{"product_id":"barn-owl-on-a-post-sandstone-statue-150cm","title":"Barn Owl on a Post Sandstone Statue - 150cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA barn owl perches with its wings folded and its heart-shaped face turned down. The eyes are cut as two shallow slits with a small beak between them, the wing coverts are carved as courses of overlapping scalloped feathers and the primaries below as long parallel quills. It perches on a tall plain rectangular post, integral with the bird and squared on every face. This is SANDSTONE, not marble: the grain is fine, even, matte and faintly porous throughout. Pale beige sandstone, fine and even and matte in grain, cream where light catches.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eSandstone Crushes Where Marble Chips\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSandstone behaves nothing like marble under a tool and the difference decides how this bird was cut. Marble is crystalline: it chips, and a firm blow takes a clean flake with a bright edge. Sandstone is grains held in a matrix, and a firm blow does not flake it, it CRUSHES it - the grains part company and the edge goes soft and mealy, and no amount of subsequent work will bring it back. So every blow is lighter, the waste comes off in far more passes, and the carver works with a deliberately blunt-edged expectation of what an arris can be. That is why the feather courses here are scalloped and rounded rather than crisply cut, and why the post is plain: in this stone a sharp edge is a promise you cannot keep.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe tall square post is not a plinth we supply - it is the same block as the bird, carved as one, and it is what makes this work. At 150cm the post carries the bird to near head height, which is the point of it. So it needs no pedestal, only a level footing, and it belongs where a bird on a post belongs: at a lawn edge, in a border, beside a gate, at the end of a walk, in a paddock corner. Sandstone weathers more openly than marble - it takes lichen and softens visibly over years - which suits a barn owl and is worth wanting rather than resisting. Keep it out of heavy shade where damp lingers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Post That Is Part of the Piece\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSixteen to eighteen weeks. Sandstone crushes rather than chips, so every blow is lighter than marble would take. The post is squared on all four faces first, since everything above is set out from it, and the bird roughed on top of it as one mass with the wings kept close. The heart-shaped facial disc is dished, and the eye slits and small beak cut within it. The wing coverts are laid in scalloped courses from the shoulder down and the long primaries after them, all worked in light passes. Bird and post are one block of sandstone, with no pin and no filler anywhere. Some 1,969kg bird and post together, craned upright onto a poured concrete footing. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePerching birds appear across \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and park-scale work under \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/outdoor-sculptures\"\u003eoutdoor sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eSpecification\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ctable class=\"spec_table\"\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e150cm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBase\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIncluded\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHand-Carved Natural Sandstone\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Giant Sculptures","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53841769103707,"sku":"MST-ANI-173","price":22249.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-173_1.jpg?v=1787232289","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/barn-owl-on-a-post-sandstone-statue-150cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}