08 Dec
Canadian Artist, Soapstone sculpture

Soapstone Art with Fashion

Soapstone and Fashion.

Tis the season for weird and wonderful combinations.  Who knew fashion and soapstone would work well today? On one level , this combination does make sense. When you think that fashion begs to be touched. Fabrics are very tactile and so is stone.  Something catches your eye, you have to touch it, you do and you buy it.

This is an experience that online shopping just can’t match.  I have my soapstone bears and eagles and the walrus of course laid out at Victoria Hall in Dundas and they are surrounding by glitz and glamour of local artisans and it works.   It might also be the swish of colours, the hub bub of activity.  Soapstone is very gentle and calm.  People come over and essentially pet the carving, the tones are usually soft when they ask the price or the background and the fashion mavens swishing by in their winter coats are vibrant and loud in a Christmas Spirit kind of way.

So far, this has been a  wonderful way to show my art and to let people from the ‘neighbourhood’ know that artists live here.

If I could, I would have brought 100 pieces and set them all over the Victorian house but, it’s not  gallery but, a Christmas Market so I must contain myself the best that I can.  I can’t carve while I am here, (soapstone talc I think might be frowned upon) but, it is a fun way to show what I do and I hope lots of clients and new friends and old can come out and see the Market and my art up close and personally.

Thank you for looking in.

 

07 Dec
Canadian Artist, Soapstone sculpture

One more event for this soapstone artist

As a soapstone artist that has traveled hither and yon for years, I thought I wouldn’t be presenting my soapstone carvings in a public space anymore.  Stone is a heavy weight to carry from place to place and this carver is not much for sitting still unless I am carving.  This all changed when a local Dundas business approached me about being in their first ever artisan show. A Christmas show that is close to home and my old stomping grounds I guess I am in.

Victoria Hall in Dundas is a gorgeous space in the heart of my old stomping grounds and as of this morning there is a dusting of snow on the ground. Perfect for holiday shopping and hopefully of adding a stone bear to the Christmas stocking.

Going to events as a soapstone artist is like moving houses.  I have 12 containers and a ton of bubble for a 6 by 6 space.  Totally necessary but, I am not a small guy and every piece needs a delicate nest before it gets to it’s spot.  Soapstone is a very fragile stone in the scheme of things.  Any ring scratch or bump of a sharp object can leave a depression mark in the stone and getting rid of that takes re sanding and a fair amount of work. Hence, my secret ingredient; basically lacquer that coats cars.  I don’t always use it, sometimes, beeswax, sometimes raw stone but for events, Clear Kote is the magic ticket.  People can look and touch and I have no inclination to put up ; Look But Do Not Touch Signs.  which is a good thing when you are surrounded by paying customers.

 

Wish me luck and if you want to see my work without visiting; Victoria Hall In Dundas Ontario Canada (yes that was a plug)

Visit: www.johdanstoneart.ca

Thank you for coming by

04 Dec
Brazilian Soapstone, Canadian Artist, Soapstone sculpture

Still a fan of Brazilian Soapstone

Same fish different , different side

 

Okay, I am a fan of Brazilian Soapstone, not so much of limestone, maybe alabaster is a close second.  The reasoning is as simple as, that I think the beauty of Brazilian soapstone has a depth of colour that marble and limestone don’t have.This is shown with this fish that I carved a little while ago.  It is one piece of stone.

One ‘rock’ gives ; browns , blues and I have left the base essentially in it’s raw state with just some hint of watermarks.  A client who purchases this piece would get two  fish for the price of one if you think of these things in terms of home decor. Can you pick the wet, muddy stream and the fish catching the light so in one turn he or she is brown and at the next jump he looks green?

The beauty of soapstone. The artist has to work with the stone but, the inherent colours and lines of the stone, lend themselves so well to this jumping fish.

Are people tired yet that I say; soapstone carver instead of stone artist or just artist?  Maybe , and the general public may not care at first glance whether my art is made from soapstone or any other type of stone.  But, I do.

And anyone that looks at my art or any other stone artist feels the intrinsic love of the colours that show up  in the stone. For me it is particularly satisfying when I work with Brazilian soapstone.

I am a carver, I carve what I see in the stone, (yes mostly bears but, other things like this fish as well).

Can’t you just picture being at a stream and seeing the fish jump up and catch a bit of the reflection of the water? The beauty of stone art.

 

03 Dec
Canadian Artist, Soapstone sculpture

Knowing when to Stop

The expression ; sometimes less is more, matches with the piece I chose to highlight here. Finishing a piece of art to the nth degree is a work of patience and precision , I could say that it takes even more thought to leave a rough edge and have an onlooker believe the artist that he or she is finished with the piece.  That there is no more that needs to be done to the , in this case, soapstone sculpture.  I have always felt for the stone that I am working on and have other pieces that would have been changed significantly by more work on them. As examples; the TIFF Award, (Toronto International Film Festival) I did , which appealed to the organizers becuase of it’s abstractness and openness to interpretation – read art that didn’t scream one message over another.

The bear in the photo on this post is carved from Asian Soapstone.  The bear is simply stated; coming out of the rock, is part of the rock and I don’t think may people would picture it any other way.

Carving’s most important  skills might be; feeling the rock and knowing when to stop. Art comes to life with those simple rules and each piece then has a life of it’s own.

21 Nov
bears, soapstone

Bears , bears, bears

Exhausted Polar Bear Asian Soapstone

Submissive Bear

There is something about bears that attracts me to make them the focus of my art.

Mama bears, well fed bears or totally exhausted bears.  Just like people, bears have personalities that I try to capture those personalities in my art. Soapstone is an excellent medium for me to make bears.  This stone is alot more forgiving than wood and has much more personality than a limestone for example. Within the soapstone world, Brazilian soapstone has been my first choice of material .  A large part of this began with my mentor; Ben Henry who carves from Brazilian soapstone. Start with what you know. I do branch out into the different soapstone choices.  The range of colours  and hardness is endless . Each country has a different geological make up and therefore different colours appear in the stone. Brazilian soapstone generally has a  range of greens and browns, Canadian runs generally from greens to blacks and Asian the range includes; white to pinks and, there are many more.  Aquamarine, bright red – and we could go on.  The three bears pictured here two are Brazilian and  one is Asian soapstone.  Even with the same ‘mother’ rock, cutting off a piece of the same stone will generally have 2 bears that look very different from each other  .  No two people are exactly the same and no two bears will be the same. Differences are what make art so accessible to everyone and make it so enjoyable for me to carve.

 

 

 

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