This was shortly after the arrival of the stone and I was working up near the Whitehouse on the Chevin. the stone cut very quickly with my diamond-tip stonecarving grinder and right from the start I adopted a flowing organic approach to the stone modelling as seen here on the early stages of ' River Delta'.
The stone was very heavy and large in scale so I needed assistance from the Forest Rangers...and the use of a tractor to move the sculptures in and out of the barn as the work progressed.
This gives a good idea of the wonderful environment I was carving in...very different than the more secluded forest i had as a studio for the woodcarving trail I did earlier in the year.
This is the early stages of 'Stigmaria'...fossilised tree roots.

Here you can see the initial design of 'River Delta'

Surprise View on the top of Otley Chevin....from this spot you can see north up Wharfedale. This escarpment was formed by the Doubler Stones Sandstone, the rocks around this spot are coarse sandstones with rounded quartz pebbles...I have attempted to capture this geological process aswell as wanting the material to flow to symbolize the glacial movement in this valley.
This is the finished 'Stigmaria'...the surface has a number of drilled holes that are to represent the dimpled surface with fossils of tree roots. An interesting accident here is the pink stone seam that seems ideal as the stone in this area is made of fine to medium size quartz grains, with a few pink grains of feldspar and was formed in a river.
Here is a familiar sight along the trail ...large boulders with chalk prints from the previous climbers activity.
'Cross-bedding'..... this is formed in a river channel in which sand grains are being rolled along the bottom by fast flowing water. The grains avalanche down the front face of sand banks and settle at an angle about 15-20degrees. Each cross-bedded set has been eroded by another flood of water, so the top of each sand bank has been washed away, truncating the cross-bedding.

Here is another view with my son contemplating a climb in the background !

If you look closely you can see fossilised tree branches on this fallen block of crags. These features are called soft-sediment deformation structures which are due to dewatering.....the sculpture below have exaggerated this process.
I have placed the calamites across each other at angles to demonstate the how you find them at this site ...the largest fallen rock that you find the forms on has tilted through 90degrees...this 'Calamites : Still Life' represents this but also makes a personal reference to my earlier development as a carver back at Birmingham Art College when I made a series of Stll Life sculptures in stone and wood (www.yorkshirecarver.blogspot.com).
'Calamites : Still Life'
'Calamites : Still Life'....... bedded in the ground adjacent to the boulders that they are on.

The spot where this sculpture is is called the Great Dibb Landslip, SE 1991 4435. This sculpture was inspired by the West Yorkshire Geological