Lately I’ve been exploring spiritual and esoteric themes that resonate with me..
While I love larger scale works, they take exponentially more time and are harder to sell.
And I’ve found myself enjoying the creative constraints of a smaller canvas.
What do you think so far?
Below are the Eye of Horus, an Ankh, a lotus flower, the om symbol, a merkaba, and a hamsa that is still a work in progress..
Check out Crawshaws. Not sure where they’re based exactly but you can order from them online.
Thanks. Some from Italy but for lettering and relief work I mostly use Al-Orr chisels that I get from the UK.
Carving a hamsa ⚒️🪬
Here’s a #timelapse of the first hour.
I plan to deepen the carving a bit more, and then I’ll move on to carving a realistic eye in the center. Hopefully it’ll be a little creepy when it’s done…
GM 🕉️ 
Gold leaf applied… Waiting for the adhesive to dry is always the hardest part. I just want to remove the excess immediately. But I’ve made the mistake of not waiting too many times before.
T-minus 24 hours… 
Progress so far on the eye ⚒️👁️
This tile is quite thin, so there isn’t a lot of depth to work with. But I’m going to try to create the same effect here as with my Guy Fawkes mask… 
Done ⚒️🪷
There are a few areas I may go back and fix but I’m going to move on to a new carving in the meantime. 
What does a Buddhist mining rig sound like?
om mani padme HUMMMMMMM
Done carving for the day… didn’t realize it had gotten so late. Some more edges to soften and curves to refine, but this piece is nearly done. Then just sanding and polishing the background. ⚒️🪷 
This is fun. ⚒️🪷
Making good progress ⚒️🪷
Now to refine the curves and work on improving the three dimensional perspective. Then I’ll likely smooth the petals slightly while giving the background a high polish. Or vice versa. TBD. 
Today’s progress ⚒️🪷
Next I need to clean up the outline a bit, and then I’ll work on making the lotus flower three dimensional.
Also finished carving the Ankh.
Swipe to see.. planning to add gold leaf to that most likely. 
nostr:note1empczjctjlkwt4szldhe57vdpqvl9w5ahh8lxkrlfu4lktkumasqh77cl0
Initial outlining done
The plan is to carve this in low relief rather than as a simple design.
Time to get chipping.⚒️🪷 
⚒️🕉️ 
At a local tile shop try to get something at least an inch thick… you can also ask if they cutoffs or broken pieces from other jobs that are hard to sell. You might even find some free stone on Facebook marketplace. Don’t waste money on anything expensive when just starting out: just make sure it’s a softer stone. Not granite. You need special tools for that
To start I would just go to a local tile store for floors and countertops. Start with a softer stone like limestone or slate. Or marble but that’s a little harder. For tools it depends on what country you’re in. The best chisels come from the UK or Italy. If you’re in the US you can get a starter set from 2Sculpt.com. Also always use eye protection and if your stone has silica you definitely need a respirator
I’m pretty much self taught. I started by watching a few YouTube and instagram videos and then just practice practice… if you actually decide to give it a shot let me know. I can recommend some tools and happy to answer any questions