Marble resistance to Weather +

[abknight@zzzzzz]

Don, Bill and George,

Thank you for your thorough and thoughtful response to my questions.   Don,
I am embarrassed about ribbing you for preferring Georgia, and I do not
doubt that you are broadly and deeply informed.   I wish I had a good hunk
of it to practice with.  Perhaps I should visit Tate.  It's probably the
best way.  Are any of the greys as outdoors suitable as well?  And are any
of them free enough of figuring to be good for figurative work?

Bill, if you are reading, I am pleased to be an ally in the search for
knowledge.  You had mentioned that you were surprised I considered Yule
crystals large.  Well, compared to Georgia, no, but to Italian, yes I do!
This figurative commission has me very uneasy.   I just do not have any role
models of success in domestic stone.  The fussiness of proportion and
rendering that I have gone to in the maqette push the project into the range
of "classical" endeavor and it would seem to demand a "classical" marble.
Perhaps a trip to Brookgreen as you and George have suggested would expand
my "palette" of stones with more successful usages of domestic stone in
figurative work.

George, you mention many sculptures in Tennessee pink at Brookgreen.  I do
not think I am allowed to use pink on this project.  Do they still quarry
Champion Pink, if that's what you're referring too?  Thanks for your account
of Vermont Marble.  I have spoken to Gerrald Russert at Gawet.  They're at
around $125 a foot for their best should I travel up there to select stone,
which is what he very much suggested.  But there would be a month's time
elapsed before the stone was actually cut to ship.  Which would mean paying
for shipping, instead of trucking home with it myself.

I have communicated with a R. Salmon who is a curator at Brookgreen and if I
get her permission I will forward her e-mail to all of you.  She reports
that they do not wax stone and that their current position is to not treat
in any way.  They have discontinued using a breathing sealant sounding
similar to what Clive describes.  I will also forward information on that.
Mostly it sounds if they employ frequent washings.  I would think that
Pawley's Island enjoys fairly clean air.  She mentioned Tennessee marble and
limestone as what I took to be her maintainance favorites.

George, if you are listening, I wonder if that Jane Armstrong book you
mentioned doesn't have figurative work in Vermont marble.  I would be very
interested to learn more if anyone can point to examples of successful
"classical" figuration in domestic marble!