Monday, December 7, 2009

Shimmering Sugar Stone



Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

So, I began to trim up the feet on the bottoms, and the sunlight hit the natural beak in the stone . . . really, it takes my breath away sometimes. I ran indoors to get my camera.

Marble is "Shimmering Stone" - can you see the light on the crystalline specs in the naturally broken part?
In 2004, Dr. Fabio Biselli gave me a tour of one of the "cave" (quarries) in Carrara, Italy. He bragged to me how the famous Carrara marble was "like sugar" in its whiteness.
I suggested that he not use that terminology with many American carvers. In Marble, Colorado, when we refer to a stone as being "like sugar," we are referring to the quality of softness -- dissolving easily. Sugar stone is cut away and redesigning is done as needed.

Yin / yang works that way -- the same word can be interpreted to be a strength or a weakness. I do not have sugar in this stone (at least thus far), and my regret at the moment is that these images have not truly captured the lustre in the stone. She is a beaut!


3 comments:

Tina Steele Lindsey said...

I can understand where you are coming from in your description. How excoting and how beautiful marble is.

Gene P. said...

Thanks Kelly for taking us along on this exciting trip of image and marble.
I have a special connection about your yin / yang explanation and I will save it to my 'duality file'.
Thanks, Gene P.

Erika Lantry said...

Kelly, I find it fascinating how you show the process. Many of us may never know how painstaking the process of sculpting is, were it not for you and artists like Gilbert Barrera, who are willing to share it in a progression of photos. Thanks for sharing.
Erika Lantry
San Antonio TX