Let’s say you have a block of marble set up before you on a table or bench. And beside it sits your model—a clay model, for instance.
The first thing you do is measure to see if your marble block is big enough. Draw the outline of your model on the block itself with chalk or a crayon—on the front and on one of the sides (the front and the side view)—and see how it fits. Measure with a compass or just a ruler.
The next step—the first part of the actual carving—is to eliminate those areas of the block that you won’t need—that have nothing to do with your figure and are obviously in the way. If they are big areas, you can just start whacking away at them with a hammer.
If a hammer doesn’t get you anywhere you can already begin to use the pointed chisel—a big thick one.
Hold its point to the block and strike it with your hammer. If you held the chisel at an angle to the block instead of straight down, a little splinter or chip ought to fly up and sail across the yard. Isn’t that a
ridiculus mus after such a blow? And at this rate won’t it take forever to eliminate all the fat around your statue?
Yes, depending on what you mean by forever.
And so you begin to “carve”—that is, to chip. Little by little—a chip at a time—you get rid of all the stone on the outside of your projected figure, on the outside of that chalk line you drew.
When all the unwanted marble is gone, you can put the pointed chisel away and take up the second great tool—the fork-chisel or claw-chisel. That is the real sculptor’s tool, the one that will give you the feeling of “carving”. Your block is now roughly the same size and shape as your model but its surface is very rugged. The claw-chisel levels that rough surface, pushes down all the peaks or crests and leaves behind fine, shallow, parallel grooves that give your figure a wonderful “work in progress” look.
They remind you of the cross-hatching in some ink-drawings or maybe you think of Michelangelo’s
Slaves in the Accademia in Florence.
The Master himself stopped here as far as tools go. After the
David he never again used the flat chisel, which leaves the marble surface absolutely smooth. He thought the striations or little grooves the claw chisel makes gave greater life to the surface of his figures.
Though so far we have been talking about only two kinds of tools—the pointed and the claw chisel—understand that you will use various sizes of each.
You might start out chipping with a pointed chisel as big around as the neck of a wine bottle and finish chipping with one no thicker than a pencil. The same goes for the claw chisels, which come in all sizes. Michelangelo “finished” the details of his figures, such as the eyelids and the wings of noses and fingernails and so on, with very fine claw chisels. Most people—and he himself when he started out—would carve those with a fine flat chisel.
The fourth kind of chisel has a curved tip, curved like a fingernail. You use it in places where the flat chisel doesn’t fit because of its squareness.
Your statue is now carved. Probably you will want to polish it. Use files first, then take some rough sandpaper and start sanding. That rough sandpaper will take out the big digs in your surface but also scratch it all over. The next size sandpaper, a finer size, will take away the scratches the first one made—but that too will leave scratches. To get the surface faultlessly smooth—like glass or porcelain—you will need at least five or six sizes of sandpaper. The last ones are used with water. You can also grind up a pumice stone and make a froth of that. Some recesses are so hard to reach with your fingers—your aching fingers—that you will have to move the pulverized pumice around with a bamboo stick. Bamboo doesn’t scratch marble.
And that is all. Sculpting is simple and straightforward—no workshop secrets such as painting is full of, with its pigments and varnishes and transparent and opaque layers.
100swallows learned to carve marble at Fernando’s Stoneyard
My illustrations are taken from Louis Slobodkin’s excellent book Sculpture. Principles and Practice, published by Dover publications, New York, 1949, and later editions. It is the best, most entertaining introduction to sculpture practice that I know.
Read about the carving and the polychroming of a seventeenth-century wooden figure, and watch a fascinating video here.
I’ve never carved anything, or attempted to, but I thought this was a very interesting description of how it’s done! I definitely learned something.
“Madame Monet”
Writing, Painting, Music and Wine
winewriter.wordpress.com
Well, I’ve modeled with clay. . . . seemed sort of easy..patience greatest thing to over come.
I write and play music…so I understand patience there…
I was up Marble, Colorado way..and picked up some pieces of Marble ranging from a little bigger than a soft ball up to a cubic foot….
I did a faux chess board on my dining table…and always thought it need some chess pieces….
Pieces I took home seemed to be crack free….Anyway, I decided to look on line for pointers…. as everyone has left for the week..and I am free to carve!
Thanks for your site, as I got some tips on tool selection. . . .and stone hardness
Jon
Good luck with your carving, jonmac.
You know, if you are going to start with such small pieces, it would be better to use files, not the other tools, and soft stone, not hard marble. Why? How are you going to hold the little rocks still while you hammer on them? They’re going to slide all over. If they are as big as a small book you can secure them to a board (nail some small blocks of wood next to them) or better, glue them to a flat slab of marble with plaster. Sink them into the plaster while it’s soft and glue some smaller stones up against them with more plaster. But then you’ll have to hammer gently and use fine chisels. Sounds to me too hard and not worth it.
There are all kinds of marble. The softest is alabaster. You can carve that with files and by pushing the chisels with your hand (no hammer). There are very soft sandstones too. I hope those chess figures you have imagined aren’t too detailed or you’re going to get discouraged. Try some simple shapes—Brancusi-style.
Maybe you should hold off on the chess figures for now and start on the biggest piece you brought home. Fix that to a slab of marble with plaster too if it jumps while you hammer on it. Draw the outline (profile) of some totem head on it or anything simple and start chipping. Or start right away with the claw-chisel. Of course now that marble of yours has souvenir value for you and you will have high hopes for it, which is a pity. Don’t be afraid to split it or lose it altogether. Marble isn’t all THAT expensive. Check into suppliers in your area and go see all the cool stones there are.
I am glad to find this forum!
we beg pardon http://taxi-crimea.com
I just wanted to pass on a note to let you know what a great job you have done with this forum.Thanks!
dar frnd i want person in gujarat india who cna careve half face in marble craving . My brother captian in army has secrified his lifein defeance of nation & iwant to put his half face statues in marble carving.In 1.5 x 3 feet size mable having 4 inch thickess i want to carve face of my brother. no money cost problem. plz send me adress who will ptepare this type of tuing. ths
jhsoni india, ahmedabad city, gujarat state
jhsoni: Type “portrait busts” in Google search and you will find several sculptors who make busts. You can see samples of their work and decide which you like. Write to them. Can’t you find one in your city?
I never realized sculpting marble was so easy. Just kidding! I know how dangerous it is to ‘joke’ online or in emails so let me say again that I am just kidding.
I never would have thought of saying any such thing except that Swallows’, and Slobodkin’s, exposition makes it seem so straightforward. Do this, then do that. There was one student in graduate school with me at Berkeley who carved. I didn’t know him well but he seemed to take forever to get anything done on his work. I don’t say this as a criticism. But it convinced me that sculpting marble or whatever hard stone he used, was not like working in any medium that I was familiar with. You really need to be patient and devote a tremendous amount of time to it. It makes Michelangelo’s, or Bernini’s, accomplishments all the more amazing.
You’ve mentioned Slobodkin many times before Swallows but I was unfamiliar with him. Now I see that he published with Dover, who seemed to publish some of the most practical books ever published. I don’t see myself taking up sculpture any time soon but if I were to do so I’m sure I’d pick up this book to start with.
Ken: I knew you were kidding. I’m glad sculpting looks easy here—that was my aim. It’s true: the whole business is slow and though every day you return to the figure it is easy to get excited about it again, the long work on that single piece means you are NOT creating the half dozen (or hundred) others you imagine. What if Michelangelo had not painted. He might have finished twenty instead of twelve works in his life. And he had all those other figures, the ones he painted, in his head!
Slobodkin is a good writer as well as a sculptor. In fact, he is a better writer.
Fine insight into the métier. Especially if one’s never done it – like me. Heavy stone work it is, and seems to have something in common with light-as-a-butterfly watercolor:
Almost impossible to correct mistakes.
Rich: You’re funny. In fact, some mistakes can be corrected because you work so slowly. Modern glues can put back a broken-off piece and a mixture of glue and marble dust of the same color can fill in holes and wayward chisel digs. Somewhere I have a post on some of Michelangelo’s corrections. They themselves are often ingenious. The sculptor has to keep creating as he goes, which includes solving problems.
Straightforward–maybe. Easy–not. Nothing in art that looks easy, is easy. But the post sure makes one want to try stonecarving.
That should be an interesting read about Michelangelo’s corrections, Swallows.
where do you get those chisels? I’ve looked all over my town and even to order them I cant find much..
Anonymous: You didn’t say where you live. Here are a couple of places I saw on the Web that offer stone carving tools.Check out more of them. Don’t buy more than a couple before you see if you like sculpting. You can shape a lot of stones with just rasps and files.
http://www.sculpt.com/
http://www.tiranti.co.uk/
Just a pointer for folks looking to start working in marble. You can get free marble or cheap marble if you talk to folks who do monument work for a living, they often get contracts to replace old marble headstones with granite. I have gotten a number of headstones, the only thing they ask is that I remove the names from the stones before I do anything with them. The only problem with this is the stone is usually 2 to 4 inches wide so you are limited in what you can do with it but it is a nice opportunity to work with marble to see how you like it.
Hello,
I am a student of art school. When we finish it, we have to do graduation work. I really want to make a sculpture from marble, but I don’t know where I should find marble, because there is no carrara marble or something like that in Lithuania, where I live. And if Ibuy a marble from other country it will cost pretty much. I don’t know what to do. Could you help?
Thanks (:
Anonymous: Did you check with the cemetery people? Much cemetery statuary is made of artificial stone but tombstones are still blocks of marble and granite, at least in many places, and those suppliers will know where to get stones. There are innumerable kinds of stones and I can’t believe there is no quarry in Lithuania. If you can’t find real marble, try another stone (not granite, which is too hard). Carrara is the old convention (cemetery art used to be that almost exclusively) but at least here in Spain there are dozens of excellent marbles for figures. Sandstone is a good one to start with because it is easy to carve.
If you can find a sympathetic sculptor, he will also tell you where he gets his stones. My first search led me to a dealer in abrasives and drills and airhammers. He sold to all the sculptors. Maybe you can find the company that restores stone monuments for your city. They might even give you a free piece of marble (too small for them, just right for you).
Great insight!
I recently went to Rome and saw some of the greatest sculptures that man has ever created….it was such an overwhelming feeling altogether!
I paint and do sketches in my free time but could never figure out how a sculpture is done. Painting is so much easier to try! But I want to do a stone carving someday soon…all I need is some self motivation and belief…Probably a classic Audrey Hepburn pose- high hopes! I know :)
I am from Calcutta, India
Chayan Ray: Thanks. Don’t be afraid to try. Start with a soft stone (sandstone, e.g.) and shape it with files if you don’t have sculptor’s chisels. Good luck!
Hey….I want to carve marble….where in the USA are there quarries that sell blocks for carvers? I keep getting tile suppliers. Thanks…..
For that matter…..any carving stone will do until I get good at it
I am looking for a place to buy blocks of stone. I am having a very tough time finding anything. If you know where I could get marble, soapstone, calcite or anything please email me jonjr23@gmail.con
Jon and Efficacio: Sorry, I don’t live in America now and anyway I´ve been away from stone-carving for a long time, so I can’t tell you much. You might try to contact John Fisher.
http://www.fisheroppenheimer.com/
Good luck!
Reblogged this on Runes in the Sand and commented:
Not sure who 100Swallows is but I really like his/her blog. The blog’s focus is on great artists but there is a nice series on posts on sculpture. Thispost on carving in marble inspired me to order the book “Sculpture. Principles and Practice”. There are many used copies on Amazon for basically the cost of handling and shipping.
Just got my copy of “Sculpture: Principles and Practice” in the mail. Thanks for inspiring me to order it.
Pingback: Watching a Sculptor | Fernando's Stoneyard
Looking for a real marble sculptor for a custom made life size order. Would appreciate any guide. Needs to be real marble, no cast please.
Great explanation! I got a small block of marbel for free and I’ll give it a shot.
Best of luck, UFAS! Wait till you see how much fun, or something greater than fun, it is.
Un saludo
Great demo thanks. So given your experience, do you agree chisels and hammers were adequate to make huge Egyptian burial boxes, beautiful carved statues etc? There are a few doubters.
A book which helped me very much when I was starting out (Sculpture: Principles and Practice by Louis Slobodkin) has some pictures of tools and unfinished stone reliefs by the ancient Egyptians. In one of the photos Slobodkin says this: “These chunks of rock were used the way our bush hammers and pick hammers are used to wear down and crush the stone. (Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art).” In another: “This interesting collection shows pieces of granite sculpture which for some reason were discarded in process. It is obvious here that the methods of the Egyptians were similar to those we use in these days [1950?]. (Courtesy of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)”. And finally, “A piece of unfinished Egyptian sculpture carved in limestone. The chisel marks are clearly evident.(Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1907)”.
I haven’t yet been to Egypt and seen the great works, so I can only read and listen respectfully to the opinions of my masters.
Pingback: The Beauty of The Missing Piece – Warrior Stance