One of the interesting things he has there is a six axis robotic stone milling machine. Carl Nelson has worked with Patrick and this wonderful tool to create computer generated voids in some of his Dunite sculptures.
This article describes a commission Patrick has been working on. The client lives in a medieval style stone house near Calgary, Alberta. The job was to cut twin four foot high gargoyles from a five ton block of Carrara grey Bardiglio marble. No problem for Patrick and his magic cutter.
Patrick started by splitting the marble block into two equal pieces with wedges and feathers and a ring saw. He then scanned a plaster model with his in-house 3-D laser scanner, cleaning up the scan with his CAD software. The finished scan was then put into his CAM software which details the milling instructions for the robotic cutter.
Patrick started by splitting the marble block into two equal pieces with wedges and feathers and a ring saw. He then scanned a plaster model with his in-house 3-D laser scanner, cleaning up the scan with his CAD software. The finished scan was then put into his CAM software which details the milling instructions for the robotic cutter.
After the bottom of each stone was leveled with the robot, a large cutting head was used to remove the blocky, excess stone.
Then the intermediate milling was done to clean out the undercuts and hollows. The third pass was for the fine, detail work done in a zig zag pattern to finish the piece. The milling for each Gargoyle took about five days.
Since the client wanted a pitted, old bronze look, the finished stone was sandblasted, then sanded with 400 and 800 grit, but leaving some rough spots.
The required aging process uses a mix of black ash, oil, grease and a few other things. It was then wiped-down with a hand pad to achieve a matt finish with a very old weathered look. This takes some time, so it’s the gargoyles are still sitting in Pat’s shop being finished.
As you can imagine, technology comes with price tag. The shop rate is $100/hour but can be a big savings in time for large projects and also allows the artist to do small multiples like you would with the bronze process. Patrick is open to working with the artist’s budget.
You can reach Patrick Doratti through his email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Since the client wanted a pitted, old bronze look, the finished stone was sandblasted, then sanded with 400 and 800 grit, but leaving some rough spots.
The required aging process uses a mix of black ash, oil, grease and a few other things. It was then wiped-down with a hand pad to achieve a matt finish with a very old weathered look. This takes some time, so it’s the gargoyles are still sitting in Pat’s shop being finished.
As you can imagine, technology comes with price tag. The shop rate is $100/hour but can be a big savings in time for large projects and also allows the artist to do small multiples like you would with the bronze process. Patrick is open to working with the artist’s budget.
You can reach Patrick Doratti through his email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
