Travertine

[don dougan <dondougan@zzzzzzzz>]

Hi Deb,

If your design is simple with broad smooth surfaces it is a gorgeous
stone to work with, but if you like fine representational detail it might
be more of a fight-to-make-it-happen experience!

I have used travertine (Roman cream mostly, but some small pieces of
Persian red and a darker brown from ?) in several pieces -- it works
similar to marbles of a medium hardness with a fine-but-brittle grain,
and the extra 'edges' (because of the pores) make for a bit more care
when smoothing surfaces.

Of course the open, relatively large-scale pores make a strong statement
visually except in works of a large scale, so your design needs to allow
for that.  If you are not working on a heroic scale (or at least
over-life-size) then fine representational detail is not recommended.

For instance Henry Moore did a beautiful one-meter high abstract piece in
Persian red travertine that is in the Kroller-Mueller collection in
Belgium.

Good Carving to You,
Don

http://www.dondougan.homestead.com/indexdd.html