Cross of Cong, Back Top, 2018
This is the first piece I did which is inspired bythe Cross of Cong, the original of which is in the Treasury of the National Gallery of Ireland. (Link out to more details here, if you are interested). This is definitely ‘inspired’ rather than copied, given move from the cast silver of the original to the Irish lime of my version. The 12th century original is exquisite in itself but when contemplating how and when and where it was created it is humbling to even think of creating my own version.
This is from the top panel on the back. You can see the process - create a stencil, transfer it, remove what does not belong. I used wood stain and gold leave to pull out some of the detail. The gold leaf got added later when I saw how well it worked on my second version - the lower panel from the back. You can see original versions without the leaf below too. Along with the gold leaf idea, I also used shellac. Both are ways of having light catch on the various curved surfaces on the piece, helping what you see change as you move around it. Light is always changing, the viewer soon to move. And so the piece shifts and changes.
Lime is soft enough that a lot of work is done with a chip knife and chisels for paring. The bulk of the removal is done suing a router and a 6mm bit. All very painstaking. All very satisfying. Then a key element is rounding off some of the pieces with sandpaper, to given the curved surfaces on which light can can play around the gold leaf and the shellac.
The wonder of it all is in the the inspiration of the original.
If you would like to learn a lot about the cross and the context in which it arose, read Griffin Murray’s brilliant The Corss of Cong: A Masterpiece of Medieval Art (Irish Academic Press, 2014 - check Goodreads)
