introducing myself

[Sam Stevens <sam@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, I'm Sam. I dropped a piece of soap (no jokes, please) and it broke.
So I picked up the pieces and one of them caught my eye. "Gee, that sort
of looks like..." I picked up a nearby pencil and made a mark on the
soap. And then another, and so on, untill there was a little pile of
soap shavings on the kitchen counter, and in my hand was a three inch
high figurine of Abraham offering his son to God.

It was heady stuff. I took the other broken piece and looked at it.
Turning it just so, I saw a mermaid lounging on a wave-swept rock. More
importantly, twenty minutes later, so did anyone else who looked at it.

These are tiny little pieces of soap, and I doubt they would impress
anyone here, but they have excited me, and I would like to try my hand
in a material more permanent. Any suggestions for channeling this energy
one small success at a time would be appreciated. I considered clay as a
material as easy to work as soap, but find it far too maleable. I want
something that will stand still.

So I went to a local quarry here in Eastern North Carolina, USA and
picked up a couple of samples. One he called "volcanic tough" is dark
and seems hard. Another is lighter and seems build up from granular
particles under pressure (duh? sandstone?) and looks easier for what I
have in mind. Any comments before I start chipping? Should I not use
this rock for some reason I'm clueless about? What would you suggest a
beginner tackle for his first project?

Thanks in advance,
Sam