I have, over the previous few weeks, started to realise the great importance that the passage of time has with some of these sculptures. The way that over a period of time the sculptures can reveal more of their true nature after the elements have affected them. The way that they slowly develop / deteriorate over the process of time, eventually returning to nature in the original way that I found them. The tides inevitably affect them in their continuous cycle. Some of them, I have now understood will not totally vanish until the winter storms come.
I found a recumbent stone that was just small enough to move and stand upright. I’d decided to revisit a sculpture of before and cover it with clay and then inscribe the clay like a portal stone. Again with the idea of Newgrange with the protective spirals inscribed on the face of the stone. It was hotter today and the clay should dry and crack nicely. I could then watch the drying process as the clay gradually peeled off.
I covered the stone in about an hour and got some strange looks from a family walking by. I suppose that they don’t understand what I am doing. Watching a man covering a stone in grey mud in the middle of nowhere is not an everyday sight! I took another two hours to inscribe the details. The clay had just started to crack when I finished inscribing it.
After a while some cracks had started to open up, but not quite enough for it to start peeling away. Had to go and pick my daughter Rhiannon up from work.
I decided to go back the following evening and see how it had developed. Nearly all the clay had now fallen off with just a small amount left on the top of the stone. All the pieces were gathered around the base of the stone. By the marks left by the seaweed on the beach, the high tide had just reached the base of the stone, but I could not help wondering whether someone had not helped the process by picking some of the pieces off. All I do know is that I will never know what happens to these sculptures when I leave them, I can just speculate...