Stormcarver
 
 
While the rose is sitting and soaking up the liquid wax, I couldn’t help but start on the next project. I still have to rub down the pieces of the rose and epoxy them together, but am going to seal and bake it today so that can be done either this evening or tomorrow morning. So...I have this beautiful, 18 pound piece of white crystal alabaster and a fantastic Japanese saw. I made such a mess!
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Alabaster Lily All images are the physical and intellectual property of Barbara Minnick, aka Stormcarver. Unauthorized use prohibited. The first cut took almost 20 minutes to make. The rest were comparatively quick. The dust generated got everywhere! I then cleaned and rewrapped my knives. I use deerskin strips for this, cuz it’s soft, strong and we have a lot of it. It makes these 3 so much easier to use if the edges aren’t constantly digging into my fingers. I like the way it looks, too. I started this lily the same way I do the roses, and soon found it wasn’t going to work that way. Usually, I will draw in an outline of where the petals are going to end up. With this one, I also drew in a rough sketch of the body shape, bigger than it will end up so that I had room to round it out. Then, I carve down into the stone over the outline so that the lines don’t get lost due to friction and dust. However, as I roughed out the body, then took away what didn’t belong to the top area, I found that I had done quite a bit of work that wasn’t necessary. In removing stone from the top, I found that the body rough-out was unnecessary, because as I take material away from that area, I am going to almost obliterate the lines I created for the body. Then, I found that my normal outline plan wasn’t going to work, either. With the way this flower’s single petal angles down, then wraps around itself in the front, I can only use the general idea of where the petal wraps in the front as a guideline. Instead of carving down into the stone around the petals, as I normally would do, I am going to have to first create the petal, then remove the stone from the interior based upon the finished body shape. This is, for all intents and purposes, going to be a freehand carving. Below, you see what I have at this point, freehanding the downward angle of the petal, as well as the general shape of the back of the flower. This stone is absolutely beautiful, and I wish it translated better into pictures. It is wonderful to work with and looks to be able to hold a shape with strength. I am really excited to see how this turns out. Today, I am gonna visit the art supply store and check out what possibilities there are for pigments to dye it when it’s done. I have decided against natural dyes, taking into consideration biodegradability and the sugars that would be in most that I would be able to make. So, rose completion and more freehand shaping today! Next -> <- Archive Main