The Kraken

The Kraken – welsh slate 2015

This experimental piece came to my mind one day when I was admiring one of my teacher’s headstones. She was using oil to impregnate a welsh slate so that her letter carving would stand out on a black background. I thought a simple design like a giant squid would look quite nice on a black background. So I tried and here is the result. The carved grey lines of the squid seem almost fluorescent with the black background, which is quite appropriate for a creature of the abyss. The original idea was to have it hanging on the wall with a frame. So one day I was talking with a friend of mine from Bristol that does wealding as a hobby and I came up with the idea of a steel frame. I went to Bristol for a weekend and we had an intensive couple of days in his garage cutting, milling, wealding, grinding and polishing the frame. You can’t believe how much work was behind it. In the end we made it and now the structure should be able to withstand around 20 kilos of stone or more.