About
the Stone Material and Carving Techniques:
My Interest in Colorado Yule Marble:
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I am a self-taught stone sculptor. I began
carving Colorado Yule marble as my first stone carvings and
medium of choice for a sculpture in 1990. My desire to carve
marble as opposed to other 'softer stone' such as soapstone
or alabaster was a bold step that few sculpture artists are
willing to try in their initial attempts in carving stone.
Stone sculpture artists usually start out learning on softer
stone because it is less expensive, easier to cut and less
physically demanding on the body than cutting hard stone
such as marble, granite, Indiana or Vermont limestone. |
Typically stones of marble, granite, and some types of limestone
are very dense and can be abusive on carving tools. Besides, larger
pieces of stone are quite heavy to move around! I use mostly hand
tools; a sculptor’s hammer, Italian Milani chisels and my own
hand-made chisels, which I create myself by shaping and tempering
the steel according to the type of tool I might need. I also use
rasps, files, coarse & varying grades of wet/dry sandpaper to 600X
(grit), Dremel® tools and occasionally a four inch diameter power
grinding diamond saw during the rough-out process, prior to carving
detail.
Carving stone in this ‘traditional’ manner is a lengthy process, but
I find I become keenly attuned to the crystal structure of the stone
and how it responds with light blows of my hammer and chisels. I
prefer working stone in this way rather than the more aggressive
pneumatic impact tools that many modern marble sculptors use.
My initial interest in sculpting marble began in the mid-1980s after
seeing many of the Greek marbles in the Louvre museum during one of
my visits with my twin sister in Paris, France. It wasn’t until my
friend Peter V. Green and I took a trip to Marble, Colorado in 1989
when my interest in this beautiful stone intensified and I actually
started carving Colorado Yule Marble. On another trip to Paris, my
twin sister took me see the Italian Carrara marble sculptures in the
Rodin museum which further inspired me.
I was introduced to using diamond power tools a couple of years
later from eminent marble sculptor Doug Scott in Taos, New Mexico in
1992. Doug has unselfishly provided me with invaluable advice,
ideas, tools, and assorted pieces of stone. It was my friend Doug
Scott who guided my interest in experimenting with sculpting other
types of stone such as travertine, sandstone, limestone, honey onyx,
slate & granite. I’m still experimenting with these types of stone,
though I prefer Colorado Yule Marble. Doug Scott is a great artist,
friend and person of inspiration for me in my own sculpture.
See Doug’s beautiful art pieces at
http://www.dougscottart.com/
What is Colorado Yule Marble?
Colorado Yule Marble is an exquisite white marble of 99.5% pure
white calcite with some flecks of very hard, gold-color chert or
gray chert - found only in the Yule Creek Valley, in the West Elk
Mountains of Colorado near the small town of Marble, Colorado. Yule
marble is actually quarried inside the mountain near the Crystal
River at approximately 9,300 feet in altitude, (2,835 meters) above
sea level. This marble was first discovered in 1873, and is still
quarried today, actually inside the mountain, in contrast to most
marble quarries, which are usually quarried in open pits and at much
lower elevations. The localized geology created a marble that has a
beautiful grain structure that gives it a smooth and a brilliant,
luminous surface when cut and polished. These qualities are the
reason why this marble was selected to clad the exterior of the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, downtown Denver, Colorado as
well as a variety of buildings throughout the U.S.A, in spite of
being more expensive than other marble.
In my opinion and based on my experience in cutting stone with
hammer & chisel, I will put Colorado Yule Marble in higher favor
over Italian Carrara marble any day - for Yule marble’s crystal
structure, beauty, luminosity and workability. As mentioned,
Colorado Yule Marble is my preferred stone of choice for sculpting
in stone. I have also cut a few other types of marble, granite,
limestone, alabaster, slate as well as a variety of smaller stones
using lapidary methods.
Kansas ‘Fencepost’ Limestone:
After I had been carving marble for about three years, I met another
inspirational stone sculptor Pete ‘Fritz’ Felten of Hays, Kansas.
Pete is also a self-taught stone sculptor, using Kansas ‘Fencepost’
Limestone since the 1960s. This type of limestone is a little softer
to cut than marble. Kansas limestone has a gentle yellow color and
often filled with sea shell fossils from when the central Kansas
area was a sea bed millions of years ago. (Pete Felten has shown me
that leaving the fossils intact in the sculpture really adds a cool
and unique dimension to the design. I agree and feel lucky when I’m
removing material and a little sea shell appears!) If possible, I
try to leave the shell fossil in place. Early American Settlers in
the 1800s and early 1900s quarried the limestone from the few rock
outcroppings and dry lake beds in the vast prairies of Kansas to
make fence posts since wood fence posts were a rare commodity in
Kansas. Many contemporary artists now use the reclaimed, broken
pieces of discarded limestone fence posts to create their sculpture
works. You can see Pete’s sculptures at
http://www.kansastravel.org/stonegallery.htm
New Mexico
Sandstone:
This stone is red, tan or yellowish sandstone which is grainy
and soft, easy to cut, but quite delicate, so not ideal for carving
fine detail. On my visits to New Mexico, I sometimes find a unique
piece of sandstone to use when I want a softer stone to work with.
Minnesota
Pipestone:
Reddish & gray-black soft clay-like stone I use to make Native
American ‘Medicine’ smoking pipes used in sacred ceremonies. I
usually buy Minnesota Pipestone when I go to Denver Pow-Wow or trade
when I visit the Black Hills of South Dakota. These ‘Medicine Pipes’
are made usually as a custom orders only, for friends. Sometimes I
may also carve small animals out of this stone. It is very soft,
fine-grained stone that finishes nicely with fine sandpaper. Most of
my sculptures in this stone are quite small, since very large pieces
are rare to find and , often have stress cracks and quite expensive.
