Carving Stone: From the Mountain to the Museum
A Pictorial Description of the Carving Process
1 Sawing the stone at Colorado Alabaster Supply in Fort Collins, Colorado.
2 Carving tools
3 Rock with flattened base
4 Roughing out - channels and segments cut in stone
5 Roughing in face
6 Roughing in shield, necklaces, hand
7 Slimming down robe
8 Carving folds in robe
9 Roughing out shield
10 Roughing out dance stick and feet
11 Smoothing shoulders
12 More slimming down
13 Refining details
14 Riffled, rasped, and detailed
15 Ready to sand
16 Side view - smoothed with Scotch Brite rotary pad
17 Wet sanding another sculpture, "Jicarillo Hombre"
18 Finished "Gordon Standing Bear"
19 Finished sculpture with engraved bear paws on back
The Stone Carving Process
This is a chronological description of the carving process I use, using photos taken at various stages as I created “ Gordon Standing Bear” and “Jicarillo Hombre” My primary medium is alabaster, but I have also enjoy working with marble, bronze, soapstone, and limestone.
The stone I used for the sculptures above came from Colorado Alabaster Supply, owned and operated by Stan Jones, my brother. He retired last year, but he provided many sculptors with alabaster that made many beautiful sculptures. He quarried the stone west of Fort Collins, Colorado and then brought the raw stone down to his stone yard in Fort Collins. He stored it under covered sheds until it was time to cut it, weigh it, and send it out. (see photo 1) Alabaster is metamorphosed calcium sulfate with a hardness of 2 on a scale of 1-10. It absorbs moisture, so if it is left exposed outside, the freezing and thawing process would cause it to deteriorate in time. So, it is used only for indoor sculptures.
The first step is to make a flat base for the sculpture to stand on. (see photo 3) This is achieved by either cutting it on the band saw at the stone yard, or by cutting and grinding it with my angle grinders in my studio. I use primarily pneumatic tools, (see photo 2) four and seven inch angle grinders with diamond or silicone carbide blades (tools 1 & 2), rotary rasps and die grinders (tools numbered 4), air chisels (long tool between angle grinders), air pencils (tools numbered 5), and jitterbug and orbital sanders (tools numbered 6). I also use hand tools, such as hammers and chisels (tools numbered 3), and coping saws (not pictured), rifflers, rasps, and sandpaper (tools numbered 7).
The second stage is roughing out the perimeters. (see photo 4) I use a 4 inch angle grinder with a dry diamond blade to cut channels in the stone where I want it to be removed. Then I knock of the segments that have been formed, with a hammer and chisel or air chisel. I draw right on the stone where I want to cut and eliminate the stone and where I want the stone to be left intact. I can get very close to the desired perimeter of the subject with this technique. I also use the air chisel for knocking off larger areas at the beginning when the removal of a lot of stone is more important than precise cuts.
The third stage is the initial detailing with the rotary rasps and die grinders. On “Gordon Standing Bear”, you can see the face coming to life, the shield and dance stick starting to take form, and the folds starting to appear. (see photos 5-13) It is important not to start working on the details too soon, because it wastes a lot of time if you haven’t removed enough stone before you start detailing. On the other hand, with the subtractive methods, you have to make sure and leave enough stone to be able to form what you want in the end, like the feathers in the hair, the ear rings, necklaces, shield and dance stick, etc.
The fourth stage is the fine detailing with the air pencil and smaller rotary rasps. This is when the feathers, beads, folds and wrinkles, facial expressions, fingers, hair, etc., are refined. (see photo 14)
The fifth stage is the smoothing and sanding. The initial smoothing and sanding is done with hand files, rifflers and rasps, and a small rotary angle rasp with a Scotch Brite pad affixed to it. (see photos 15 & 16) The hand sanding is done with Wet or Dry type sand paper, keeping the stone and the paper very wet. I go from a rough sandpaper of 80 grit, through 180, 240, 360, 400, 600, 1000, and 2000 for the very shiny surfaces and varying degrees for the other surfaces I don’t want so shiny. (see photo 17
The sixth stage is the polishing and designing. I use a stone polishing compound that brings out the stone’s beauty and protects it with a wax finish. When you bruise or scratch or strike the stone, it crushes the crystals and turns white. When you sand and polish the surface, the rich color of the stone shines through. So, on the areas where I want a contrasting color and texture, I use various tools to achieve the effect I want. For example, I used a riffle and rotary rasp to make the strands of hair, and an electric engraver to accentuate the fur texture on the braid wraps and dance stick. I also engraved designs on the clothing and accessories like the bear on the shield and bear footprints on the back of the robe. (see photos 18 & 19)
The last step is to sign the sculpture with the engraver, or the fine pointed air pencil. Each piece has my signature and our Sundell insignia with my husband’s and my initials in it and the sun icon.
