{"product_id":"life-size-sheep-white-marble-statue-100cm","title":"Life-Size Sheep White Marble Statue - 100cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA ewe lies with her legs folded beneath her and both forelegs stretched forward along the base, head up and turned a little to her left, her ears hanging either side. The fleece is carved as tight spiral curls over the whole body and across the crown of the head, each curl cut separately, and the face is left smooth so the muzzle and the heavy lids read against it. The stone is a white marble with fine grey veining, and the veins run out of the fleece and on through the base without a break. The base is part of the same block: an upper slab she lies on over a thinner course set back beneath it, both square-edged, the back corner rounded off.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eEvery Curl Cut Once\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe fleece is the whole job on a piece like this. Each curl is a separate cut, a shallow spiral worked into the surface and then undercut at its edge so it throws its own shadow, and they run in courses that follow the body - tighter over the shoulder and the crown of the head, looser along the flank. They cannot be roughed out and refined later, because a spiral cut twice loses its centre, so each one is finished as it is reached and the carver works down the animal in bands. The face is deliberately kept out of it. Smooth stone against several thousand carved curls is what makes the head read from across a lawn, and it is the reason the muzzle and the heavy lids show at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt 100cm this is a knee-height animal, about the size of a real ewe, and it belongs on the grass or gravel rather than on a plinth - the base is part of the carving and lifting it onto anything else would spoil the line it sits on. Its register is mown grass and low planting: a lawn edge, an orchard, a paddock corner, a gravel bed, or half into planting so the head comes out of the foliage. At 584kg it is within a crane-free delivery on most sites and four people can move it once it is down, so nothing about the position is final. Marble at this size weathers slowly and needs nothing done to it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eOne Block, and the Veining Shows It\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eFourteen to sixteen weeks once the order is placed. The block is squared and the animal set out on it in elevation and plan, then the barrel and the back are brought down while the folded legs are left heavy, the head is cut late, and the fleece is worked last of all when nothing underneath it can move. Every piece is cut by hand from a single block, and on this one you can check that for yourself: the grey veining runs out of the fleece, across the line where the animal meets the base, and on through the slab without a break or a change of direction. There is no pin, no filler and no seam anywhere on it, and the forelegs are undercut clear of the slab they lie on. Some 584kg, craned or barrowed across and bedded onto a prepared pad. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFarm animals graze across \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and life-size work fills \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/garden-statues\"\u003egarden statues\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\u003e100cm\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":53851578630491,"sku":"MST-ANI-164","price":9942.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-164_1.jpg?v=1787575726","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/life-size-sheep-white-marble-statue-100cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}