Open up

The challenge was to find an emotion reflecting both “feel at home/safe” and “comfort and strength”. I chose the hug with my twin-brother, normally consisting of three steps: approach, hug, let go.

A major break-through (literally) was to create the opening between the two figures, allowing for shapes to start communicating with one another.

Material of choice was alabaster. Being firm, but easy to work on with a variety of tools, alabaster comes out nice once sanded and polished.

Choose position

The difficulty was to fix the momentum of the three-step-hug I had in mind. One has to choose. It is impossible to have the three movements in one piece (though you can try).

At the end of the day I opted for the middle moment, without working out details such as facial expressions. This concentrates the attention on the aspect of brotherly love.

Feel the flow of energy

The stone revealed its veins. Yet another question to be answered: should the blood be more in the heads of the twin-brothers?

The answer is once more looking from a different perspective: in this case the way colors of human bodies are assigned in chakra teaching. White for the mind, red for the hip-regions.

Getting started

• A not too big piece of alabaster – white with veins
• Visualizing the three-step hug
• Gently getting to know the stone and “peel off” the outer skin
• Correct tools to work in alabaster and to avoid “pits” 😉

Getting it right

final step: in the bathtub like twin brothers do when young 😊

Giving life to stone

Finished the sculpture while visiting my brother.