{"product_id":"standing-owl-beige-marble-statue-150cm","title":"Standing Owl Beige Marble Statue - 150cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn owl stands upright and square to the front, the facial disc cut in fine radiating lines. Two large forward-set eyes sit within it, short ear tufts lift above the head and a small hooked beak sits between them. The breast and belly carry long overlapping lanceolate feathers and the folded wings fall close at the sides. The eyes are inset: glossy black domes in pale amber irises. It stands on its own two feet with the talons spread, and there is no base of any kind. Warm cream-beige marble, flecked and veined with tan through head, breast and wings.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTwo Eye Domes Bedded True, With No Second Attempt\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEverything else on this bird is subtraction, and the eyes are the one operation that adds something. Each dome is bedded into a socket cut to receive it, and the two have to finish level with each other, at matching depth, and looking the same way - because an owl is read entirely through its eyes and a dome seated a degree out gives it a squint that no amount of work elsewhere will pull back. It is also the one operation with no second attempt: the sockets are cut to size, and a socket cut too deep or too wide cannot be made shallower. So they are bored undersize, tested with blanks, opened by fractions, and the real domes go in last of all, after the whole carving is finished and there is nothing left that could jar them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis owl has no plinth, no slab and no base - it stands on its own two feet, which is unusual in this range and worth planning for. It needs a flat surface of its own: a pier cap, a plinth, a wide sill, a bracket, the flat of a wall, a paved area. At 150cm the two eyes are near head height and meet yours without stooping. Frontality is the whole composition, so approach it head-on rather than in passing - at the end of a path, in an alcove, facing down a walk. The warm cream-beige stone with its tan flecks holds against brick, render and timber on hue alone and does not need a dark background arranged for it, though it will disappear against a stone wall of much the same colour.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Bird That Needs Something to Stand On\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEighteen to twenty weeks. Bedding the two eye domes true and level is the last operation, and the one with no second attempt. The block is squared and the bird roughed upright within it, feet and talons left as a solid mass at the bottom. Body and folded wings come down together, then the facial disc, whose radiating lines are cut from the eyes outward. The lanceolate breast feathers are laid in courses from the throat down. The talons are freed late and the eye sockets bored undersize, tested with blanks and opened by fractions, the domes bedded at the very end. No pin and no filler in the carving; only the two eye domes are separately set. Some 1,969kg standing on its own feet, which a gantry will bed onto a prepared pad. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOwls occupy a small corner of \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and coloured stone runs through \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/marble-sculptures\"\u003emarble 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\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":53837120569691,"sku":"MST-ANI-127","price":22249.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-127_1.jpg?v=1787179053","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/standing-owl-beige-marble-statue-150cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}