Around 1500, Michelangelo said “In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.”

I believe that every artist with a vision feels the same way.  We chip away the side of the stone block which traps the sculpture & presses its weight against her legs; We carve away the clump that sticks to the sculpture’s arm, and polish away the sludge that sticks to the sculpture’s cheek.  Slowly, we see the curve of her slipper peak out humbly from the bottom of the block.  With many gentle taps of the hammer, and a mastery of skill, we begin to see her dress loosely waving in the wind– or at least appearing to do so, although she’s made of stone.

We recently went to Seaside, Oregon– My daughter, my hubbie, and I.  In one of the stores, I admired the beautiful product of a man’s imaginative experiments.  In 1973, John Perry developed a durable resin compound out of which he can mold beautiful, smooth sculptures.  How many times do you suppose he had to change his resin recipe before coming upon the perfect one?  Another way to say this is– how much hammering & chiseling did he have to do before “unveiling” the veil of his Madonna?

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Let’s look at some other amazing sculptures, while we’re on the topic:

I have been a fan of Mitsy Sleurs’ sculptures (see “Restless” below) ever since I saw this video.  (Visit her shop: ArtMind)  Mitsy Sleurs produces simple, endearing sculptures which illustrate different emotions.  I have chosen the feeling, “restless,” because that is how all sculptors feel when they are so close to “hew[ing] away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition,” but are not… quite… there yet.

After all…  While my idea of my finished, sell-able Nareya Yarn  (a.k.a. “string sculpture”) is as beautiful and perfect as this:

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…in reality, it is in this stage:

In my post “My Spinning Wheel & My Life Thread,” I listed the following stages of my *string sculpting*:

1. The Glued Prototype
2. The Dyed Fabric Prototype
3. The Dyed Yarn Prototype
4. The [Ever So Tedious] Knit I-Cord Prototype
5. The Sewn Felt Prototype
6. The Double-Pom-Pom Spun Prototype

…Each prototype was better than the one before, or at least was a learning experience.  I’m chip, chip, chipping away at that big block of stone.

Here is stage 7: Double Two-Ply Yarn Prototype;

I got the idea for that type of color-switch after watching Wool Wench‘s YouTube video on corespinning Cloud Coils.

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If someone else out there has any idea how to make split stitches with fewer steps, please let me know!  🙂

This is the very first successfully home-spun Nareya Mosaic Yarn.  I am very happy with this big step towards quality production of my yarn.

The big chunks have been knocked off of my block of marble.  I am eager to begin chipping away the flaws to expose the perfect and beautiful details “to reveal [the lovely apparition] to the other eyes as mine see it.”

For your viewing pleasure, below are some beautiful creations made by string “sculptors”.  Some are created with string, and others are created with fabric.  Each one is the final product of an idea which started as a block of marble & ended as a finely honed, beautifully chiseled work of art.  For these sculptures, “chiseling” took the form of transgressing and learning from multiple failed experiments to create something new; something different, and beautiful.