Travertine

["Juliet" <jgolden@zzzzzz>]

We're a little late on adding our two-cents worth to the discussion on
travertine. My partner, Tadek, a Polish stone carver (who ran the stone
carving workshop during the Stone Foundation gathering in Charleston the
year before last) has been doing a fair amount of carving in a Polish
travertine of late. This particular travertine is used vary rarely for
sculpting. However, Tadek says that once he figured out the right tools to
use, working in travertine turned out to be a real pleasure. He's done two
lions, a doorway and a fountain out of this Polish travertine.

We've been following the discussion and here are Tadek's initial thoughts on
the subject:

1.	You have to calculate a greater degree of chance into working in
    travertine than with other stone;
2.	You need to keep the specificity of the stone in mind when planning
    the final look of the piece and, particular, the finish of the stone;
3.	Home-made tools proved far better at dealing with the changing
    hardness of the stone in its mass than any store bought tools.

Not many of his travertine pieces are on Tadek's website. We will try to add
a few of the more recent works onto the website in the coming weeks.  But
here are two links to a lion done in travertine.
http://www.classicstonecarver.com/index.php?dzial=12

Hope this is helpful.

Juliet and Tadek