I can’t say it enough. Soapstone is a very colourful medium.
It sounds like I have a schoolboy crush on soapstone and I do. – strange as that sounds. All of the pieces shown above are carved by me and all in soapstone. There are always more colours and densities that I would love to try out. I really want to get my hands on some red and some aquamarine as the next challenges but, this spectrum is keep me in carving bliss.
The white and pink stones in the photos here are Asian and very soft. If someone wanted to try their hand at carving, those two are like carving butter. Just be careful because unlike butter you can’t stick it back together if you make a mistake. In elementary schools the children sometimes carve blocks of soap. Perfect for trying out the carving skills. Butter and soaps don’t have the dust of the actual stone so there is no chance of breathing in dust
The black is Canadian and this piece of stone started life in Northern Quebec. Then we have the big bear; Bonneville. All one piece of Brazilian soapstone. I have no idea what part of Brazil this boulder began life but, I picked the boulder out of a stone field here in Canada from a supplier. Selling rocks is a business and people like me connect with other people to know about those people.
I don’t see it as tricky skill to pick a boulder and turner it into a bear but some might say it is; the magic of art.
This is not THE boulder that Bonneville was carved from but, you get the idea.
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Thank you for looking in.