Getting Into and Out of a Jamb

Having my correctly dimensioned orthotope or extruded rectangle prepared, my first step is to remove a good deal of mass. This is accomplished by a chamfer carved across a diagonal line just above the details of the profile. With the chamfer is in place and the surface flat I can connect my applied profiles across the face of the stone giving me a guide to extrude the moulding elements.

The first step in approaching the profile is carving out a series of straight steps, leaving the curvilinear work for last. The step pyramid effect removes mass quickly allowing the approach to the curved surfaces with reduced risk of a blowout.

Finally, very carefully I begin working on the curves, really treating them as a series of straight extrusions, step by step removing small triangular masses of stone along its length until it is safe to clean up along the face.

With just one more concave element to carve, the concave cavetto, and a bit of surface tooling to give a unified pleasing surface the jamb should be complete early next week. Next step if the mantle, a massive complex piece that will likely take me the balance of the semester to complete.

Contributed by Patrick Webb