Aug 8

Bergen Rocks...Aug. 8

This morning Hung cleaved the granite block that he scored with the big stone saw yesterday, it is in the bottom right of this picture with a grinder laying on top of it.

Today was another great day for weather, well only until after supper when there was an incredible windstorm that took the sun/rain shelters to the other end of the site. Cutting stone is really a tough job for machines, the atmosphere they operate in is harsh with dust and water always present. It seems there is always something that needs repair, we are continuously dismantling grinders to clean and maintain them, adjusting equipment, fuel, lubrication, etc.

Cuong's sculpture might be the first one that is becoming easily recognizable, he's using mable lake marble. There is still a lot of work to do and this is particularly hard stone, as tough as the granite. It is a large crystal marble (dolomite) with lot's of quartz inclusions, challenging stone to work.
A shot from the loft of the barn, Paul Haggins at the top of the picture, Tran Viet Hung on the left, Peerapong Doungkaew in the centre (running the saw) and in the bottom left is one piece of Vahe Tokmajyan triptic.
Some residents of Sundre Long Term Care visited for about an hour just as we were starting to work after lunch. My Dad lives there, although he didn't come out with this group I knew all of them and was really glad that they could come out and see the action. Thank's to Karen McLeod and Val Sarsons and everyone else that helped to organize this program. The site was set up so that the community bus could pull right in beside the sculptures so everyone can get a close up view of the sculptors working.

Tommorrow is the opening ceremony day, we decided to do it a week into the symposium so that we would have all the bugs out of things and there would be lots of work going on for the public to see before the ceremony begins. The site has been open for a week now and all of the guys are pretty well decided on where they are going with thier stones so that worked out well. Volunteers spent the day setting up the stage and putting a little polish on the site. I hope we get nice weather.