Marble Sculpture

Here is my first marble sculpture. I did not make a clay model because I could just use my own hand as a model. I like sculpting marble, it is now my first choice for sculpting. I found sculpting down to where I want is kinda nice, instead of building up, and constantly fixing everything as ya go. There is not much info on sculpting marble, a few videos of people sculpting, but they don't give away any secrets. One day I'll have to go to Italy and take a vacation/sculpting class.

I got a commission for a marble sculpture before I even finished this one, two actually. The first one (black and white dog) is going to be difficult because I said I could splice two different color stones together . At first I thought I was only doing a black patch on his face and one ear. Then I saw other pics of him and his body is at least half black. So this sculpture is going to be a real challenge, but well worth it. The other is a black horse head with a white star. Not so bad, I'm sure I can inlay the white star on black marble.

I also went searching for local stone. I knew from building a rock wall on my house (sold that house) that there is some sedimentary rocks up the Blackfoot River Canyon which are colored red, purplish, and green. I tested their sculpt-ability and it looks like they might work. I've been putting off starting one, but will start shortly, as soon as I'm done procrastinating. Or I should say letting my creativity ferment till it explodes, that sounds more artsy. Coffee helps too. One more cup? Yeah. 

A little about sculpting this: I started to make a woman turning her head with her chin against her shoulder, looking kinda sly, or shy. It was coming along and then the nose just popped right off. So I turned it into a fist. I knew it wasn't quite wide enough for a full sized fist, but to make it smaller so that it would be to scale meant removing a whole lot more rock, so I just went with it. Also not enough stone where the thumb would be, went with that too. I think it looks pretty good, a little narrow and the thumb isn't quite what I wanted but It was a good experiment in "making it work."

About the nose popping off: I noticed upon finishing that a crack runs across the thumb and into the first finger. I suppose that crack probably ran where the nose used to be because it took very little to pop it off. I was using my point chisel pointed away from the nose and barely tapping and it took off the whole nose. To pop off such a large piece isn't that easy even when trying.

If you're interested in commissioning any of my past sculptures into marble, or your own ideas, contact me. I would love to do a large monument sized sculpture.You can see my other sculptures at http://clay-tablet.wix.com/clayworkman if the link doesn't work, copy and paste, that will.