When carving stone, the sculptor removes everything that is not the statue. [ … ] The art of revealing beauty lies in removing what conceals it. So, too, Patanjali (in the Yoga Sutras) tells us that wholeness exists within us. Our work is to chisel away at everything that is not essence, not Self. -Author: Judith Hanson Lasater
Working Your Stone
To get to this point of the process you have had to render you thoughts and visions into a model and in that process you have already practiced carving the stone because you only take away what is not part of your final vision.
Once you have your model you move on to ………
Shaping
What ever size, shape, condition of your stone the actual shaping starts with geometry. For instance, when my dad took art classes at the university as part of getting a math degree he had a wooden model of the human body. This was posed to help visualize how the shape of the space looked where the figure would actually be drawn on the paper.
Being young I really did not understand why the mannequin was shaped with balls, triangles and other geometric blocks. How could you draw the the fingers and toes, how did having a ball for a neck help you?
Now I am experienced with the process of seeing the over all shape the finished piece will have and what smaller shapes it is made up of. Just like the wooden mannequin is made up of shapes that help an artist visualize the coming work. The model a stone carver has mad is a ready reference for shaping the stone.
As I got to work with the hammer and chisels that “circle” took on many different appearances. Eventually though it settles into consistency and I was able to move on to the next set of geometric features, the suns rays.
I did despair from time to time that my work would produce anything remotely like the model I had made. My teacher would stop my and discuss a point or two. When she moved on to the next student I would try to figure how to put what she had said into practice. Over time and with persistence the stone began to look more like it would be a successful sun stone.
As the suns rays took shape the question of what to do with the big lump that was not the sun. It seemed wise to keep it because there was a question as to whether a crack existed in the depth of that part of the stone. After studying many pictures of mountains I began to shape that part of the stone also. And since there was now a front and back shaping the sides also became an intricate part of creating the whole experience for the viewer to have something to appreciate at what ever angle the stone was viewed.
Over the years this took to accomplish this much I came to appreciate what effort the pre-industrial sculpture put into their work. Here I was using only hand tools, because that is the way I wanted my first sculpture to be done, one the softest stone once a week in class surrounded by other students using the air tools that seemed to allow them to zip though their work and produce some beautiful pieces. I how could they have created so much amazing work in marble. Seems almost impossible to me.
Last to be completed was the center of the sun itself. It had moved around, been fat, then skinny and repositioned many time on both sides of the stone as the mountains became more defined and the rays reached a nice arrangement. In the end it found just the right place.
Finishing the Journey
What was needed next was a lot of elbow grease for the sanding and polishing. Final finish and sealing took place just before the first viewing in class. What a happy sight to my eyes. Hello Sunshine!
