Roughing it by Chisel and Saw.

 The layout I drew on the stone last week was close, but only close. I had to scrub it all off, and start over a couple of times.  The piece I'm making is based on this very cool little doo-dad:

 

 

It's a Fender Bomb, a front fender ornament for a 1950's Schwinn/Whizzer motorized bicycle. Last year I stared this project with two different stones, a piece of gray steatite, and a piece of silver anhydrous alabaster. Both stones were too hard to work given the tools I have. This piece of pearly alabaster is going to be just about perfect for this project. The outside faces of the boulder are weathered, and chalky, but the stone beneath the surface is good and hard. 

I want to use the stone to its best advantage, and waste as little as I can. That means fitting the largest possible iteration of the figure into the confines of the stone that holds it. Even so, this figure will need a lot of excavation. There's a whole lot of rock to remove. (Old layout below)

 

This chunk is easy, as stones go. The two flat sides are fairly even, and roughly parallel, but the arching line across the top is very irregular. This is where it would be nice to work from a smooth, pre-cut cube instead of a boulder.  As it is, the two 'flat' sides of the stone aren't flat.The  diameter of the ring has to fit between the lowest depressions on either side of the rock. Finding, and measuring the low spot is tricky work with the steel square, and  the probe on the vernier caliper. Fortunately, this isn't machine shop, but time spent planning is saved in execution.

 

Fri. 8/5 

The task is to shave down the sides of the stone, and cut away scrap. The stone has a little translucence to it, and the scrap pieces all ring like glass when they drop. I can feel some tiny, hard inclusions in the rock as I saw.  Perhaps they'll show up as spots in the finished stone.

 This is good material; the rasps, and saw blades meet a lot of resistance. That makes precise cuts easy, but it's very slow work. 

Saw, saw, saw- 

 "Are we there yet?"

 "No."

 

 Sometimes doing this feels all kinds of artistical, and creative, and stuff. Other days are like today- just slogging through a rock with a chisel and a bow saw. I have heard that there are  devices that combine saw blades with electric motors. It's an odd notion to be sure. Some say these devices speed up the work. Could be. But I won't put an electric motor on my bicycle, either. 

 

 (New layout)

 

 8/7/22

 

Here is where I left off Friday afternoon, and where I'll begin this Monday. There is still a lot of material to cut away before I can begin shaping the ring. The top cut is right on the line, and both sides of the stone are shaved close enough to work as well. The next cut-aways will free up the two bottom corners of the circle, and then I can start with the material behind the ring in the back half of the piece.

 

Why patience is a virtue. Notice, in the next pic, the flake broken out on the middle line at the side, and another one near the right end corner. In both places I was just exploring- setting the chisel, and taking a tap to see if I had a good bite on the stone. Both blows knocked out much bigger chunks than I had intended. Never chisel near the edge of a cliff. You go over the edge, and work into the cliff face. In this case there is no harm done because the large flakes that dropped out are in areas that I'll be cutting away anyhow. Still, it's a reminder.

 Like Treebeard would say: "Mustn't be hasty."

And besides, it's already getting into the slow-motion days of mid August, and the season of heat. Working is a party of grit, dust, and sweat. But that's what makes it real. If I wanted to stay clean I could stay indoors, and build model kits.