Gracefully Speaking...

I came across some uncatalogued pictures of Our Lady of Grace statue taken on August 15th, 2008, the Feast of the Assumption, in the Church in which she belongs.

The Pastor's homily was one of the loveliest I had ever heard. He tied this important day, celebrating Our Lady, to his own journey of faith, a journey in which statues of Our Lady of Grace, sans fingers, have played some part. He honored me by including my work on this particular statue as part of the homily.

Father had invited his congregation to bring flowers in honor of The Blessed Mother. He placed my humble arrangement of flowers from my Mary Garden front and center. The picture's a bid fuzzy because my very old digital camera takes terrible pictures with a flash. But you might be able to make out the white star-shaped flowers. They are the flower stems of Hosta plantaginea "Royal Standard." Hosta plantaginea is known as the Assumption Lily as it comes into bloom at around the time of the Feast of the Assumption.

Needless to say, this particular day, honoring the Mother of God, my Patron, was one I will always treasure.

Maria

Immaculate Heart of Mary

This statue, with the eerie glass eyes, belongs to the school where my niece teaches music. Although at first glance it seemed to be less challenging than my previous undertakings, it was in fact the most difficult. The problem lay in the very soft plaster, or chalkware, with which the statue was made. Replacing the missing toes was the least of my problems. Any work tat I attempted caused additional chipping of the paint and exposed the very soft plaster underneath. Even the lightest sanding took away a large amount of the plaster. Finally, after much filling and sanding, I sprayed the entire statue with a high gloss paint. After drying, the gloss was subdued with a fine steelwool producing a soft sheen.

Maria

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Maria

Baby Jesus

When the Baby Jesus Statue first came to me (besides the obvious damages) it was extremely dingy. As usual, I polished the statue with fine steel wool which brought out a gorgeous patina. The paint on the swaddling cloth was almost all flaked off and the hair was in similar condition. The metal rays behind the head had to be steelwooled as well and polished with brass cleaner. The edges of the metal were extremely sharp and I had to wrap them while I worked on the rest of the statue. Still, a number of scratches could not be avoided. Fortunately, the lovely face needed no repair work. The Baby Jesus was obviously once part of a Nativity Creche. I delivered it to the owner on Dec. 24th so that she might have it for Christmas. But oh, how I longed to keep it for myself!

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Infant of Prague II

Typical of damaged Infants of Prague, this little statuette had both hands missing along with the globe held in the left hand. But, unlike the previous Infant, the mantle on this one is removeable. The break in the face extended its way into the right eye requiring a re-painting of that eye. "Break" is almost a misnomer as once there is a break in old plaster, the area of the break separates easily from the statue. On small statues such as this one, I don't use glue to re-attach broken parts, but rather use the plaster as a glue.

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Maria

Infant of Prague I

Like most Infant of Prague Statues of a certain age, this one came to me with broken fingers and missing crosses on the globe and crown. But it was so dingy from the accumulated dirt of the ages that I was shocked at how beautiful it was underneath all that grime. I used 0000 steel wool to remove the dirt. Unlike most Infants of Prague, this one did not have a removeable mantle but its mantle did have a pearlized sheen which I further accentuated. The small crosses were made by molding plaster around small wire armatures then carving the plaster when it began to dry. All the gold was underpainted with a deep red so as to give it a richer tone. To further ensure this, the gold was dry-brushed on.

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Maria