Sculptural Nutcracker
A few years back I was approached by a student studying for a PHD at Loughborough University who was asking artists /architects/ designers etc to come up with ideas for nutcracker designs. The idea being that he could study the creative path of each design and compare how a sculptor went about creating the object as opposed to an engineer for example. These were generally in the form of CAD or intricate drawings. As it turned out, the other nutcrackers were highly mechanical, many had cogs and complicated crushing mechanisms. I took a different approach and created probably the simplest nutcracker you can imagine. It was carved and the polished in Ancaster Limestone. The top piece. a slightly fallic cone and the bottom a square block with a small notch carved in it to prevent the nut from rolling away. The cone crashes down on the poor nut and bingo! Anyway, this caused a bit of a stir back in the university office and the nutcracker apparantly became a bit of a talking point. The student bought my nutcracker in the end and a few years later bought one for his tutor when he left. Since then , I have made a number of them as gifts and for wedding presents etc. If anyone out there fancies one, I sell them for around £100. I gererally make them from Ancaster as it takes a good polish and makes for a very sexy object