Stone Sculpting Experiment

With my mother and husband watching my baby on a quiet Saturday afternoon, I had a chance to pull out the before mentioned sculpting kit that I had purchased at Pearl in Atlanta. It came with two rasps, sand paper, polishing oil, and three stones. Two of the stones were soap stone and the third was alabaster. The alabaster I decided to save for a project after I got things down with the soap stone. In addition, there are two pieces of marble that I bought, waiting to be carved (in memory of two dear friends) when my skills improve. Marble is freaking expensive, so I don't want to mess that up.

Four hours this Saturday, I spent sculpting a piece of green soap stone. This was my first time working in stone although I have carved other materials in the past. In college, I carved plaster for a class and discovered afterwards that I should have been wearing a breathing mask and should not have been doing it in a small dorm room space. That did not turn out so well, so I was sure to secure my mask and took a spot on the porch in the sun outside my parents house.

At first, I was going to attempt to carve from a photograph. The subject was my brother and sister-in-law's dog, Buddy Bear. He is an Australian Shepherd, very handsome animal (first picture at the top), and beloved of his owners. Thus why I was attempting to sculpt him for my sister-in-law's birthday on Halloween. Obviously I'm not worried about her reading my blog ;)

The photos weren't cutting it though, and when my sibling and sibling-in-law decided to venture forth to acquire food, my father helped me borrow Buddy Bear until they returned. Unless you know my family, that probably sounds a little more insidious than it actually was...

Most of the afternoon, was nice and warm, but my model got less and less enthusiastic, even after being treated to a piece of cheese. There's only so much a dog can take, I suppose, and it was taking an awful long time to shape, with fine soft sparkly dust, wafting about on the porch. Ultimately I had to give up on the project until I could find another stretch of time and a babysitter.

Sculpting took a very long time with carving, much longer than sculpting with clay, but it was certainly easier to work with than carving plaster or wood. I did not have to worry as much about pieces chipped off while I worked under and around crevices.

After oiling the stone a bit to see what it would look like when done, I felt like it looked more like a bear than a dog. Some people might even call it done at this stage, but what's the point of doing something if you aren't going to do it right? So hopefully in the near future, I'll have a chance to play with it again. I do have several other pieces of stone in need of work.

Also, today, I finally got my Wacom tablet! I have not played much with it yet, but might actually have some time this evening if Morgan doesn't stress her daddy out too much. Oh! Looks like email too! I might have to catch up on my word count quota!