How do you carve?

["grossman" <grossman@xxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings stoners (sorry, couldn't resist it)! As a novice carver
experimenting with carving themes I'm curious whether most folks carve by
looking through the stone bin for a piece that triggers some eventual shape
(e.g. ahhh, that looks like a fish, or that's an obelisk) or if most of you
look for a chunk of stone and then carve your own shape into it?  I know
this is probably a matter of personal taste and subject matter (one is
unlikely to find a natural shape of a form arising from a bed, the often
seen "Awakening" statue), but I'm just sort of curious.

Also I'm curious about attitudes towards leaving "bruises" on unfinished
(i.e. I mean parts that are meant not to be viewed, not portions of the
viewed section that one purposfully doesn't finish to produce a contrast)
portions of alabaster statuary.  I carved a piece of alabaster and then
showed it to a sculpture teacher and she found a "bruise" (i.e., one of
those white, opaque spots produced by an impact) on the unfinished back of
the piece and said "This stone has been banged about." Well I knew it was a
bruise but because it was on the back of the piece I didn't carve it out.
Is there some reason to worry about an occasional bruise on an unfinished
piece of alabaster -- does it indicate structural weakness in the stone?
I'll grant that leaving it on does indicate a certain level of laziness <g>,
but then I also sand to 1000 to 2000 grit <g>.

Happy carving, g2

Gary D. Grossman
Professor of Animal Ecology
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~grossman/

G. Grossman Fine Art
http://www.negia.net/~grossman/