

Al has won many awards for his realistic wood carving, and is going to start giving instructional classes on his technique. The first wood carving class being offered for 2013 will give instruction on how to carve a life like wood feather.

This first class will be offered Feb. 21, 22, and 23. Basic understanding of the power carver, and the various bits will be covered. Design, layout and finish will also be included in the class.

Learn how to apply a small carved piece to a functional item, such as this walnut wood box. Making something ordinary, into something extraordinary.

Or maybe a simple wood sculpture is of more interest to you.

All the information on this class, and future classes, can be found on the Wood carving classes page. Don’t miss your chance to learn from the best.

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Friday follow up-Learning a new skill

Mary Hone — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:00:36 +0000

Learning a new skill

Al has been working on a new project this past week, and learning a new skill. A client in Colorado wanted a dresser made exactly like one they already owned. The carving on the piece was all done with chisels. So Al got out his chisels, sharpened them up, and began learning how to carve with chisels. You would think that someone who has been a wood worker his whole life, and has done more custom carving jobs than you can count, would have used chisels before. All the carved pieces he has done in the past, have been done with a power tool called an NSK. Getting the chisels out and using them, was a little bit different.

He soon learned that carving knives are a great way to get the detail, and the curves on these pieces too. Keeping all the tools razor sharp has helped keep everything going smoothly. He keeps a small block of wood with leather and some polishing compound nearby.Then he can run the knives over this, and everything stays super sharp.

Once all the pieces are carved they will be applied to the dresser, and the finish will be applied. The hardest part of this whole project for Al has been, not making everything perfect. Everything he does, whether it be in wood carving, or sculpting, is very detailed, and precise. This piece has been a learning moment, a chance to learn a new skill. And that’s never a bad thing.

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Friday follow up-Kickstarter project

Mary Hone — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 10:00:32 +0000

Kickstarter project-Freedom in a feather

We have talked about doing some smaller art pieces for a while. Pieces that can be worn, or used to embellish the functional art that Al creates. I have known about PMC or precious metal clay for quite some time. It’s a wonderful way to create free form pieces from the clay, then fire them, and the metal piece is what is left. It’s a pretty neat concept really. We met a woman in Jackson that was making jewelry pieces from silver or bronze PMC and Al became more interested in the whole idea.

So, we put together this Kickstarter project to help us purchase a kiln, PMC, and all the tools we need to get started.

We are offering some unique pendants and jewelry for backers of the project. Please visit Kickstarter to read all about our project, and support us if you can.

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