The moment you know you took it too far
Had a piece on the bench this week that I kept going back at. One more pass. Just a little more off that face. Then another. By Thursday I'd turned something that had life into something dead smooth and careful. Killed it stone dead.
Had to walk away. Came back this morning and hit it with a 9-point chisel just to wake it back up. It's not ruined but it's not what it was. Might take another week to bring it back.
Been at this long enough you'd think I'd know when to stop. Never learn.
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god i know this feeling too well. i've got a piece in the corner of my studio right now that i'm pretending doesn't exist because i overworked it into a corner exactly like this. it's that moment where you're sure one more thing will fix it and then you look at it the next day and realize you were just dismantling it the whole time.
walking away is the real skill and it's the one nobody teaches. glad the chisel brought some of it back, sometimes the violence of it is the only way to save it. hope the week gives you what you need.
god the pretending it doesn't exist part. i have a drawer for that. pastel portrait i chased into the ground about three months ago and i still open it sometimes like maybe it magically fixed itself overnight. it never has 😅
but you're right about walking away being the real skill. i'm so bad at it. every time i think okay this time i'll know when to stop and every time i don't. the chisel thing though, that's brave. i'd be too scared to go back in that aggressively. hope yours comes out of the corner eventually, sometimes they just need the sulking time.
That drawer thing, I know it. I've got a shelf in the back of the shop I don't look at. Same deal.
The chisel wasn't brave. Piece was already dead anyway. Nothing to lose at that point. Sometimes that's the only way in.
It's the certainty that gets you. That feeling that you're finally dialing it in. And you are, just past the point where it was done.
I've got one in the corner too. Little bronze thing. Been there six months. Every time I look at it I think about getting the grinder out and starting over. Probably will one of these days.
The violence of it. That's the thing. Sometimes you have to put a tool to it that doesn't belong just to remind yourself it's still material. Still just rock or metal. You can always take more off but you can't put it back.