Dan O'Dwyer

Dan has been a practicing stonemason for 20 years.

His banker work includes the Quong Sin Tong monument Rookwood, fountains and architectural features, letter cutting and gilding for the domestic market. Within buildings, Dan has worked on walls, fireplaces, floors, stairs, and benchtops. Within the sphere of conservation, he has completed remedial work to masonry of houses, including pointing, salinity removal and general cleaning, and replacement of damaged masonry.

Dan has taught Cert 3 Stonemasonry apprentices at Miller TAFE for 18 years.

Dan won Second Prize in the 2021 Stonemason Carving Competition. He won a set of French Guillet chisels (valued at $1,000), provided by Diamach.

About the work

The 'section of column base' was completed in 23 hours using mallets and chisels only. I worked off a full-scale drawing to develop my cutting sequence, angles and depths. I did not use templates as the profile is not 90 degrees and the astragal/torus mouldings are pretty straightforward. The scotia moulding is probably my favourite moulding visually and fun to set out and carve.

I first saw this guilloche at the Acropolis on the Erecthion and have always wanted to have a go at it. It is a fairly simple repetition, as a lot of enrichments are, but I like the way it sits on the astragal moulding. The set out was interesting as the geometry is warped by the curves of the surface. The carving executed using my late father's beautiful annealed zinc carving mallets was a both a joy and a humbling experience.

Overall it was a fun project and has been a good test run for projects that are in the back of my mind.