In September of 2024 I rejoined the Guild as Sculpting Coordinator again for Lost Lands Festival.

Having developed the mobile sculpture studio the previous summer, I was all set up to manufacture large scale sculptures to order, but would not know until I was on site, what exactly we’d be manufacturing. This flexibility allows us to respond to ideas as they appear to the creative directors as the larger pieces are arranged, and inspiration strikes. I was eventually given the task of sculpting several dozen rocks to decorate the bases of the huge new circular stage The Crater, as well as a few more custom rocks for the grand entrance.

I pitched the idea of Basalt columns. They would be handily produced by a small crew, and could be arranged in a variety of ways to accommodate deployment in different environments for future years.

I made a scale model and hot-wire templates to demonstrate the idea and play around with potential compositions. Over two days, Sequoia Fabumni, and Mckenna Carter tirelessly hot-wired 5 billets of Styrofoam, producing dozens of hexagonal columns which I resized, and carved into rocks.

Sequoia and I then got to work assembling the rocks into compositions, and gluing them together. After some trial and error, we landed on a mixture to coat the stones with, which gave them a hard rock-like exterior, and a finished shade which would require minimal additional painting. We went about hand coating more than 50 assemblages, and a few dozen individual columns. We then hand-painted each group to add texture and depth. Sequoia’s experience as a scenic painter was critical to the success of the final project.

Thankfully our friends at Wake the Giant, were available to arrange and install the clusters, which freed us up to complete a secret project- our most ambitious to date…