This term I'm working on a larger irregular piece of what I initially thought was brown and black alabaster, but what turns out to be most likely soapstone. And it's another crow! This was dictated by the shape of the stone, which happily suits my interests.
The three photos below show very early stages of carving. The stone looks very pale because it's covered in dust from being worked on with the rasp.
The three photos below show very early stages of carving. The stone looks very pale because it's covered in dust from being worked on with the rasp.
The previous crow carving had given me a lot of experience carving the crow head, but the body and feathers were still a big challenge, particularly as I wanted to preserve as much as possible of the character of the piece of stone, which was crystalline on the brown side. The shape of the black side suggested a partially opened wing. Again, I relied on the internet to supply lots of pictures of open wings and made sketches and another clay maquette.
My clay maquettes don't tend to be very successful - this one looks more like an angry pigeon than a crow! In spite of that the carving progressed and finally got finished.
The black side with the open wing is polished a little and waxed and some natural faults are visible in the stone. The brown side where it is carved is also polished, but the crystalline areas are just waxed.
The black side with the open wing is polished a little and waxed and some natural faults are visible in the stone. The brown side where it is carved is also polished, but the crystalline areas are just waxed.
I also made a latex mould of this crow for possible future castings. A side effect of this seems to be that the original seems lighter than before. Apparently the ammonia in the latex can bleach the stone.