{"product_id":"coiled-dragon-white-marble-garden-statue-180cm","title":"Coiled Dragon White Marble Garden Statue - 180cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA dragon coils with its scaled body arched high and its head turned back over the shoulder. The jaws are open, a horned crest and long whiskers stream behind, a flame-shaped tail lifts at the rear and a ridged fin runs the length of the spine. One clawed foreleg reaches forward toward a plain sphere. The body is pierced right through beneath the arch and again along the neck. It stands on a rectangular plinth whose face carries a carved band of cloud scrolls. White marble, neutral and unmarked in the figure, the faintest grey drift in the plinth alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBoring Through a Coil Before Anything Is Polished\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe openings through this dragon's neck and the great void under its arched back are what make it read as a living coil rather than a heap of stone, and they are the reason the job is difficult. Every one of them is bored, and a drill entering a curved polished surface will skate across it - so all the piercing is done while the surrounding stone is still rough and will hold a bit where it is put. That inverts the usual order: the most delicate operation on the piece happens early, when the carving still looks like nothing, and the whole of the rest of the work is then done around holes that cannot be moved. Once pierced, the coil is also fragile in a way it never is again, so it is worked from the inside out - the awkward surfaces inside the arch and around each opening first, the outer scales and crest last.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe point of pierced carving is that you see through it, and that only happens if there is light on the far side. At 180cm the arched back sits above the eye and the pierced work is seen against the sky. Set against a solid wall the openings go dark and the dragon becomes a silhouette with the coil lost inside it; set with sky, water or open lawn behind, the same openings read as air and the body appears to twist. So the positions that suit it are the exposed ones - the end of a terrace, a bastion, a raised bed, the top of steps, an island in a lawn. Approach it from the side rather than head-on: the coil is a profile composition and the head turned back over the shoulder is the whole of the gesture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePierced Work Wants Sky Behind It\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEighteen to twenty weeks. Boring the pierced openings through neck and coil precedes any finishing, because a drill wanders on a polished face. The plinth is dressed and the dragon roughed above it as one coiled mass, then every opening is bored and cut through while the surrounding stone is still rough. The work proceeds from inside out: the surfaces within the arch and around each piercing first, then the scales, the spinal fin, the crest and the whiskers. The sphere and the reaching claw are finished together. The cloud-scroll band on the plinth face is cut last. The dragon takes no pin and no filler, and every pierced opening is cut through solid. Some 3,403kg for dragon and plinth, craned in courses onto a poured concrete footing. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEastern subjects sit apart within \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and traditional carving in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/classic-sculptures\"\u003eclassic 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\u003e180cm\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 Marble\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Giant Sculptures","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53836687409499,"sku":"MST-ANI-113","price":25656.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-113_1.jpg?v=1787174878","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/coiled-dragon-white-marble-garden-statue-180cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}