Processional Cross

This church had a processional cross designed and cast by someone in Canada which they weren't very happy with. Besides it being cast and the staff was thick walled copper tubing which the servers couldn't carry , the artist didn't offer any resolutions.

They had seen some of my work and asked if I could figure out a solution. I sent them a couple of ideas and this one struck a chord . It's nearly a twin to one I had done prior and it worked out just fine.
To incorporate their piece with my new cross I cut the copper staff off 4" below the top. Being hollow it allowed me to turn a piece that fit inside and gave me a way to mount the new backing cross as well as a new staff. The staff is 6'6" and is square but has what appear to be columns along each edge. Symbolically this represents the 4 evangelists and tar which you " hold on to".

In the pics you can see how I coped the bottomh of my cross to fit against what was left of the old cooper staff and it gave me a way to anchor it to the cast piece. The rest is fairly straight forward in mahogany , a stain with lacquer finish and 23k gold for the accent pieces.
Overall it stands 8'4".

Here you can see how I kept a space between the two pieces still showing a rising up from the cross and how the cross is coped and fitted.

Wasn't quite happy as the body blended into the rest of the casting and didn't read well. So I removed some of the "tarnish" to get light to reflect off the body more and have it differentiated from the rest.

Exquisite work Mark! I so much enjoy seeing it.

Oh thank you Bruce! Glad you've enjoyed it.

Well, that's nice and all, but tell us how you sharpened, which stones, grit progression, micro bevels, jigs and so. That is the important part! LOL Just kidding.

Very nice work, Mark. I always enjoy your posts.

Ah , thank you Warren, glad you enjoy the posts.