Works starts on the statue of St John
Work has now commenced on the statue of St John the Baptist. The sculptor, Rodney Munday, is working in his barn aka his studio.
The dimensions of the statues have been modified following the tower visit, and they are now just slightly under 2.2m. As you can see, still very impressive.
The first step has been to build a lightweight wooden frame. This is then covered in chicken wire which is roughly moulded to the statues outlines.
The head and the upper body are exaggerated as they will be foreshortened when viewed from ground level.
The second stage is that slabs of clay are applied to the wire framework, to provide a base coat.
The work on the statue of St John the Baptist continues with more detail being added the torso and to the face. The metal rods at each side are needed to support the arms because the weight of the clay whilst still damp could pull the wire framework out of shape.
The lamb begins to take shape. As the main figure is now largely finished Rodney Munday has been working on the lamb. Following suggestions from the congregation of the Parish Church he used a Cotswold Lion as his model, and even had a shepherd come in to inspect the work to make sure that it was realistic.
