From:
"Robin" <r.putnam@zzzzzzzzzzz>
Date:
Wed, 2 Feb 2005 16:52:31 GMT
Subject:
alabaster
To other beginners....
I just wanted to add my half a cent...
I carve alabaster all the time. Like I said earlier I bought 4500 lbs of it !! I love Indiana limestone, too. Not really interested in granite or marble...yet
Deb is right, alabaster does bruise, especially the darker colors. One simply has to plan ahead ! I carve with large and small hammers but quit just before I am 'there'. A large Italian riffler is next to remove the rest of the unwanted material and to begin the real shaping. I move to 36/40 grit sandpaper, sometimes 80, depending on how fine of rifflers I've used. One piece took me an entire month, 7 days a wekk, 6-8 hrs a day to get through all of the sanding ! But it was SO worth it ! The alabaster is green on one side red on the other and whitish n the middle so the end piece was a red seahorse with some whitish sea things on one side and green sea grass on the back !
Alabaster is down right fun !! The colors are amazing and really one cause to think !! I am in the proccess of carving a small nude out of the white found around Ft. Collins, CO and have another piece, 160 lbs, that will be a female torso. I carved a giraffe out of some that was tan spots surrounded by dark brown lines....perfect for the subject matter !!
More 2005 projects will include a humpback whale tail out of a gray alabaster using a bush hammer to create the white 'barnicles', 3 hippo faces partially submerged in the 'water' also out of the gray, little green baby sea turtles racing across the red 'sand' heading for the green water ( more of the red and green stone), 2 horses nuzzling and a cheetah out of the beige spotted stone !!!!
Some alabaster is really striped and some is fairly sold colored. Really makes one think about each piece of stone and how to get a great end result ! As for breakage.....I have not broken anything....yet....and some of my pieces have areas 1/4 inch in diameter !!
I'm sure there are as many opinions about the best stone as there are members on this list !! The BIG point for me is that my alabaster pieces are selling and the limestone ones are not....
Whatever you choose to carve.....like Bill K. said.....just jump on it !! Keep in mind giving yourself room to clean up unwanted lines and bruises if you have made any !! That goes for limestone, too !
~Robin
no-stoneunturned
- Follow-ups
- message 00335: Alabaster+testosterone - Bob Hackett (03 Feb 2005)
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