This is a design that I used to do regularly in New Mexico, but I’ve seldom had to carve in New Orleans. However, I recently had the opportunity to carve it for a New Orleans event, so I thought it would be a good time to add it to the site.

    Despite the fact that I was happy with the finished sculpture, I did not get a picture of this piece. In fact, the sculpture broke and I had to do what I could to make the client happy. This experience gives me the opportunity to talk about a couple of issues.

    The break happened during the drive to the event. My assistant was delivering the sculpture and when he went to take the piece out of the truck, he found that it had broken at the hind legs and tail. This, of course, is the worst place for this sculpture to break. Repair is nearly impossible under the best of circumstances and if the sculpture is jostled after the break, the fracture surfaces are further damaged, meaning that even a successful repair would result in an unsafe sculpture. Better cushioning underneath the sculpture or a position change would have better protected this piece. The key is to avoid unduly stressing the hind legs and tail and one way would have been to rest the sculpture as shown in the drawing below. (with proper insulation and cushioning, of course)

    Proper transport would have gotten the sculpture to the destination undamaged, but once you decide a piece is broken beyond repair, you have to take a look at your options. In this case, I decided to create a display out of the broken pieces by welding the horse’s undamaged mid and front sections on the original base. It changed the orientation of the horse and certainly wasn’t a perfect solution, but along with a discount on the price of the sculpture, it was a solution that was acceptable to the client.

    Notice that the bottom of the base is cut so that the sculpture leans some. This makes the design a little more dramatic and takes it outside the confines of the block. If you’re not comfortable with this, you can simply leave the base uncut. Be sure to leave plenty of thickness in the rear legs and tail. Below the first template drawing is another version with a safety strut that can be removed after the sculpture is set up (that’s probably the version that I should have gone with the last time.)

  If you have any questions about this piece, just leave a comment below. If you would like to use this design or any other design on this site, please check the design usage guidelines. The design collection page lists designs on the site.