1 2 3 4 5

April 29, 2007

The weather is looking soooo good that Robert gave us Sunday off. David, Pamela, and I hiked up the North Fork of Mill B in the Mount Olympus Wilderness. Spectacular scenery. We needed that dose of Nature after working on a concrete slab in a construction zone for the last wee.

This is a 'pure' Chartres labyrinth pattern. The center is light and lacey because the petals are cut out. Here is an image of one of the petals before the final cutting of the petal tip and interior is finished:



The ends of the lines in the paths are finished like this:


Note that there are two little bridges where our tools couldn't cut through the cement. We go back with a special diamond bit and grind out those little places so that the channel or groove that defines the labyrinth is continuous. The channel makes the lines stand out. This is what makes this a Ferre Style Chartres Labyrinth. To our knowledge, no one else makes this type of labyrinth.

The following image shows Robert at the center of the labyrinth with all the cutting done.


We do the coloring of the lines gradually, by hand, with paint brushes. Our daily progress is clear in the next few images:

We started coloring after lunch and got this much done the first afternoon. With four of us working and another doing the color mixing, things move right along.


A day later the image shows Robert at the center of the labyrinth with more of the lines painted. We colored the center. Finally, this pattern is looking like a pure Chartres Labyrinth. See how light and lacey the center looks? I offer earrings, rings, and bracelets of the center of the Labyrinth.


This image shows Robert at the center of the labyrinth with our coloring up to Saturday evening. Gradually the pattern grows.


This image shows Robert at the center of the labyrinth at lunch time on Monday. We're getting close.


This image shows Robert at the center of the labyrinth in the finished pattern.


We came back Tuesday morning and ground away at any extra color to make the design cleaner and more symmetric. One of the construction supervisors who came by to check our progress commented that he'd never seen this kind of precise art in concrete. This is not too unusual since we are the only decorative concrete crew in the world which specializes in cut labyrinth patterns.
This image shows the labyrinth Tuesday evening with its first coat of sealer. Note the deeper gray and forest green colors. The sealer makes the concrete look wet.


I'm getting on a plane to Asheville in a few hours. This project went more smoothly than any I've worked on. The weather was superb, the crew delightful, the food - as usual - more than satisfying. Thanks to Carl Rasmussen at Okland for his steady encouragement and easy going supervision of our project. Really, the only demand we made of him was a water key so we could have water to mix our concrete with, but it was always a pleasure to see him. His example shows that Okland, is an excellent company to work with. We look forward to more projects with them in the future.

Back to the Index Page