Smallstone complete!

I finally got back to work, and completed my stone, after many days of being horribly ill. "Finishing day" always takes several very tedious days to complete. It's sand, sand, sand, 150 grit, 220 grit, 320 grit, 400 grit, then 0000 steel wool and water. Then 600 grit wet, now 1000 grit wet, now 2000 grit wet, and finally, the Simichrome Polish, which is a miracle in a can, but brutally hard on the hands even with rubber gloves. Finally I get to the Treewax, and a soft cloth. But then I have to go back very carefully, with 220 grit to re-rough the base. At long last it's time to get the camera. Here's how it all came out:

 This piece of Anza Borrego alabaster has wonderful translucence, and I worked it a thin as I dared to take advantage of the light without leaving it ridiculously fragile. I mean for these things to last. The figure is graceful, although the form itself leans into the strange, and borders on the grotesque, as many of my pieces seem to do. Here it is in
the morning light:

I love doing this. There is no greater joy than the work we do to create some beauty for the world.

Speaking of which, I hardly have to point out that the world is in a dreadful state right now. There is a great Darkness settling in on our nation, and what we have come to cherish as Western Civilization in the whole. It is deeply frightening, and there is little we can do to fight it. But "little" is far from "nothing," and fight it we must.

But how? How do we fight this thing when even some of our friends and loved ones embrace the void? Most of my friends in the real world, and on-line are writers, musicians, and artists. Our weapons against the Darkness, are Goodness, Truth, and Beauty. As writers, musicians, and artists we are warriors in the Beauty division. Beauty speaks Truth, and in Truth dwells Goodness. Hone your weapons and fight like hell.

Let the lazy, and talentless fill the internet with phony AI pseudo-art; we choose to bust our asses creating the real thing: Beauty. Let the liars lie; we stand surely and quietly for Truth. Let the haters fill their guts with anger and spite; we have a duty, a sacred commitment to Goodness.

I have a thought on dealing with those among our friends who have embraced the hideously toxic "woke" ideology. We can no more convert them than we could drag them to a tent revival to get Saved. It just doesn't work like that. But perhaps we can divert them. If we can exert a little influence to nudge them toward the Good, or the Beautiful, we've nudged them away from the Darkness, and toward the Truth. It is a small thing, but as I said earlier, "little" is a universe away from "none." We do what we can with what we have, and leave the results up to God.

I got some very good news today regarding the Lost Era movie. The file is available for download at Vox Day's "Unauthorized TV" subscription site. Love him or hate him Vox is a warrior for the cause. Arkhaven Comics, and his Unauthorized TV may be small in the great scheme of things, but small is what we have, and small can grow.

Here on the homefront Pierre has finished remodeling our bathroom, and he has done a beautiful job. Pierre came up hard from the darkness, and his success is an inspiration. After weeks of sink baths, or standing out back with the garden hose it is a pure pleasure to take a real shower.

With that- Thanks for stopping by. As my strength returns I'll be engaging in another stone project, in the near future. Next up is The Big One. I've been eyeballing this chunk of desert for over a year, now. Next step is the angle grinder.