a new beginning

["Clive Murray-White" <clivemw@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Hi Ray,

Welcome to the club, well done so far you've got all of us old lags
responding.

Your posting made me think that it would be wild if we could point you in
the right, most useful directions via email.

I've been a sculptor all my life but came to stone very late, was entirely
self taught and never attended any workshops at all. The point here is that
there are always two side to the story, the "how do you do it" and "how do
you get it look right". The first item is by far the easiest.

Don, John, Bob, George and I could probably have up and running on the how
to side in under a morning and we'd all probably say pretty much the same
thing.

I'm going to stick my neck out a bit re Soap stone, in truth you can carve
it with just about anything, any woodworker's chisel will work fine on it, a
bunch of everyday files and a range of sandpapers will just about do the
rest. Advice: get a feel for it before you really start investing big time.
Many people barely touch the stuff with chisels at all but choose to use
techniques that could all fall under the heading of wearing it down with
some form of abrasive....just as nature does.

The real trick is the order you go about things, (1) rough it out, this
means taking off every major bit that you know has to go, on soapstone a
normal hack saw could even do the job (2) develop the form more fully,
chisels or even files and scrapers, trick here is not to be tempted to
"finish" one bit before the rest but develop the whole thing at the same
rate making sure that the overall shape works, according to your taste, all
the way around (3) finish it, the temptation at the beginning is to polish
everything so you can see your face in it but I'd suggest that you keep your
eyes open for a wide range of surfaces that you feel works.

Extra advice:

Try all sorts of stone that attract you, doubtless you'll find one that
suits your temperament best.

Get a basic How to book

Go the art museums and spend some time trying to work out how they did it.

Get an idea of what you would really like to make. Check out all the stone
sites in the virtual library.

Ask us at the moment you need a problem solved, much quicker than waiting to
go to a class.

Good luck

Clive

Sculptor Clive Murray-White
Web: http://www.cowwarr.com/CliveMurray-White/