This is the raw piece of soapstone quarried from India. 45lbs to start with. By the time I’m done it will probably be around 35lbs. This is the only carving I’ve done from my Winnipeg home. All the rest have been done out at the lake.
This is another view of the piece before carving it. You may see an angel in it like I did. Once I saw an angel I couldn’t see anything else. Some form of an angel it will be.
When it’s too cold out I’ll be carving at my front window. When it’s nice out, I’ll be on my front yard. Feel free to stop and ask questions or just say hi!
Inside looking out.
I have to put up a sheet of plastic to keep the fine soapstone dust from getting all over my living room.
April 14th: Day 1 - This is the first 3 hours of “work” spent on the piece.
April 16th: 2nd day of carving. 3 hours on it today. Concentrated on the N-95 mask on her face today.
April 17th: Third day of carving. Managed to do 3 hours. 2 of those were outside. Worked on the “upper” wings today.
Didn’t carve today, but drilled a hole in the bottom so she can be on a custom made metal stand.
Did 1 hour this afternoon. Worked on the feathers again. 10 hours in!
Did 1 hour on the feathers this morning. The sun was shining through the window and I couldn’t resist! 11 hours in.
April 24th. Did another hour before supper today. Worked on the feathers running down vertically. 12 hours in. Supposed to be beautiful out tomorrow. Planning on carving a ton tomorrow.
April 25th. Huge day today. Finally chose her to be kneeling. Was on the fence on standing vs. kneeling. The stone told me kneeling. 4 more hours non- stop today. Brian L. and his daughters and my folks came to the window today. That was the highlight. 16 hours into it.
Sunday, April 26th. Did two hours today. I’m very happy how it’s going so far.
April 27th. Managed to do 1.5 hours in my sunny backyard tonight. There’s nothing like carving in sunlight. 19.5 hours in!
April 29th. Removed the “pedestal” she was kneeling on. Started shaping her arm. 21 hours in.
April 30th. Took advantage of the hot weather today and carved in my front yard for 4 hours straight. Worked mostly on the head area. 25 hours in.
May 1st. Did 2 hours after work today. Mostly worked on her head area. She’s coming to life! 27 hours in so far.
May 4th. Four more hours into it. Detailed the feathers more, made the head smaller. Maybe 5 more hours until the sanding stage starts. 31 hours spent on it so far.
May 5th. Did two hours today after work. Super sunny in my backyard. I’m pretty much ready for the sanding stage! 33 hours in.
May 9th. 4 hours spent total over that last few days. I’m starting to sand now! Starting with 60 grit then moving to 150 grit after that.
May 11th. Yesterday I went to start the sanding stage and found myself carving for 5 more hours instead. 42 hours total spent so far. DISASTER STRIKES: I picked up the statue to move my carving table back to the window and I dropped the carving onto my brick fireplace hearth. The shoulder and the wings got badly damaged. Covid Angel is now a little beat up. I’ve decided to leave the damaged wings (maybe even make them MORE damaged). I’ve also decided to try to fix the shoulder. The problem with carving stone is that you can’t put stone back in place. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. I actually can’t believe the whole thing didn’t split in half or had the wings falling off completely.
May 13th. Spent 1 hour fixing the broken wings and shoulder. I’m so happy I fixed it. I was pretty sad about it before hand. I feel so damn relieved. Now it’s time to officially start sanding with sandpaper. Phew! 43 hours total so far.
May 25th: Well I’ve been sanding my brains out. Started with 60 grit then on to 120 then to 320 then to 400 then to 800 then to 1,000. I’m still on 1,000. About 15 hours of sanding with the sandpaper so far. I can’t believe how dark the dark areas are. The dark areas are the most hardest stone I’ve worked with, and the “whitish” areas are the softest stone I’ve ever worked with. This makes it about 58 hours spent so far.
It’s DONE! I spent about 8 more hours with 2500 grit sandpaper. I kept finding scratches, especially when I took it to the lake and sanded outside yesterday in the sun. The final two hours spent was putting it on the BBQ and heating it up for 30 minutes, then off to wax it. You heat it up so the “pores” open up so the wax can soak in. Then you keep wiping off the residue of the wax as it dries and as the stone cools off. So in total it’s taken about 70 hours to complete this. Next I’ll make a custom stand for her. I would like her to be about 4 feet off the ground.
June 7, 2020. Before and after pic. See - there was an angel in that stone all along! This angel sculpture will mean different things to different people. It all depends on your own journey through these Covid times. I always knew she would be wearing a mask. The strongest part of the sculpture (the hardest rock) is her head. Pretty fitting I would say. I dropped her twice. I have never dropped a carving before. She is strong and resilient. Just like you.