The target was to have this piece ready for The Small Sculpture Prize at the end of March 2019. I had seen a bronze somewhere of a man keeping his pants up with his two hands, This reminded me of when I was a child with hand-me-down pants from my older brother. After school, during sheep shearing time, I would change into these work pants and race off to the shearing shed, along the way often stopping to hoist my pants up, or re-tie the binder twine that was being used as a belt. So, the image I had when I saw this piece was that of standing in the shed hoisting my pants up.

The piece is sculptured from jarrah hardwood, Boyup Brook origin. As mentioned in previous blogs the jarrah I have stored is from a strong wind event in 2000 where many of the paddock jarrahs were blown over. These are the original jarrahs, many of which were 200+ years old. Boyup Brook, in the Blackwood Valley, is known for having the best jarrah timber in the world, both for construction and feature furniture.

Apart from the use of fine carving tools, I have also employed Shou-sugi-ban technique of charring to give contrast and hardening of the wood. The pants were charred using a blow-torch then wirebrushed and sanded. This process occurred a number of times to give depth to the colouration.

The 2019 Small Sculptures Prize exhibition at Christian Fletcher’s Gallery was wonderfully attended over the 3 days of the March long weekend. “Pants Too Big” sold to a wonderful home and also was awarded the People’s Choice Award.