Stone Carving anyone??

[jgwidt]

Hello Everyone, I was just wondering if anyone on here carves stone. About 12 years ago I bought some stone and started hacking away and did about 8 carvings. Since then I haven't been able to do it since I live in an apartment. I now have the means to get a studio and need some advice on getting started, mainly a good place to buy chisels, stone, and maybe a pneumatic hammer.

[ArtsyLynda]

Go to The Compleat Sculptor's site www.sculpt.com and look at their online catalog for stone and tools. Since you live in an apartment, you might want to look at soapstone. It's so soft, you can carve it with a kitchen knife, but you can buff it up to gorgeous colors. That way, your neighbors won't complain about the noise, if you want to work at home. Just be careful of the dust - stone dust can cause serious lung disease, so work ina well-ventilated area and/or wear a mask.

Yeah, I do bronze, but I've done a few stone things too. I just can't sand them as well as they need to be done because of my carpal tunnel, so I work with plastilene,which I can manage just fine.

Welcome to our forum! I hope you'll share your work with us!

[jgwidt]

Thanks Lynda,

I mainly do oil paintings but I really miss carving stone. Since I basically learned how to carve by trial and error I tried finding the easiest stones to work with and found that I liked Alabaster the best, although, I never tried soapstone. Here are a couple pieces I did when I first began.

[ArtsyLynda]

Very nice!! I love alabaster too. It requires more work to carve. Soapstone, at least the pieces I've done, comes in a beautiful jade-like color. There may be other colors as well. The powder that comes off when you carve it is like talcum powder, very soft and light and can float anywhere - that's why I gave you the warning about it. But the stone is wonderfully easy to work and if you can sand it well enough (obviously you can), you can get beautiful pieces. Thanks for sharing your work!

[butterflybronze]

I assume the bottom picture are works in progress. I almost feel like saying dont carry on because I really like the way they are coming out of the stone. Great work keep it up

[jgwidt]

Originally Posted by butterflybronze

I assume the bottom picture are works in progress. I almost feel like saying dont carry on because I really like the way they are coming out of the stone. Great work keep it up

That's funny. Those are supposed to be finished pieces. I don't have any good pictures of them though. I tried to make it look like the figures were breaking out of the stone. I should look at my old pictures from college and see if I have frontal views of them.

[butterflybronze]

Originally Posted by jgwidt

That's funny. Those are supposed to be finished pieces. I don't have any good pictures of them though. I tried to make it look like the figures were breaking out of the stone. I should look at my old pictures from college and see if I have frontal views of them.

I was hoping they were finished pieces. I like it the fact that they are coming out of the stone reminds me of the aliens series or giger's work.

[lorax]

Hi Jgwidt

I started carving stone this year and I love it. I did one soapstone and an alabaster carving, but it is toosoft for me, so I have since moved on to limestone. I bought a Sculpture House carving set from Dick Blick, and a couple of other tools from Sculpt.com. After all of that, I found a stone sculpture supply place that is within driving distance of me. here is the link
Flatlandersculpture.co
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[ArtsyLynda]

LOL, I assumed they were the sculptor carving him- or herself out of the stone! I've seen sculptures like that before and just thought that was a series of such pieces.

[teri cleverly]

I have carved about five pieces of soapstone from small to medium size. I am mostly an oil or pastel painter, but there is something that attracts me to carving the soapstone. The dust does get to me though, so remember to wear a mask or a respirator of some kind. Love your work.

[jgwidt]

Originally Posted by teri cleverly

I have carved about five pieces of soapstone from small to medium size. I am mostly an oil or pastel painter, but there is something that attracts me to carving the soapstone. The dust does get to me though, so remember to wear a mask or a respirator of some kind. Love your work.

I mainly do oil paintings but yes, I agree, there is something about carving that I'm drawn to. With painting you build up your completed work and with carving you subtract. Plus there is something about the finished product, knowing that it started out as a big chunk of stone.