From:
grossman@zzzzzzzzz
Date:
Thu, 24 Feb 2005 12:13:57 -0500 (EST)
Subject:
A wide open question!
Hi Kathy, you've gotten good advice re. alabaster. I too have no artistic
talent but I seem to be able to carve. My wife bought me a soapstone
carving kit from FlaxArt in San Francisco and I've never looked back.
Since I just spent $1000 on power tools last month she's probably a bit
ambivilent about that gift now <g >. Anyway, you can buy simple tools and
20lbs of soapstone from them for about ~$50. Most, but not all, soapstone
is softer than alabaster which has advantages and disadvantages. It comes
in more colors and "grains" (i.e. the physical structure of the stone)
than alabaster and in my limited experience is less subject to fracture
when you hit it (YMMV). Why soapstone? Well you can probably do more
with "normal" tools. OTOH, alabaster is one of my favorite carving stones
too and if it held up outside then I'd probably never mess with harder
stones. I've not carved limestone so I can't compare. Well this is just
my 2 cents worth. atb, g2
Gary D. Grossman
Distinguished Research Professor - Animal Ecology
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~grossman/
G. Grossman Fine Art
http://www.negia.net/~grossman/
- References
- message 00467: CHAT: studio heat - Robin Putnam (23 Feb 2005)
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