Special Carvings and New Frontiers

A while back Plans were laid before me for a wedding. my two friends were getting married in a ceremony slightly differing from the norm.
Knowing a few things about the two of them and all the things I infer about them from my archeology, scifi and fantasy addled brain I began to think of a sculpture I could carve for them.
And when doing research on vikings, stone and weddings I came across the idea of the "Quaich".

A small sharing bowl used to show unity between a group of friends, chieftains or couples. Predominating in Scotland but making inroads in the arena of non-traditional wedding ceremonies.
The cup itself is generally a shallow bowl with a small handle on either side of the bowl.
The viking stuff? That was the materials choice. Vikings used soapstone for many things. Often cooking pots, due to it's amazing heat and fire-proof properties. And the most important for me, ease of carving.
It takes a beautiful shine and is worked nicely. each time the chisels came out they cut into the stone with such rapidity that it was tempting to dig out too much stone from the piece too quickly.
Due to the nature of direct carving it was important to hold back more than when carving from a model.
It was summer and amazing out. I live near a beach. Carving cross-legged on the beach on the mornings I had free from moneying work was glorious. Getting to a few specific spots and setting up for the day, spending the time looking down at the piece as it started forming. Looking up to find the beach packed. More packed than I have ever seen it in my lifetime. Losing one of the chisels in the sand I hunted around in the area I was sitting and found first, a teaspoon and second, the chisel I had lost. the spoon joined in. It became a perfect tool for leveling of the curve on the outside of the bowl.
A man and his child asked what was being done. I showed them the stone and chisels. Handed an extra lump to them when they showed an interest in maybe trying out carving. They drifted off with another thing to make their holiday full of good memories(or so my romantical mind told me). I think that was where a nugget started forming.

Once the main structure of the bowl was made I stopped for a while and kind of soaked in the form to figure out the next parts to carve.
First the rabbit headed handles.
The rabbits heads formed up pretty quickly.

Each head was kind of modeled off of the two rabbits my friends have.




Of course an added  element of the sharing cup and something that was not too far from my mind while making it was the idea fertility and what with all the rabbit imagery it kind of goes with the tradition of the honeymoon being a time for babymaking.




Then the celtic knotwork.
The knotwork writhed in my head. I thought of saxon art and the curving playful animals, saxon  visual riddles and the interplay between pattern and symbolic representation.
Not that I  felt able to measure up to that scale of detailed work.
The base of the bowl became a triskal, a celtic symbol of unity.

each side of the bowl became a simple adapted triskal with gems carved around it. only the gems became more than that. the large two leaves of the triskal became the ears of a rabbit the lower leaf the head. the gems around the triskal became the feet of the rabbit. a simplified version of the saxon puzzle symbol imagery.




















It was hoped that the bowl would look archeologic, fantasy-like.
something passed down for generations.

When it was presented, my two friends were amazingly touched by the gesture.
More so, I was near in tears when they incorporated it into the ceremony!

As for the nugget that was growing. that's a story for another post.