Finishing Alabaster

["Ruscheinski, Dan" <darusche@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi John,

When I first started, I was told sand the piece using progressively finer
paper including wet/dry sandpaper. Then as a final step, place my sculpture
in the oven and warm it up SLOWLY until it was hot to the touch. When it was
hot, I removed it from the oven and applied a clear shoe polish paste. The
paste melted when it touched the stone and was easy to spread around. I then
used a soft cloth to buff the scultpture to a terrific finish. I have done
this on several pieces and each time it works great. Apparently the wax
penetrates deeper into the Alabaster if you warm it up.

This process works on pieces that fit in my oven but obviously wouldn't work
on bigger pieces. Maybe some of the more experienced sculptures can tell us
if it is necessary to warm a piece prior to applying the polish.

Thanks
Dan Ruscheinski